# Global Homeschool Cost of Learning Source Ledger

Report: [Global Homeschool Cost of Learning Index: The Real Price of Choice](../../../src/content/blog/global-homeschool-cost-of-learning-index-2026.md)

Edition: 2026

Checked: 2026-08-13

Purpose: This ledger maps the report's material claims to the sources used to support them. It distinguishes official prices and public support from economic or education research, and it records the limitation that controls every claim. It is not a household survey and does not support a global average.

## Source hierarchy

- **Tier 1: official primary sources.** Government policy, funding manuals, official program handbooks, official published prices, and official statistical methodology.
- **Tier 2: provider or institutional primary sources.** Official publisher pages, examination-board handbooks, and nonprofit resource pages that publish their own prices or access conditions.
- **Tier 3: research synthesis.** Systematic reviews, meta-analyses, international statistical handbooks, and peer-reviewed economics research.
- **Tier 4: pro-homeschool or practitioner sources.** Useful for identifying family questions and policy interpretations, but not used as a substitute for official prices or representative spending data.

## Claim ledger

| Claim ID | Report claim | Source | Design, population, or source type | Relevance | Limitation and permitted use | Checked |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| C01 | There is no responsible single global average homeschool cost without a defined basket and comparable data. | [S01](https://uis.unesco.org/en/news/measuring-household-expenditure-education), [S02](https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264279889-en), [S16](https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/381751639456530686/pdf/Capturing-What-Matters-Essential-Guidelines-for-Designing-Household-Surveys.pdf) | Official household education-expenditure methodologies. | Supports the need to define categories, populations, and items before comparison. | These sources are not homeschool surveys and do not estimate a global homeschool average. | 2026-08-13 |
| C02 | Homeschool costs vary by curriculum, age, language, region, support, exams, transport, technology, and parent time. | [S01](https://uis.unesco.org/en/news/measuring-household-expenditure-education), [S02](https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264279889-en), [S25](https://gem-report-2021.unesco.org/non-state-actors-in-education/) | Official international expenditure categories and global education-finance synthesis. | Supports the cost-driver taxonomy. | The categories are broader than homeschooling and require local adaptation. | 2026-08-13 |
| C03 | OpenStax digital textbooks and PDFs are free, while print copies are available for purchase. | [S04](https://help.openstax.org/s/article/student-book-access?language=en_US), [S05](https://openstax.org/) | Official nonprofit publisher and access page. | Provides a primary zero-price content anchor. | Free content does not remove device, connectivity, printing, guidance, accessibility, or assessment costs. | 2026-08-13 |
| C04 | A zero-price digital resource should not be treated as zero total learning cost. | [S04](https://help.openstax.org/s/article/student-book-access?language=en_US), [S16](https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/381751639456530686/pdf/Capturing-What-Matters-Essential-Guidelines-for-Designing-Household-Surveys.pdf) | Official resource access plus official household survey categories for computers, software, and materials. | Supports the layered cost model. | This is a synthesis and modeling inference, not a measured homeschool cost. | 2026-08-13 |
| C05 | New Zealand publishes a home-education allowance with amounts by child order. | [S06](https://www.education.govt.nz/parents-and-caregiversprimary-school/schooling-in-nz/home-education) | Current official Ministry of Education program page. | Direct primary source for published support amounts and declarations. | Amounts and rules are date-sensitive and apply only to approved home educators under the stated program. | 2026-08-13 |
| C06 | New Zealand support is not evidence that home education is free or universally subsidized. | [S06](https://www.education.govt.nz/parents-and-caregiversprimary-school/schooling-in-nz/home-education) | Official exemption, responsibility, allowance, and pathway guidance. | Shows that the allowance exists alongside parental responsibility and eligibility conditions. | The source does not measure total household cost or expenses covered. | 2026-08-13 |
| C07 | Alberta has supervised funded and notification-only non-funded home-education pathways. | [S07](https://www.alberta.ca/home-education) | Current Government of Alberta official policy page. | Direct primary source for pathway and funding distinction. | Eligibility, deadlines, and funding rules can change by school year and local authority. | 2026-08-13 |
| C08 | Alberta’s 2026-27 declaration states up to CAD 928.03 for eligible Grades 1-12 parental expenses and CAD 464.02 for ECS. | [S08](https://open.alberta.ca/publications/home-education-reimbursement-declaration) | Official Alberta Education declaration for the 2026-27 program year. | Provides a current published program-year support anchor. | It remains pathway-specific and must be rechecked before reuse in a later edition. | 2026-08-13 |
| C09 | Alberta funding can be viewed as a choice tradeoff between supervised support and notification-only autonomy. | [S07](https://www.alberta.ca/home-education), [S30](https://www.nsw.gov.au/education-and-training/home-schooling/registration-guidelines/registration-at-a-glance) | Official pathway and program/records sources. | Supports a pro-choice interpretation of pathway design. | The report does not claim that one pathway is better for every family. | 2026-08-13 |
