KSHB 41 reporter Olivia Acree covers portions of Johnson County, Kansas, including Olathe and Lenexa. She will continue to follow up on declining enrollment and school funding as part of her ongoing series, "Shifting Education." Share your story idea with Olivia.
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Kansas public school enrollment is declining, and homeschooling is one path more families are choosing. As part of an ongoing series on Shifting Education, I sat down with a Shawnee mom, Jessica Juhl, who made the switch.
"The freedom and the flexibility that we have in choosing curriculum and our schedule vacations, building that into our schedule," Juhl said.
Juhl says her family began to feel like they were losing control over their children's education while in the public school system.
"When we disagreed, we just felt like our hands were tied, and we lost power over our children, and that was not a good feeling at all," Juhl said.
She says the family liked the friendships, great teachers, and small wins in the classroom, but concerns about classroom environments and social issues kept pulling them back.
"I feel like there are so many wonderful teachers in a broken system,” Juhl said. “That's how I feel, and their hands are tied."
Around the time of the pandemic, the Juhl family made the move to homeschool.
"Education is a personal decision," Juhl said.
It's a decision more Kansas families appear to be making. Johns Hopkins researchers estimate that in fall 2020, the number of Kansas families homeschooling jumped from 2.4% to 10.1%. That figure dropped to 5.3% in 2023.
School districts are working to understand why students are leaving classrooms, but tracking that data in Kansas is difficult. Homeschool is classified as a non-accredited private school in the state, and families are only required to report when they first begin homeschooling.
De Soto USD 232 Superintendent Cory Gibson says that classification creates challenges.
"It's a little bit difficult in the state of Kansas because homeschool law looks quite different than other states," Gibson said.
On the Missouri side, a 2024 study published by Saint Louis University found that just over 6% of Missouri students are homeschooled. Tracking is also difficult there — Missouri does not require any state reporting on homeschooling.
Juhl says she would like to see more data on homeschooling, but she already knows the decision is working for her family.
"It's not all rainbows and unicorns, you know, it's hard, but it is so rewarding," Juhl said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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