BUFFALO, N.Y. — According to data from the National Home Education Research Institute, there's about 2.5 million kids who are homeschooled.
That number continues to grow by about two to eight percent every year.
Now more and more parents in Western New York are now choosing to do so too because of the pandemic.
"Looking at the numbers, they are skyrocketing. Numbers are going up in large numbers for a lot of reasons. We're seeing a lot of people who have considered homeschooling in the past now taking that step," said Dan DiFransesco, who represents the Western New York region for an organization called Homeschool New York-Loving Education at Home.
It's a group that provides support to those who want to home-school their children.
He says for anyone interested in homeschooling their son or daughter, there's regulations you must follow from the state first.
New York State's regulations require that parents submit a letter of intent to their local school district.
That can be submitted anytime throughout the year, within 14 days of a parent's decision to start homeschooling their child.
"For example, some families even now who have sent their kids to school, and after a few weeks realize this just doesn't work for us and they make that decision, they are allowed by regulations to simply submit that letter of intent to the district and move forward within 14 days of that decision," DiFransesco said.
The school district must then provide info on the curriculum parents chose for their children and parents will have to submit quarterly assessments.
For anyone who's considering homeschooling, DiFransesco says it's important to do things like figure out that curriculum they'll be teaching their child to the little things like what part of the home to make the classroom.
He says the biggest reason people are often attracted to the idea of homeschooling is because of the flexibility it provides.
During the pandemic, stress is playing a role too.
"The reality is a lot of people are struggling with what's going on with school right now. Families are stressed. People just aren't ready to even go to a hybrid solution or they're concerned about an all-day contact solution in a school building. A lot of them just have questions and don't know where to go," DiFransesco said.
Here's a list of resources if you're interested in learning more about homeschooling your child: