The number of alternative schools continues to grow as a response to the demand for more choices.

Private Schools 27,223 (1999-2000)⁷

Charter Schools 2,996 (2003-04)⁸

From 2000 to 2004 alone, more than 1,000 new charter schools opened, a 50 percent growth rate.9

Home Schooling

In 2004, the National Center for Education Statistics estimated that in spring 2003, the most recent period for which data is available, there were about 1.1 million homeschooled children, compared to 850,000 in spring 1999. ¹⁰