{"id":616,"date":"2023-12-13T18:28:37","date_gmt":"2023-12-13T18:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/?post_type=us_state&p=616"},"modified":"2026-03-31T23:15:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T23:15:23","slug":"alaska","status":"publish","type":"us_state","link":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/policy-research-initiatives\/homeschool-hub\/states\/alaska\/","title":{"rendered":"Alaska"},"content":{"rendered":"

History<\/h2>\n

Alaska is located in the extreme northwest of the North American continent. Homeschooling was legalized in 1997<\/a>. Prior to the official legalization, homeschooling families practiced as private or correspondence students, a practice that continues today given the remote location of many families.<\/p>\n

Regulation<\/h2>\n

Parents of students from 7 to 16 years old, who want to homeschool are not required to notify the state of their intent in Alaska<\/a>. The state offers four distinct homeschool options: homeschool statute, correspondence program, private tutor, and private school. No specific parent\/teacher qualifications, instructional hours, subjects, or records are required under the homeschooling statute.<\/a> Parents may school from home by using a tutor or private school, but those options have different requirements. Also, standardized testing<\/a> is required in homeschools operating as private schools in grades 4, 6, and 8. As mentioned, families can also learn via a correspondence program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Alaska does have a statute<\/a> on public education access that allows all nonpublic students access to public school courses. These courses are publicly funded and unlimited. In addition, Alaska allows access to interscholastic activities<\/a> for homeschooled students in grades 9-12. It is not clear whether the state provides access to special education services for these students.<\/p>\n

State Data<\/h2>\n

Since Alaska does not require parents to file a notice of intent to homeschool, the state does not collect or report any data on homeschool participation. As a result, there is less information about homeschooling numbers in Alaska. The best evidence comes from data from the U.S. Census<\/a> which estimates that 9.6% of families homeschooled in the state in the spring of 2020. By the fall of 2020, homeschooling in Alaska increased to 27.5%. This is over double the national average of 11.1% during the same time and the highest in the country. Based on U.S. Census data<\/a>, our calculations indicate that about 12.56<\/span>% of K-12 students in Alaska<\/span> were homeschooled during the 2022-23 school year, and 16.15<\/span>% during the 2023-24 school year. Due to<\/span> <\/span>survey<\/span> changes<\/span>, the<\/span> data from 2020<\/span> reflects<\/span> the percentage of households, while <\/span>the data from <\/span>following years<\/span> reflect<\/span>s the percentage of<\/span> students<\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\nDownload Homeschool Hub State Data<\/span><\/a>\n

Cross-Sector Comparison<\/h2>\n

We cannot calculate a cross-sector comparison because we lack information on homeschool participation.<\/p>\n

School Choice Context<\/h2>\n

In Alaska, parents have multiple school choice<\/a> options in addition to homeschooling. These include traditional public, private, magnet, and charter\u00a0school options. Boarding and residential schools are also necessary options, given the dispersed population. Alaska prohibits inter-district choice but permits intra-district choice if the assigned school is unsafe. Homeschool students may qualify for up to $4,500 in funding under the Alaska Correspondence School Allotment Program<\/a>. While lawmakers have considered voucher and Education Savings Account (ESA) programs, none are currently available.<\/p>\n

Commentary<\/h2>\n

If the Census estimates are correct, Alaska has one of the highest homeschool participation rates in the country. More research and data are needed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-616","us_state","type-us_state","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"Alaska - Johns Hopkins Homeschool Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy\u2019s Homeschool Hub is your one-stop shop for U.S. homeschooling data and insights. Learn more about Alaska.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/policy-research-initiatives\/homeschool-hub\/states\/alaska\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Alaska - Johns Hopkins Homeschool Hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy\u2019s Homeschool Hub is your one-stop shop for U.S. homeschooling data and insights. Learn more about Alaska.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/policy-research-initiatives\/homeschool-hub\/states\/alaska\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Institute for Education Policy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-31T23:15:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Alaska - Johns Hopkins Homeschool Hub","description":"The Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy\u2019s Homeschool Hub is your one-stop shop for U.S. homeschooling data and insights. Learn more about Alaska.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/policy-research-initiatives\/homeschool-hub\/states\/alaska\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Alaska - Johns Hopkins Homeschool Hub","og_description":"The Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy\u2019s Homeschool Hub is your one-stop shop for U.S. homeschooling data and insights. Learn more about Alaska.","og_url":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/policy-research-initiatives\/homeschool-hub\/states\/alaska\/","og_site_name":"Institute for Education Policy","article_modified_time":"2026-03-31T23:15:23+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/policy-research-initiatives\/homeschool-hub\/states\/alaska\/","url":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/policy-research-initiatives\/homeschool-hub\/states\/alaska\/","name":"Alaska - Johns Hopkins Homeschool Hub","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-12-13T18:28:37+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-31T23:15:23+00:00","description":"The Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy\u2019s Homeschool Hub is your one-stop shop for U.S. homeschooling data and insights. Learn more about Alaska.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/policy-research-initiatives\/homeschool-hub\/states\/alaska\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/policy-research-initiatives\/homeschool-hub\/states\/alaska\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/policy-research-initiatives\/homeschool-hub\/states\/alaska\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Alaska"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/#website","url":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/","name":"Institute for Education Policy","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/us_state\/616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/us_state"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/us_state"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}