Law & Courts

More Military Families Embrace Home Schooling

By Arianna Prothero — March 29, 2016 5 min read
From left, Justin Barreras, 10, Adam Barreras, 11, and Garrett Barreras, 8, complete science schoolwork with their mother, Mariel Barreras, before soccer practice in Omaha, Neb. Mariel Barreras, whose husband is in the U.S. Army, is one of a growing number of military parents home schooling their children, in part to bring stability amid frequent relocations and long deployments.
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

For active-duty military families juggling frequent moves and long deployments that may take a parent away for more than a year at a time, home schooling appears to be growing in popularity as a means of providing stability in their children’s education.

“When there’s so much change, there’s value and power in being able to control one item,” said Lt. Col. Eric Flake, who is a developmental behavioral pediatrician for the U.S. Air Force at Joint Base Lewis McCord in Tacoma, Wash. “You don’t always control where you move, and you don’t control when you move, but you can provide a constant through home schooling.”

But parents who choose that route face a patchwork of home schooling laws across states.

Although it’s difficult to pin down solid numbers on home schoolers, the National Center for Education Statistics estimates there are 1.8 million home-schooled students in the country, which was 3.4 percent of the overall K-12 student population in 2012. That’s about double the number of home schoolers 10 years ago.

Among the 1.2 million children of active-duty military parents, more than 6 percent are home-schooled, according to estimates by the Military Child Education Coalition. And, at least anecdotally, that number is on the rise.

It’s a trend that Mary Keller, the president and chief executive officer of the Military Child Education Coalition, said is driven in part by how frequently military families have to relocate, which is every two to three years for active-duty members, and that’s not including moving for 6-to-12-month training stints.

Justin Barreras, 10, works on science schoolwork before soccer practice.

“The tough thing as you move from state to state … you can miss fundamental concepts,” said Keller, who formerly worked as an assistant superintendent in the Killeen Independent School District in Texas, which includes Fort Hood. “You can move and miss fractions just because your sending school hadn’t gotten there yet and your receiving school has already done it.”

And while friends and houses change, for home-schooled military children, at least the teacher and the curriculum remain the same, said Mariel Barreras, whose husband is in the Army.

Flexible Scheduling

The Barreras’ eldest child, at 12, has moved five times since he started school.

Home schooling also gives the family flexibility in their school schedule to spend more time with their father, despite an unpredictable schedule that often has him leaving home for weeks with little to no warning.

“For example, when we were stationed at Fort Irwin, Calif., my husband had a job where he was home Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday,” said Barreras.

“The good thing about us being able to home school, I could keep the lesson plans in line with his job: When daddy was home, we didn’t do school, or we did the fun school projects—the field trips, the science projects. Then when he was gone, we did school work, even if it was Saturday.”

Barreras, who currently home schools five of her six sons, founded the Omaha, Neb.-based Home School Association for Military Families, a support group for military families worldwide. The organization provides resources such as mentoring programs and starter kits to military families who home school or are considering it.

Along with wanting flexibility in the school-day or school-year schedule, Barreras said parents often cite a dislike of the Common Core State Standards and bullying as reasons for home schooling.

Barreras said that from her experience, bullying can be an especially tough issue for children in mixed-race families, which she said is more common in the military.

Still, other families only home school on an as-needed basis.

The Flake family has lived in Washington, D.C., and Ramstein, Germany, as well as in Biloxi, Miss., and DuPont, Wash., where they currently reside. The five Flake children have attended public schools, private schools, Department of Defense schools, and have been home-schooled.

Sierra Flake, a senior in high school, has also taken evening classes at a community college to make up courses that Washington state requires for graduation.

Staying on Track

Stephanie Flake, a former teacher, prefers that her children attend public schools, but she opted to home school her three oldest while living in Biloxi, Miss., because she was dissatisfied with the schools.

But she was careful to make sure they could easily transfer back into public school.

“I used an accredited program so my kids didn’t have to go back and retake classes,” she said. “The hardest thing for home schooling families, if they don’t have the report card, the paper, it doesn’t matter what your kid knows, or how much knowledge they have or how well they test, some states will not let your kid back in at their grade level.”

In an attempt to standardize public school policies that affect military children, such as attendance and graduation requirements, all 50 states plus the District of Columbia have signed an agreement called the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children. The compact, however, does not address disparate state home-schooling policies, according to the Military Child Education Coalition.

Military families that choose to educate their children at home because they can take their “school” with them as they move still face a patchwork of state laws.

Requirements for what subjects or content tests home-schooled students must take, or what qualifications parents must have to teach their children at home, can vary greatly from state to state, according to a 2015 analysis by the Education Commission of the States.

“It can be as easy as just filing a private school affidavit, to being required to file under an umbrella school to having to submit all of your lesson plans with the school board,” said Barreras, whose organization also helps families navigate state laws. “It really varies.”

But, Barreras said, despite all the moving and dealing with different state home schooling regulations, her family tries to embrace the frequent relocations.

“It’s fun, too,” said Barreras. “When we got stationed out in California the second time, our curriculum said we had to do botany, but we were close to the ocean so we decided to do oceanography.”

And now that the family is stationed in Nebraska and surrounded by farm fields, “we’re doing botany,” she said.

Coverage of issues related to creating opportunities for all American students and their families to choose a quality school is supported by a grant from the Walton Family Foundation, at waltonk12.org. Education Week retains sole editorial control over the content of this coverage.
A version of this article appeared in the March 30, 2016 edition of Education Week as Home Schooling Gains Popularity With Military Families

Events

Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Privacy & Security Webinar
Navigating Cybersecurity: Securing District Documents and Data
Learn how K-12 districts are addressing the challenges of maintaining a secure tech environment, managing documents and data, automating critical processes, and doing it all with limited resources.
Content provided by Softdocs

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Law & Courts In 1974, the Supreme Court Recognized English Learners' Rights. The Story Behind That Case
The Lau v. Nichols ruling said students have a right to a "meaningful opportunity" to participate in school, but its legacy is complex.
12 min read
Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court William O. Douglas is shown in an undated photo.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, shown in an undated photo, wrote the opinion in <i>Lau</i> v. <i>Nichols</i>, the 1974 decision holding that the San Francisco school system had denied Chinese-speaking schoolchildren a meaningful opportunity to participate in their education.
AP
Law & Courts Supreme Court Declines to Hear School District's Transgender Restroom Case
The case asked whether federal law protects transgender students on the use of school facilities that correspond to their gender identity.
4 min read
People stand on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 11, 2022, in Washington, D.C.
People stand on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 11, 2022, in Washington, D.C.
Mariam Zuhaib/AP
Law & Courts What a Proposed Ban on AI-Assisted ‘Deep Fakes’ Would Mean for Cyberbullying
Students who create AI-generated, intimate images of their classmates would be breaking federal law, if a new bill is enacted.
2 min read
AI Education concept in blue: A robot hand holding a pencil.
iStock/Getty
Law & Courts Supreme Court Declines Case on Corporal Punishment for Student With Autism
The justices refused to hear the appeal of an 11-year-old Louisiana student who alleges that two educators slapped her on her wrists.
3 min read
The Supreme Court building is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 10, 2023.
The Supreme Court building is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 10, 2023.
Patrick Semansky/AP