| C10 | Arizona ESA award amounts vary and depend on state funding factors, disability status, and district. | [S09](https://www.azed.gov/empowerment-scholarship-account-program), [S09 handbook](https://www.azed.gov/sites/default/files/2025/06/ESA%202025-2026%20Handbook.pdf) | Official Arizona Department of Education program page and 2025-26 handbook. | Direct source for eligibility, calculation factors, approved uses, and contractual obligations. | The program is for qualified students and is not a universal homeschool payment. | 2026-08-13 |
| C11 | FY2026 Arizona reports show multiple annual award amounts, including values around USD 4,784 and higher amounts for some students. | [S09 FY2026 report](https://www.azed.gov/sites/default/files/2025/11/ESA%20FY26%20Q1%20Executive%20_%20Legislative_Report_0.pdf) | Official quarterly administrative report with award distributions. | Supports the claim that a single statewide award is misleading. | The report is a program snapshot, not a national or family spending estimate. Award values should not be generalized outside the report period. | 2026-08-13 |
| C12 | Arizona ESA support can be used for curriculum, tutoring, home education, and other approved expenses, with spending and reporting rules. | [S09 support](https://cms.azed.gov/esa/esa-support), [S09 handbook](https://www.azed.gov/sites/default/files/2025/06/ESA%202025-2026%20Handbook.pdf) | Official state program guidance. | Supports the conditional-support model and administrative-cost distinction. | Allowable expenses and reporting rules can change; the report does not advise eligibility. | 2026-08-13 |
| C13 | Cambridge International private-candidate fees require centre-level or current fees-list information. | [S28](https://www.cambridgeinternational.org/Images/746922-cambridge-handbook-2026.pdf), [S29](https://www.cambridgeinternational.org/programmes-and-qualifications/) | Official examination-board handbook and syllabus pages. | Supports the pathway-dependent assessment line and refusal to invent a global exam fee. | Fees vary by centre, zone, subject, and local arrangements; the public syllabus pages are not a universal fee schedule. | 2026-08-13 |
| C14 | PPP is an official statistical comparison of purchasing power and price levels, not a household invoice converter. | [S10](https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/icp), [S11](https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/icp/methodology), [S12](https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/icp/faq) | World Bank ICP official methodology and FAQ. | Supports the three-view currency model and PPP caveat. | PPP is economy-wide, benchmark-year based, and does not capture a specific homeschool product, shipping, language, or local availability. | 2026-08-13 |
| C15 | Market exchange rates and PPP answer different questions. | [S10](https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/icp), [S13](https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/policy_and_exchange_rates/euro_reference_exchange_rates/html/index.en.html) | World Bank PPP program and ECB official exchange-rate publication. | Supports retaining local currency and showing separate conversion views. | Exchange rates move daily; PPP has a reference year and publication lag. | 2026-08-13 |
| C16 | CPI can update a dated price as a sensitivity scenario but does not prove a provider’s current price. | [S14](https://www.oecd.org/en/data/indicators/inflation-cpi.html), [S15](https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/datasets/WEO) | Official CPI methodology and IMF macroeconomic database. | Supports inflation-adjustment methodology. | Product prices can change differently from overall CPI; IMF data can differ from national official data. | 2026-08-13 |
| C17 | Local currency should be preserved before international conversion. | [S10](https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/icp), [S13](https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/policy_and_exchange_rates/euro_reference_exchange_rates/html/index.en.html) | Official currency and PPP sources. | Supports reproducible line-level data storage. | This is a methodological recommendation, not an empirical household finding. | 2026-08-13 |
| C18 | Imported products can add shipping, customs, taxes, payment fees, and localization costs. | [S02](https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264279889-en), [S16](https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/381751202024639984/pdf/Capturing-What-Matters-Essential-Guidelines-for-Designing-Household-Surveys.pdf) | Official expenditure and survey-design categories. | Supports the delivered-price fields. | The sources do not quantify homeschool imports; the report treats the items as basket fields. | 2026-08-13 |
| C19 | Household education expenditure categories include materials, computers/software, tutoring, transport, and extracurricular activities. | [S01](https://uis.unesco.org/en/news/measuring-household-expenditure-education), [S02](https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264279889-en), [S16](https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/381751202024639984/pdf/Capturing-What-Matters-Essential-Guidelines-for-Designing-Household-Surveys.pdf) | Official household survey and education-statistics methodologies. | Supports the cost taxonomy. | These are not estimates of homeschool spending and may include school-attending households. | 2026-08-13 |
| C20 | Private tutoring is a global household cost and policy issue. | [S03](https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/what-you-need-know-about-private-supplementary-tutoring), [S25](https://gem-report-2021.unesco.org/non-state-actors-in-education/) | UNESCO global policy and monitoring reports. | Supports treating tutoring as a separate high-support or enrichment line. | Global tutoring evidence concerns supplementary tutoring broadly, not homeschool-specific tutoring. | 2026-08-13 |
