When Parents Stay Home: Work-from-Home and Sorting Across Public, Private, and Home Schools

The U.S. saw a sharp and persistent decline in public school enrollment alongside a surge in homeschooling during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper examines the role of work-from-home (WFH) in driving these changes. WFH may lower the cost of homeschooling through greater flexibility and reduced commuting, but productivity disruptions and shifts toward private schooling may offset these effects. We combine national data on public and private enrollments with newly assembled district-level homeschooling counts. Using variation in telework potential across local labor markets in a difference-in-differences framework, we find no aggregate decline in public school enrollment, but declines in private enrollment and corresponding temporary increases in homeschooling. The aggregate public school result masks heterogeneity: urban public schools experience declines, partially offset by gains in more remote areas. These enrollment shifts are critical for school finance, as they directly affect state aid formulas and therefore local district spending.