When schools shut down in March, Jody Lamp saw it as a sign that homeschooling their second and final child Jessie was the right thing to do.
Jody said she and her husband, Mike, had been considering homeschooling Jessie, currently a high school junior, for her final two years of high school after their oldest son graduated in 2019. COVID-19 was just the last sign they needed. Jessie previously attended Mitchell Public Schools.
“It was in March (of 2020) when we started kind of kicking this idea around,” she said. “When the school shut down, that was just the sign that we were on, we were tracking, making the right decision to homeschool for our family.”
The Lamp family is not unlike many other families who have decided to keep their children home this year. David Jespersen, a spokesperson for the Nebraska Department of Education, said they saw a significant increase in students enrolled in exempt school this year. As of Sept. 9, the state has recorded 13,426 exempt students for the 20-21 school year, up from 8,570 in the previous year.
Even now with the first semester of school half over, the NDE is still receiving a vast number of inquiries regarding exempt school (Nebraska’s version of homeschool). Both Beth Bolte and Micki Iverson from the NDE’s exempt school program were unable to answer the phone Friday and had voicemails asking callers to wait at least a few business days for a response due to the large volume of messages they are still receiving.
Jespersen said that through anecdotal research, NDE has found that many families are choosing to homeschool because they either do not feel comfortable enough to send their kids to school or because they do not like the restrictions that are currently in place. Either way, he said this hike in exempt status filings is causing a noticeable dip in school enrollments, especially in larger districts like Lincoln and Omaha.
“Small rural districts will occasionally see declines as people move to cities, but bigger areas are typically still seeing growth — small, but natural growth,” he said. “If you see a significant drop in enrollment this year, homeschool plays a role.”
Despite the statewide increase in homeschooling, some area districts haven’t seen the same decline. Both Morrill and Bayard increased by two students and Scottsbluff also saw a minor increase in enrollment, according to various school board documents.
Nevertheless, Elizabeth Haas, chairman of Valley Home School Association, said they saw their member families increase to 65 this year compared to around 55 last year.
“We’ve seen a lot come from former public school students,” Haas said.
One of those students is Jessie Lamp.
While Jessie and her family didn’t decide to do homeschooling this year specifically because of COVID-19, it definitely helped them decide to move the process along.
“It’s just kind of serendipitous, because we had already been looking at a more flexible education system for her before COVID,” Jody said. “But once that hit and you know, schools were shut down, anyway, it’s like she’s working at home anyway. It really helped make the decision easier then at that point.”
Jody said they had been considering homeschool before COVID-19 hit because of all the travel their family does. Before Jessie’s brother Mark graduated, Jody’s mother-in-law was diagnosed with cancer, and had taken a turn for the worse.
Jody and Mike realized that it would be hard to keep pulling Jessie out of school to travel to see her grandmother in Iowa. Not to mention that both Jody and Mike are self-employed and travel often for their jobs. Homeschooling just made sense for them.
“I have nothing but great things to say about our public school systems at least. And that wasn’t the reason for choosing homeschool over going, continuing public school,” Jody said, explaining she her pride in her alma mater Minatare High School. “It was just for us as a family, best for her to (homeschool).”
As the first year of homeschooling for Jessie, it’s been a bit of learning curve for the whole family. That’s why Jody is grateful to have a resource like the Valley Home School Association.
“I’m so thankful for the Valley Home School Association,” she said. “You can become a member, so you are amongst other homeschool parents and kids.”
VHSA is the main home school association in the region, serving families as far as Casper, Wyoming. The association provides materials and resources to homeschooling families so they can provide their children with a quality, faith-based education. It also provides that social aspect that homeschool students might otherwise miss through their biweekly Valley Faith Co-op days and other events often coordinated with ESU 13.
While this year has seen a larger turn-out for exempt students in Nebraska, Jespersen believes those numbers will turn back up in schools next year or the year after because many decisions to homeschool this year were based on circumstantial events.
However, for families like the Lamps the increased flexibility in scheduling and coursework that homeschooling offers will likely keep them homeschooling for years to come. Even NDE data suggests a trend in increased homeschooling; although it is still a significantly smaller number than the total number of students in Nebraska, Jespersen said.
Either way, the Lamps plan on homeschooling Jessie until she graduates. She doesn’t mind.
“I definitely love the at home aspect, especially during this time, I don’t have to worry about us schools closing or being quarantined or anything like that. So that’s a real benefit,” she said. “But I really enjoy the flexibility of being able to travel and be able to work at home, have a flexible schedule. It’s on my own timing. I can explore different classes that I want to take that will benefit my future for college and just kind of prepare myself better.”
*Originally published in Star-Herald on Oct. 27, 2020.
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