Homeschoolers tend to be well educated. The Home School Legal Defense Association states, " . . . home school parents have more formal education than parents in the general population, with 88% having continued their education beyond high school compared to 50% for the nation as a whole" (Rudner (1) 6). The data from this statement was obtained from the often-cited study of Lawrence M. Rudner, who surveyed 20,760 home school students in 11,930 families (Rudner (3)).

       Rudner's findings indicate that the median income for homeschoolers is higher than that of other families with children in the U.S.-- $52,000 compared to $36,000 (Rudner (2) 25). Dillow questions Rudner's finding:

Although Rudner found that the median household income of homeschooling families was higher than the median household income of families with children nationwide, the Parent-NHES: 1999 indicates that the household income of homeschoolers, reported in ranges from less than $25,000 to over $75,000, is the same as the household income of nonhomeschoolers (Dillow 27,30).

       Racial distribution of home school White, non-Hispanic to non-home school White, non-Hispanic is 94:67.2%; Black home school to Black non-home school 0.8:16%; Hispanic home school to Hispanic non-home school 0.2:13%; and Other home school to Other non-home school 5:3.8% (Rudner (2) 6-7). Approximately 50.4% of the students were female, compared to 49.6% male (Rudner (2) 5), which corresponded to their counterparts in schools.

       Mayberry found Oregon home school families more likely to live in small residential areas (Mayberry 173). Dillow looks at location in terms of "urbanacity" (urban vs. rural, with urban being divided into cities and towns) and finds 53% of homeschoolers living in the city as opposed to 62% of non-homeschoolers (Dillow 30). Bauman, meanwhile describes homeschoolers as " . . .more likely to be located geographically in places that have been destinations for internal migration" (Bauman (2) 10). Examples of this migration include " . . .rural and suburban areas of the West which have been the recipient of migration streams from California . . ." Bauman also found a small positive correlation between the growth of an area and the increase in the rate of homeschoolers.

       The most intriguing statement I have found while researching this topic is Bauman's statement, "Home schooling is tied to a broad social trend that has not yet played itself out" (Bauman (2) 10). It is unclear what Bauman means specifically by this statement, but it may be hypothesized that homeschooling is set to revolutionize our current educational system. He notes that at least " . . .it is likely that home schooling will have a large impact on the school as an institution in coming decades" (Bauman (1) 10).

       The Rudner study found that 98% of home school students are in married couple families (Rudner (2) 25). Of these couples, 98% of the fathers work, while 77% of the mothers are not participants in the work force (Rudner (2) 25). These figures may be compared to the estimates for two-parent families of non-homeschoolers: 66% (Gewertz 2). Mayberry cites two early 1980's studies: the relatively small, but historical Gustavsen, and the larger Wartes, from Washington State. Gustavsen found the male of the household to typically be employed in a professional or skilled position, while the female acted as homemaker-with 75% of families containing one parent with some college and 23% having attended graduate school (Mayberry 172). The Wartes study also found the family to contain a father likely to hold a skilled/professional position and a stay-at-home mother. 80% of the families had parents with at least some college, with 17% holding a Master's degree (Mayberry 172). Rudner found that a large percentage of home school parents are certified teachers (19% of mothers and 7.1% of fathers) (Rudner (2) 11).

       Mayberry states, "Home education in the United States is a vivid example of an increasing number of families attempting to reverse the history of their diminished control over the education of their children"(Mayberry 172). The parents of these families are thought to belong to two broad groups: ideologues and pedagogues. The motivation for ideologues, which can be further divided into religious and New Age groups, is the desire to raise children in an environment that is also a way of life based upon their belief system. The pedagogues, according to Mayberry, can be further divided into socio-relational and academic groups. Whereas the socio-relational group chooses to home school to allow for a continued parental-child relationship, the academics are more concerned with raising children in an environment that offers more academic potential.

       Bauman disagrees with the above classification,

In summary, if there are two classes of home-schoolers, they differ mostly in terms of the degree to which they express negative attitudes towards the schools available to them now. No simple division exists between religiously-motivated and academically-motivated parents (Bauman (1) 8).

