One parent was fed up with an elementary school's punitive approach to dealing with her 6-year-old son's special needs. Another, home-schooled herself, reluctantly followed the same path with her daughter because of fears about her family's vulnerabilities to covid. A third wanted to impart Christian values while exposing her kids to the food of the Philippines and the museums of Madrid. Their children are among the hundreds of thousands who have started home-schooling over the last three years