Jake's Parents

[Tim Bruening]

Yeah, I always wondered about this, too. It did seem like an unusual decision on the leader of the Animorphs. However, give the fact that they WERE at Cassie’s farm when the decision was made, it kinda makes sense for them to opt getting her family out first. Rachel and Jake’s would have been a toss between who would have been faster.
Regardless of doing Jake’s third, Tobias’s mum was last and that required all the Animorphs in the field. I can’t speculate on the decision of doing Jake’s family with half the team only, when there was the REAL threat of the Controller-Tom ruining the mission. That was Jake’s BIG dreamed up moment of rescuing his brother, why hadn’t he anticipated it better?! I think ALL of the others would have agreed.
The only real answer is the author’s already made up decision to turn all of Jake's loved ones into Controllers. I can’t actually remember if Jake gets them back, inspite Tom being killed by Rachel.

And am I the only one who used to wonder if Homer made it alive, too?!

Jake's parents did regain their freedom after the war.  I can imagine them saying "Jake, you sent your cousin to kill your brother????????  You are SO grounded!".

IMHO, the Animorphs should have started the process of rescuing their families the moment they realized that the Yeerks were on to them!  In fact, they should have had a contingency plan in place!

[Chad32]

In book 1 there was nowhere for their parents to go. Plus they wanted to try to still live reasonably normal lives. In book 10, the Chee didn't exactly volunteer to house refugees. In book 13, I doubt the FHV would be practical.

[Tim Bruening]

In book 1 there was nowhere for their parents to go. Plus they wanted to try to still live reasonably normal lives. In book 10, the Chee didn't exactly volunteer to house refugees. In book 13, I doubt the FHV would be practical.

But there would have been plenty of time between books 13 and 49 for the Animorphs to develop a contingency plan.  The sudden need to evacuate Marco's parents in book 45 should certainly have triggered the development of a contingency plan!  The Animorphs could have asked the Free Hork-Bajir to construct emergency housing for refugee humans.

[Chad32]

I don't know why they hadn't made a plan to move their parents a long time before 49. Then there's how they went about things in 49, attacking when  they should stay home and saving Jake's folks last when he's the one with a confirmed controller in the house. It's just how the authors decided to make things go. That's why there's a whole Trope called Idiot Ball.