| C21 | Parent time and childcare constraints can affect labor supply and household economics. | [S20](https://doi.org/10.1007/s11150-007-9012-8), [S22](https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.22.3.23), [S23](https://www.nber.org/papers/w33948) | Time-use research, American Time Use Survey analysis, and quasi-experimental schooling-expansion research. | Supports showing parent time and foregone income separately. | These sources are not homeschool cost studies; the report does not assign one universal hourly value. | 2026-08-13 |
| C22 | Unpaid parent time should be measured before it is monetized. | [S20](https://doi.org/10.1007/s11150-007-9012-8), [S21](https://doi.org/10.1162/qjec.122.3.969) | Time-use and household labor research. | Supports the hours-first, valuation-second calculator design. | Time valuation is a modeling choice and can be ethically or culturally contested. | 2026-08-13 |
| C23 | Tutoring has positive average experimental evidence but cannot be transferred into a homeschool daily cost or duration. | [S24](https://doi.org/10.3386/w27476) | Systematic review and meta-analysis of 96 experimental PreK-12 tutoring studies. | Supports the high-support basket and the value of individualized instruction. | Programs vary in tutor, dosage, subject, setting, and outcome; this is not a homeschool cost estimate. | 2026-08-13 |
| C24 | Homeschool outcome research is relevant to editorial stance but does not establish universal cost or superiority. | [S26](https://doi.org/10.1080/15582159.2017.1395638), [S27](https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12441) | Peer-reviewed homeschool research reviews. | Supports a pro-homeschool stance with explicit evidence boundaries. | Selection, measurement, design, geography, and publication limits prevent universal causal claims. | 2026-08-13 |
| C25 | Public or open resources should be recorded as inputs rather than silently treated as zero. | [S04](https://help.openstax.org/s/article/student-book-access?language=en_US), [S05](https://openstax.org/), [S17](https://www.oecd.org/en/topics/sources-of-funding-for-education.html) | Official provider and public/private funding context. | Supports the resourceful-core basket. | Resource access can depend on technology, location, language, and adult time. | 2026-08-13 |
| C26 | A co-op may add fees and transport while substituting for other purchases. | [S01](https://uis.unesco.org/en/news/measuring-household-expenditure-education), [S16](https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/381751202024639984/pdf/Capturing-What-Matters-Essential-Guidelines-for-Designing-Household-Surveys.pdf) | Official household expenditure categories for activities and transport. | Supports the co-op basket composition and total-cost framing. | The sources do not estimate co-op savings; substitution must be recorded by the family or price study. | 2026-08-13 |
| C27 | Grade band changes cost drivers, especially for examinations and specialist upper-secondary pathways. | [S28](https://www.cambridgeinternational.org/Images/746922-cambridge-handbook-2026.pdf), [S29](https://www.cambridgeinternational.org/programmes-and-qualifications/), [S02](https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264279889-en) | Official examination-board documents and international education-statistics definitions. | Supports grade-band scenario logic. | It does not produce universal grade-band prices. | 2026-08-13 |
| C28 | Region and language can alter delivered cost even when the provider’s nominal price is unchanged. | [S02](https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264279889-en), [S10](https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/icp), [S16](https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/381751202024639984/pdf/Capturing-What-Matters-Essential-Guidelines-for-Designing-Household-Surveys.pdf) | Official expenditure and international comparison methodologies. | Supports region and language fields. | No source here estimates the size of the effect for a particular curriculum. | 2026-08-13 |
| C29 | A cost index should publish missingness rather than convert unavailable prices to zero. | [S01](https://uis.unesco.org/en/news/measuring-household-expenditure-education), [S10](https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/icp) | Official statistical methodology emphasizing defined categories and comparability. | Supports the report’s missing-data rule. | This is an editorial and statistical design principle, not a measured effect. | 2026-08-13 |
| C30 | Ivy Waters’ records layer can reduce administrative duplication and preserve transition evidence, but no savings amount is claimed. | [S30](https://www.nsw.gov.au/education-and-training/home-schooling/registration-guidelines/registration-at-a-glance), [S06](https://www.education.govt.nz/parents-and-caregiversprimary-school/schooling-in-nz/home-education) | Official examples showing planning, implementation records, and parent responsibility. | Supports the product-adjacent record-keeping proposition. | No source measures Ivy Waters savings; the report makes a bounded product inference only. | 2026-08-13 |
| C31 | Public support can add administrative time as well as purchasing power. | [S06](https://www.education.govt.nz/parents-and-caregiversprimary-school/schooling-in-nz/home-education), [S07](https://www.alberta.ca/home-education), [S09](https://www.azed.gov/empowerment-scholarship-account-program) | Official support programs with declarations, deadlines, contracts, receipts, or expense reports. | Supports separating support value from support administration. | Administrative burden is not quantified in these pages. | 2026-08-13 |
| C32 | A high-support basket is not automatically a luxury basket. | [S03](https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/what-you-need-know-about-private-supplementary-tutoring), [S24](https://doi.org/10.3386/w27476), [S09](https://www.azed.gov/empowerment-scholarship-account-program) | UNESCO tutoring context, tutoring meta-analysis, and ESA approved-use guidance. | Supports the inclusive framing for disability, schedule, examination, and subject-support needs. | The report does not evaluate the quality or necessity of any individual service. | 2026-08-13 |

