‘I actually saw him thrive’: More families opting for homeschooling during pandemic

CHICAGO (NewsNation Now) — Mask requirements in schools, virtual learning at home and all the other unknowns that come with the pandemic have more families opting to homeschool their children.

“I definitely never would have seen myself homeschooling,” said Heather Fray.

Fray decided to homeschool her two children, one of which has special needs, after trying virtual learning.

“I know some people have had success with the virtual learning and some people really like it,” Fray said. “It just wasn’t that for us. We decided that we wanted to see if we could do better with homeschooling.”

The U.S. Census Bureau reported in March that the rate of households homeschooling their children rose to 11% by September 2020, more than doubling from 5.4% just six months earlier.

Fray says she connected with a co-op, which helped her navigate the change to homeschooling.

“You don’t have to totally know what you’re doing to just take this plunge,” Fray said. “There’s a lot of things out there to help you get your feet wet and just take off.”

Fray says she saw a major improvement with her son, who has autism.

“I actually saw him thrive in a lot of his areas of struggle, more so than any of the years in special education combined,” Fray said.

Fray says she was initially concerned about the social aspect of homeschooling, but quickly realized the benefits.

“I was not really aware of just how social an experience homeschooling could be because you free up a lot of time, your kid is not in school for six straight hours, and then sent home to do homework,” Fray said.

See Fray’s full interview with NewsNationNow.com in the player above.