Louisiana sees a rise in homeschooling

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – More and more families are signing their kids up for homeschooling as a result of the pandemic.

Erica Huerta’s home has transformed into a classroom. Her kids are participating in homeschooling because she says she doesn’t feel comfortable sending them to school during the pandemic.

“This is much easier for them because they’re not constantly having to be in the masks all the time or confined to a classroom,” Huerta said.

When schools reopened, Huerta’s children were still enrolled in the school system. A lack of understanding and being overwhelmed swayed their decision.

“It was a lot of back-to-back zoom calls,” Huerta said. “It was very exhausting, and there was a lot of crying, and a lot of frustration, and it was a lot of honestly just not knowing what was going on.

Louisiana is seeing a rise in homeschooling. Christopher Chin, the President of Homeschool Louisiana, says within a year the number of kids homeschooled increased more than 10%. He predicts the number will continue to rise.

“It’s not a one size fits all kind of process as a public school is,” Chin said. “They’re seeing the value, the flexibility, people are homeschooling from the beach.”

Naisha Brignac has a son that’s learning virtually at Mckinley Middle School. She says she’s strongly considering switching to the homeschooling curriculum.

“I’d rather my kids be safe, I wouldn’t want them to catch COVID-19,” Brignac said.

She says she doesn’t know if she will ever feel safe sending her son to school in the middle of a deadly pandemic with no end in sight.

“I am so scared to let him go back; I catch panic attacks,” Brignac said.

About 60% of students are learning in person, but some schools have been forced to shut down multiple times from case spikes on campus. Some homeschooling parents say they don’t know if they’ll ever go back.

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