YAKIMA – Taken out of school to be taught at home. KIMA discovered more parents are pulling their kids out of public school, citing fewer teachers, program cuts and a bad economy.

Parents may be doing what’s best for their family, but Action News wanted to know about the cost to the kids still left in school.

Daniel and David Whitmore are 8th graders. They’ve been home schooled their whole lives, and say they’re treated the same.

“They don’t socialize with us less because we’re home schooled at all,” said David Whitmore.

More local parents are making the same decision for their kids. They’re not happy with the results of budget cuts on public schools.

“It is influential in a way because it’s causing the classrooms to be bigger, making it harder for the teacher to teach to the individual,” said April Thomes, Director of Homelink in Yakima.

Homelink caters to home schooled kids, offering unique classes and information for parents just getting on board. They’ve gone from just 33 students to 125, with the biggest increase over the last year.

Thomes says the down economy is another reason numbers are up, ” We are really seeing that a lot. We are picking up students here that have been in private school and now can’t afford it.”

Action News discovered in the current school year, the Yakima district lost 96 students to home school. West Valley lost 88 students. 33 kids in East Valley are now home schooled. And 36 left a traditional classroom in Sunnyside.

As more parents offer opportunities like this to their students through home schooling, both public and private schools are left wondering how they’re going to bring in more money. That’s because with every student who leaves, state funding leaves with them. And that’s really tough in an already tight economy.

Based on last year’s numbers, schools will lose several hundred thousand dollars by not keeping kids in their district.

Which can result in bigger classrooms and more program cuts. Reasons parents were unhappy with a traditional classroom in the first place.

The Homelink program just became accredited last year, which means home schooled students can transfer class credits to any public school if they choose to go back. Some parents are also using both public school education and home school classes together. This means the schools will get some money for students who take even a few classes in their district.