Nearly two-thirds of parents considered switching their children to a different school last year, but less than half of them actually followed through, a new national survey finds.
In January, the National School Choice Awareness Foundation published a survey asking 2,873 parents questions about changing their child’s school. About 60% of respondents said they considered a new school in 2024, but only 28% made a change.
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Of those who did transfer their kids, 28% chose a traditional public school, 31% selected a public charter or magnet school, nearly 14% chose a private or religious school and 27% opted for online schooling, homeschooling or a microschool.
Interest in homeschooling, hybrid learning and microschools in particular skyrocketed among respondents this year, compared with answers to similar surveys given from 2022 to 2024. Nearly two-thirds of parents thought about homeschooling, up from 23%, while interest in microschools and hybrid learning jumped from 5% to 16%. The percentage of those thinking about private schools rose from 29% to 36%.
By contrast, parents were less likely to consider traditional public schools than they were in previous surveys: 35%, down from an average of 45%.
But when it came to actually switching schools, the one-third of parents who followed through with the decision tended to choose public-sector schools, according to the survey. Nearly 60% of them selected a district, public charter or magnet school.
About 30% chose private schools, homeschooling, microschools or hybrid schools, while 10% selected a full-time online education.
“The percentage of parents who enrolled their children in private-sector schools … remains relatively low,” Shelby Doyle, vice president of the National School Choice Awareness Foundation, said in a press release. “This may be due to the cost of attendance for families, even with the expansion of private school choice programs such as education savings accounts.”
Private school growth is still surging across the U.S., with GOP lawmakers in close to a dozen states having it as a top priority for 2025, according to Education Week‘s private school choice tracker. Currently, 28 states and the District of Columbia supply public funds for parents to spend on educational options outside of public schools — and that number is likely to rise, according to the tracker.
The new survey shows that the percentage of parents searching for different schools declined this past year, down from 72% in the survey released in January 2024. But it still remains higher than the 50% among respondents to the 2022 and 2023 surveys.
Military families, younger parents and Black parents were among the most likely to consider new schools for their children last year. About 40% of parents surveyed said they were likely to continue their search for a new school in 2025, with Asian and Black parents indicating the most interest.