Home Educating Families 'Flying Under the Radar'
Last year
Ian Townsend (ABC RN Opting
Out and Staying Home
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/home-schooling/3792578)
estimated that there are approximately 50,000 home educated children in
Australia, most of them not registered. (It needs to be recognised that there
is a large number of home educating children aged both under and over the age
of compulsory schooling: the regulating authorities won’t process registrations
for these students and they may be counted as ‘unregistered’ by journalists gathering
statistics.)
Subscribe to my Homeschool-Unschool-Australia!, a quarterly collection of my writing on my various websites, support groups, blog and personal reflections.
A lack of
understanding by parents of their legal responsibilities regarding the
education of their children is one of the main reasons for unregistered home
education families. Home education is provided for in all state and territory
legislation, though regulations and implementation differs considerably between
jurisdictions. I encourage all home educating families to read the relevant
sections of the Education Act for their state or territory and research
regulations, policies and guidelines regarding the provision of home education,
and to maintain dated educational records of their children’s progress.
Some
families find the application process inconvenient, intrusive, arbitrary or
largely irrelevant to their children’s learning experiences and opportunities.
Especially as help in the form of support, resources, assessment or funding is
not provided by the regulatory authority: home educating parents are on their
own.
Many of
these families opt to protest what they consider to be inadequate provision by
not by abiding the legislative requirements, and are prepared to defend what
they believe to be their right to educate their children from home if
necessary. They keep appropriate records which demonstrate their children are
not being disadvantaged educationally, developmental and socially by not
attending school. Courts generally require a roll marking the days the children
were receiving instruction (education). Some state legislation may indicate a
minimum number of days or hours a day of instruction and some require that the
state syllabus or curriculum is followed.
Under
State Information on my page http://homeschoolaustralia.com/sitemap.html there
are links to home education information for each state, including links to
state education legislation. There is also information on the Home Education
Association website http://hea.edu.au.
Based on
over twenty years of experience, my perception is that the number of
non-registered or non-exempted from attending school home educating students is
actually gradually and naturally decreasing. In addition to all states and
territories allowing provision for home education (either by registration or
exemption from attending school), I think the main reason for the decrease is
that information is now easily available about home education. All state and
territory authorities now include detailed information about the application
process on their websites. Home educating authorities are also more informed
about the nature of home education with realistic expectations and growing
acceptance of the essential differences between school and home education. It
is also easier to locate accurate information and find support from existing
home educating families and groups. All this allows families to feel empowered
and confident about their choice. Overall, it is much easier to be approved as
a home educating family although funding for the offices that oversee registrations
hasn’t kept pace with the demand.
The
population of non-registered students is aging and moving into adult life: this
will also have an effect on decreasing the number of students ‘flying under the
radar’.
Add to
this a new factor compelling families to register: the effect of recent changes
to the Social Security Act in relation to parenting payments. Home educating
families dependent on financial assistance from the government need to be
registered in order to be exempt from the activity test. I believe that the
numbers of home education registrations have more or less doubled each year as
a result.
My focus
is less on the how many students are unregistered and more on the reasons why.
Understanding this may help identify problems that can be overcome and might
lead to families accessing a wider range of resources as well as help to
promote home education as an alternative, especially for families in need.
One
problem facing many families reluctant to register is the requirement for the
child’s birth parent consent on the application form. In addition to the
Education Act, authorities are obliged to satisfy the requirements of other
Acts, for example, Family Law. It can be difficult and distressing for parent
applying for home education where the child doesn’t have, or may never have
had, a relationship with the absent parent. In some situations registration may
not be an option for some families without putting them at risk.
The
current emphasis on the economy (a ‘working’ Australia rather than a
‘parenting’ Australia) adds a negative bias to the application and interview
process. The prejudice against single parent families in our society is subtle
but significant.
Stories
of negative experiences with the education authorities continue to have an
effect of dissuading families from registration, though much less than in the
past. It is my experience that if the family encounters an anti-registration
home educating support group or person before contacting the authorities
they'll be less likely to register in the first instance. Many unregistered
families report being overwhelmed by the information provided by the
authorities and consider complying with the requirements as an unnecessary or
unwelcome burden of work. Hard to understand educational jargon puts off other
families.
I have
also consistently noticed that families with children with special needs seem
to be required to jump through more hoops when they register. A reason, less
often encountered than a couple of decades ago, given by some families for not
registering as home educators is that they do not recognise the State’s
authority regarding the education of the children. This is usually related to
their religious beliefs.
Families
who begin home educating and are unregistered either have never sent their
children to school at all; have moved house at the same time as removing their
children from school; or have not notified the home education authority if they
move (not provided a forwarding address). I haven’t heard of any unregistered
families being fined once they decide to register: they simply fill out the
application form and comply with the requirements. Keeping records of their
children’s home education while unregistered is helpful during this transition.
There is considerable support for home educating families,
whether they are registered or not, within the Australian home education
community. It doesn’t seem to be as much of an issue within the community as it
does to the media: we simply get on with the business of providing our children
with the education they need and deserve.
Subscribe to my Homeschool-Unschool-Australia!, a quarterly collection of my writing on my various websites, support groups, blog and personal reflections.
If you
are on Facebook or Yahoo and haven’t already done so, you are most welcome to
join either of my online support groups: