AUGUSTA – An increasing number of Mainers are choosing to educate their children at home.

Maine’s Education Department is expecting the number of home-schooled students will be 25 percent higher this school year than it was four years ago.

Officials say 4,357 children, or 1.9 percent of all school-age youths in Maine, were being home-schooled as of June. That number could increase, they say.

“Applications are literally coming in every day [from parents who want to home school],” said Edwin “Buzz” Kastuck, who coordinates the home-instruction program for the education department. “The number could go up by 200 in the next few months.”

About 90.4 percent of the 229,000 schoolchildren in Maine are educated in public schools, according to figures provided by the state. About 7.6 percent – roughly 17,500 children attend private schools.

The application for home schooling doesn’t require parents to say why they want to teach their children, but Kastuck said two reasons appear to dominate: religious or philosophical beliefs, or the desire to provide an enriched program.

Other home-schooled children are seriously ill, or have special needs that require extra time and attention in an individualized program, he said.

“And there are always a few who are sailing around the world, or have a parent who is taking them on a sabbatical leave to Chile,” said Kastuck.

Some parents, however, are just angry with the public school system, he said.

Karen and Curt Mueller of Oakland educate their six children at home. The children range in age from 3 to 16.

“It creates a real sense of family unity that you don’t have when the children go off to school all day,” said Karen Mueller.

In addition to the three R’s, the Muellers’ educational program allows the children to pursue their own interests in music, equestrian events, small animals and other areas.

“We eventually discovered that our kids were academically ahead of their peers, and it would be difficult to put them back into school,” she said.

Maine law requires an end-of-the-year assessment of each student’s progress. The child can take a standardized achievement test, or a Maine-certified teacher can review the student’s portfolio of work.

However, the state can’t take any action if those tests determine the student did not have a successful year.

“I just try to steer the people to other families [who are successfully home-schooling] or point them to other resources that can help,” Kastuck said.