## Price and policy observations

### OpenStax

The report uses OpenStax as a zero-price digital-content anchor because the provider explicitly states that digital textbooks and PDFs are free. It does not use the organization’s broader impact claims as a homeschool cost statistic. Print copies are a separate price observation and should be collected from the current official order path when a specific title is selected.

### New Zealand

The report uses the allowance amounts visible on the Ministry of Education home-education page as a dated support observation. The calculator must ask whether the family has an approved exemption and whether the allowance conditions and declarations apply. The amount is not a general education payment and should not be used outside the stated program.

### Alberta

The report uses the current Alberta page for the funded versus non-funded pathway distinction and the 2026-27 declaration for the explicitly dated CAD 928.03 and CAD 464.02 figures. The calculator must recheck the applicable declaration and funding manual before carrying those figures into another program year.

### Arizona

The report uses the official handbook and quarterly report to show that ESA support is conditional and varies. The calculator should store award amount, fiscal year, student eligibility, allowable expense category, and reporting obligation as separate fields. It must not present the 90 percent formula as an amount any family can claim.

### Cambridge International

The report uses official handbook and syllabus guidance to establish that private-candidate access and fees depend on the examination centre, subject, zone, and current fees list. A future price basket should collect centre-level fees directly rather than infer them from a general syllabus page.

## Update and correction protocol

1. Recheck every current price and public-support page before changing a line item.
2. Record source access date, provider, product specification, taxes, delivery, and currency.
3. Retain the previous observation and add the new observation as a time series.
4. Mark program-year amounts clearly. Do not convert a historical support amount into a current entitlement.
5. Recheck eligibility, deadlines, approved expenses, and reporting rules separately from the amount.
6. Use direct prices before CPI adjustments. If CPI is used, label the result as modeled and show the source index.
7. Store local currency as the canonical value. Store exchange-rate and PPP views as derived fields with source dates.
8. Never replace a missing price with zero. Use “not published,” “not comparable,” or “needs local verification.”
9. Recalculate shared device, connectivity, and transport allocations when the family design changes.
10. Keep parent hours, value-of-time, and foregone income in separate fields from direct spending.
11. Publish a corrections history when a source, price, formula, or eligibility statement changes.
12. Add family survey data only in a later, separately labeled edition with sampling, privacy, and weighting documentation.