From 2022 through 2025, Trigg County Public Schools lost 151 students to homeschooling opportunities, and only 22 — or 14.57% — have since returned to the classroom.
This year, another 40 have also joined those homeschooling ranks.
It’s these numbers, and more, that have Superintendent Dr. Rex Booth harboring concerns about future district enrollment and attendance.
During last Wednesday’s lengthy Board of Education working session, several angles of the issue were discussed — including causes, possible solutions, and what’s next in attacking the problem.
Booth said the biggest reason for homeschooling isn’t a change in scenery, a problematic classroom, a preferred educational style or a fear of school safety.
It’s truancy, and as far as this year is concerned, Booth and Director of Curriculum and Instruction Lacey Schrock said litigation is being sought “more often than not.”
Meanwhile, board member Mindy Hargrove further described how the truancy is taking place.
Booth and Board Attorney Jack Lackey said legislation from the Kentucky General Assembly has also been sought, and at times drafted, only to never find steam on the House and Senate floors.
As a former 20-year veteran of education, Hargrove said she saw families employ these very tactics on “habitual head lice,” in which they simply refused to adhere to school rules — and, rather than acquiesce, yanked their kids out of classes.
Booth confirmed that, as a district, officials can request proof of homeschooling attendance and grades, but they legally don’t have to be turned over to authorities. Furthermore, leaders can potentially file for educational neglect charges, but Community Based Services typically don’t have overarching power to enforce changes.
An extensive virtual academy, one stronger than what Trigg County already has with Harbor, but still housed there, could be an option.
Cloverport Independent, he said, is being throttled by the Kentucky General Assembly in 2028, so students returning to Trigg Schools — even through a virtual academy — would contribute to average daily attendance appropriations and SEEK funding, and Chief Financial Officer Holly Greene affirmed the district is nearly 1-to-1 in its device-to-student ratio, meaning the only real cost would be a virtual instructor.
Booth said he wants to take some considerable time compiling other district’s virtual plans, in order to see what would work for Trigg County — which, almost notoriously, struggles in some parts to provide stable, reliable fiber internet options.
Most districts, Booth added, don’t allow their virtual students to participate in extracurricular activities, including sports and prom.
Lackey warned that there is “repetitively” a recycling bill in Frankfort that, if passed, would eventually allow said digital students to take part.
Booth also noted that a “phone and home visit wave” is almost guaranteed within the next year.
If at least one adult is checking in with the virtual student on a weekly basis, Booth said there at least could be “a little bit of expectation and accountability” in their lives.
Trigg County’s Board of Education meets in regular session again Thursday night.
