Nevada Homeschool Convention returns to Las Vegas in April
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – A Las Vegas mom and other parents are working on bringing families interested in homeschooling their kids all under one roof.
For the first time in years, the Nevada Homeschool Convention is coming to town.
Event planner Holly Wittwer and mother of three always stays busy with her boys. She homeschools them too.
"Many people have been flooding the world of homeschool," she said. With nowhere to start until now. "We're calling NevCon Nevada Homeschool Convention it's the first one that's been happening in years."
Wittwer has years of experience homeschooling her kids. She plays critical thinking games while of course, entertaining her sweet baby Bentley who is too young right now to start school.
"It's a lot, it takes a lot," said Wittwer. "When we decided to homeschool we jumped into full force."
She said there are different philosophies about homeschooling, but for her, it's all about family. As a family, they get schoolwork done in about two hours every day.
Annie Vargas said she also homeschools her two kids. She said her homeschooling journey started when her son was in preschool. "He had a speech delay, we would just do a lot of one-on-one activities," Vargas said.
Activities at their own pace. Experts 8 News Now spoke to said there are different reasons why families choose to homeschool. Whether it be for religious purposes, balance in life, or having issues with their schools.
The Clark County School District said for the 2023-24 school year more than 4,000 notices of intent to homeschool were submitted by families to the district.
The Nevada Department of Education website showed a notice of intent to homeschool must be filed with the superintendent of the school district.
According to CCSD, below are the numbers of written intent submitted to the district throughout the following school years.
2017-18: 2,039 2018-19: 2,404 2019-20: 1,619 2020-21: 6,566 2021-22: 3,873 2022-23: 3,233 2023-24: 4,008 2024-25: 2,364 (July 2024 – October 2024)
Megan Griffard, an assistant professor in the educational policy and leadership program at UNLV said parents need to look at both sides.
"It is not super regulated by the state which can be great if you are very motivated to keep up with what your child is expected to learn," she said. "Parents who are homeschooling need to be extremely diligent." So, that kids don't fall behind academically.
Regardless, she said homeschooling has become extremely popular since the pandemic.
As for Wittwer, she said there will be several speakers and other professionals guiding parents at the homeschool convention.
