The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify decision-making factors from parents of Southeast Rural School District (SRSD) who chose to transfer their children to one of 14 cyber charter schools within Pennsylvania amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. This research study utilized a phenomenological design, consisting of qualitative electronic…

The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to examine the decision-making process of K-12 parents living in the Appalachian Highlands who chose to remove their children from traditional public schools to join learning pods (sometimes referred to as pandemic pods) during the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to answer this overarching…

As the pandemic drove a focus on education, many families had to choose alternative education models for their child. Families suddenly had a pressing need to evaluate the best schooling situation for their child (Gouedard & Pont, 2020, Eggleston & Fields, 2021, Hynes, 2020, Hill et al., 2020, Hall-Mills, 2020). In education there are…

School choice is a tool used to fight inequality and is important to consider how students are assigned to schools. The essays in this dissertation study mechanisms designed to improve and understand students' attendance at schools. Chapter 1 examines the inequality caused by the COVID-19 pandemic with respect to schools switching to a hybrid…

The problem was the enrollment decline in private Christian schools in the United States, particularly in the National Christian School Association (NCSA). The identified gap in the literature was the absence of various perspectives and experiences of stakeholder groups (e.g., parents, teachers, and administrators) on the problem of enrollment…

This study was conducted in a middle-class area where school districts are largely average. The purpose of this study was to better understand how families choose among the options available to their child for entering kindergarten. These options include the neighborhood public school, open enrollment into another public school, homeschooling, or…