Home schooling on the rise in Fairfax County

Fairfax County parents are increasingly turning to home schooling as an alternative to public schools for their children.

Since 2005, the number of students learning at home in the county has grown 23 percent, compared with a 6.5 percent rise in public school enrollment during the same time. The reason for the increase is that home-based instruction has become easier, more acceptable and attractive in Fairfax County, parents of home-schooled children said.

"These numbers don't surprise me," said Janice Lum, whose 8-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son are two of 2,330 students being educated at home in Fairfax County. This is the family's first year home schooling.

"The area is becoming increasingly congested; some people are no longer satisfied with the system in general, including the financial decisions impacting the classroom setting," Lum said.

Lum also attributes the popularity to a growing body of knowledge about effective home schooling and "general myth-busting that is occurring within society."

Like many area home-schooling parents, Lum is part of a network of families chatting online about lesson plans and meeting for group classes. Thanks in part to those networks, the days of spending lessons glued to the kitchen table are gone, parents said.

The educational opportunities available to children during school hours could fill weeks, said Mary Sutton, who home-schools her daughters, 8 and 9. She and her daughters take art classes, piano lessons, gymnastics and more, Sutton said.

"The hardest part of home schooling is managing to stay at home and do school," she said.

The flexibility of having classes when and where they wish is one benefit of home schooling, parents said. But one drawback is that her daughter misses school, Lum said.

"She sees her friends and is still actively involved in school activities, but she would enjoy and prefer to be with her friends all day long," she said. "This has been hard for me and has weighed heavily on me."

Parents who home-school their children must register the child through the county public school system each year and are required to submit an annual progress report showing, through standardized test or composite score, that the child has progressed and is on track. At a minimum, the parent must have a high school diploma.

Lum is a nonpracticing registered nurse with a master's degree in theology. Sutton has a bachelor's degree in geology and geophysics and a master's degree from Johns Hopkins University.