       Other reasons for the decision to home school include negative experiences suffered by parents in their own days of attending public schools (Mayberry 177) and a perceived rise in school violence (Burns 4).

       The number of students homeschooled in 1999 was around 850,000 (1.7 percent of grades K-12 (Dillow 25). Bauman cites McDowell & Ray's estimate of as many as 2 million American children with an annual growth rate of 15-20 percent (Bauman (1) 2). Brostrum believes these figures represent roughly one to two percent of the U.S. school-age population (Brostrum 106).

       Rudner found that homeschooled children tended to out-perform their peers in public/private schools (grades 1-4) on achievement tests by one grade level, with the gap widening further in 5th grade (Rudner (2) 26). Nearly 25% of homeschool students in this study were found to be enrolled one or more grades above their peers of similar age.

       Homeschoolers are committed to their children and desire to take an active involvement in their education. They will spend about $400 per year per student for educational materials (Rudner (2) 25). They are religious, with greater than 75% attending services (Masters 1). Homeschooled children watch much less television per day than their counterparts (Rudner (2) 25).

       Beginning homeschoolers will need information on designing a curriculum. They may prefer a prepackaged curriculum or decide to design their own. Since they will be teaching their children from a variety of texts, they may need help in selection and ordering information. They may also need books on teaching skills/techniques. Parents may also want to read state laws and regulations that apply to home schooling. Typical questions a prospective homeschooler may ask appear in HEM's Homeschool FAQ's, (Home) and range from costs of home schooling to "How do I know which materials and resources to use?" Homeschoolers focus on conventional subjects, such as reading, math, and science, (Masters 1) and may require further resources in these areas.

       Susan Scheps, in her chapter "What Homeschoolers Want from Public Libraries" outlines the information needs of homeschoolers succinctly. Some of those include names and addresses of contacts at local schools, a directory of local homeschooling support groups, a list of museums, associations, and parks, a list of suppliers of home school materials, and lists of library materials and programs/services, and correspondence schools (Scheps 5).

       Homeschoolers also want to know how to approach reference librarians, how to best use the library, and how to make purchase requests for libraries (Brostrum 107-108). Like other patrons, they may need training for the use of online reference sources and the library catalog. They may also seek book review journals, reader's advisory service, and materials which inspire creative thinking (Scheps 6-7).

       Home school parents are library users. "According to a survey of Ohio home school parents, 99% of them use the public library as an additional resource and 73% of them use the public library once a week or several times per week"(Masters 2). One public librarian notes that homeschoolers tend to use the library as their "laboratory." (Brostrum 106). It can also be inferred by the myriad of home school related websites that homeschoolers make use of the Internet. (See http://www.americanhomeschoolassociation.org/, http://www.homeschoolingsupply.com/, http://www.nhen.org/, http://www.hslda.org/, http://homeschoolcentral.com/, etc.)

       Ironically, a small percentage of homeschoolers may seek information/assistance from the public schools themselves. Dillow states:

Public schools or school districts sometimes offer support for homeschoolers by providing parents with a curriculum, books and materials, places to meet, and the opportunity for homeschooled children to attend classes and participate in extracurricular activities at the school (Dillow 30).

       When a home school parent encounters a subject area that a child wants to know more about that the parent is unfamiliar with, they may go out to the community to find a friend, acquaintance, or businessperson to provide assistance (Home). They may also utilize online resources or local recreation centers (Homeschool), or other homeschoolers.

       Typical homeschoolers are white non-Hispanic, come from middle-income, religious two-parent families, and achieve at least one grade level higher on achievement tests than their peers. Their parents, who are themselves better educated than non-homeschooling parents, have chosen to homeschool for ideological or academic reasons and have expressed a desire for some control over how they are educated. Homeschoolers will actively seek information from libraries, and also from directories, electronic forums and the Internet, fellow homeschoolers, public schools, and others in the community. They seek ideas for curricula, help in selection of educational materials, local contacts, and lists of library programs, materials, and services.