To think that Home Educated children should be inspected every year?

[jennymanara]

I think home education can work. I know a fair number of parents who are home educating from some who teach their kids to those who are unschoolers.
But I also think there are parents who home educate who are not up to the job and claim to be unschooling, but are in fact just educationally neglecting their children.
There should be an annual inspection of all kids being home schooled. This should check that children are actually getting some form of education, and not just left for example to play minesweeper all day, as one single mother I knew did with her teenage son.

fundamentally it is impossible to police what happens in people homes...at least without some serious movement in the direction of authoritarianism...

while we still pay lip service to the idea that the police or SS need some sort of indication of a problem before they go inspecting peoples families, then HE families should also be left in peace.

Should the bar be lower in the case that a safeguarding issue is raised, for children who are somewhat less visible to the authorities? Maybe. I think I could easily live with that.

But deciding we need investigating on the basis of no evidence of a problem whatsoever is just not reasonable...and not what our society is about.

@Loopy - is a yearly register really gonna catch the people who hide abuse or mainly gonna have low risk home ed parents? How much is this going to cost? Who will inspect the inspectors and what will the process of appeal be? Would the money be better spent on social services?

Maybe we don’t know the numbers for these. In that case they could do feasibility studies to get info rather than an ill-thought-our knee-jerk register.

I honestly can't imagine anyone who could set off on such a regime of abuse and who could not also easily stage manage a one off inspection visit per year...but I don't know what the details of the situation were...so maybe she genuinely was the 1 in 10 million that it would actually have made a difference too.

The overwhelming majority of abuse is conducted essentially in the open, with the silence of the victims bought by fear. It is not noticed or picked up on by any of the representatives of the authorities that come into contact with the victims on a regular basis and the victims do not use that contact as an opportunity to speak out.

If people are determined to abuse they will find away to adapt their behaviour to avoid detection. Changing the rules will change their methods, but not the fact of their abuse.

Yes Loopytiles it is the default setting. This is what the Education Act 1996 Section 7 says:

"Duty of parents to secure education of children of compulsory school age.
.
The parent of every child of compulsory school age shall cause him to receive efficient full-time education suitable—

(a)

to his age, ability and aptitude, and
.

(b)

to any special educational needs he may have,
.
either by regular attendance at school or otherwise. "

First the current issues and risks - notably poor quality education, neglect or abuse of DC who are not in schools - need defining and analysis. Then the case for government intervention and different options can be considered, including costs, potential effectiveness etc.

I don’t know if yearly inspection would be the best government intervention.

In practice HE is not the “default” because the vast majority of parents use schools.

Home education IS the default setting.
Your child's education is by law, your responsibility and you May, if you prefer delegate your child's education to the state.

But we all fell into line and over time became conditioned to believe state education was the only right way to educate.

It Is default because HE is what happens if you don’t register at a school. I’m not sure what you think default means?

Disagree with you. Also think it’s irrelevant to this debate, which at its core is about how the state should deal with some clear risks and issues with HE.

I am talking about legally, not what the majority of parents do Loopytiles.

I home educate my dcs and have done so for at least 4 years. It has been the best decision we could have made for them. They both had many difficulties at school due to SEND and lack of support. The schools did nothing about the bullying they experienced.

The LA are aware of us, and I turn in a report each year when they request an update - this year's report was 7 pages long so it had a fair bit of information on it. I always decline meeting with the EHE person as my older dc has an EHCP, so we meet up with the SEN caseworker to do an annual review as needed anyway. We are also in the process of getting an EHCP for my younger dc.

My dcs are autistic and do not cope well with people coming to the house and expecting them to discuss their education or "perform" for them. It's particularly stressful, and I'm not willing to put my dcs through that. We do, however, regularly see multiple professionals (GP, asthma nurse, dentist, paed, PT, eye doctor, etc) as needed, so my dcs are in no way "invisible." These professionals are all well aware that we home educate and are supportive of that decision.

I'm curious how much information or exposure these people that are critical of HE actually have - I don't mean just from one source, but how much research have they done so that they are really well informed? Most of the home educators I know are very careful to make sure their children get a well rounded education as well as a full social life and are taught important life skills. Yes, many are working at various levels at various ages, but that doesn't mean they are not progressing or being educated. Children progress at different rates both at school and in home ed.

The laws in place right now give the LAs ample tools to deal with HE appropriately. I think the government needs to fix the schools that are failing children across the country first.

how the state should deal with some clear risks and issues with HE.
I don’t think there ARE clear risks and issues. What do you think they are?

You disagree that the law I qouted is correct Loopytiles?

Most posters here in favour of more/ different government oversight or interventions are not making negative comments about HE. They may well not be anti-HE.

I’m personally not against HE. There are issues/risks with a small minority, so I’d like to see more government analysis and possibly more oversight / intervention.

What “risks” and “issues”?

A terribly abusive foster 'mum' by the name of Eunice Spry keep her charges out of school to hide the bruises etc., on the guise of home schooling them and got aaay with it a lot longer because there weren't enough checks made so I think yes they should be answerable just as regular schools are checked.

More oversight how? More intervention how? What specific risks do you see?

I know someone who attended school daily who was beaten by their parents partner. Nobody knew.

Poor quality or no education, religious extremist education, neglect or child abuse.
Fewer opportunities for this to be noticed by the state.

I don’t know what interventions would be most effective - that should be informed by proper analysis.

A current issue across the board - wherever DC are educated - is the current resourcing and performance of social services.

Foster children are "checked up" upon a lof more often than once a year. How often do you think HErs should be checked?
Please could someone also say exactly how they think these checks should be carried out and by whom.

My child received poor quality/no education at school. All religions are “extreme” in that you either follow the religion or don’t. Neglect and abuse are seen in school children.

What about ID cards for everyone and medical checks, and home inspection for all?

Yes of course, and we can want better state school education, inspection and safeguarding AND measures for HE.

Poor quality or no education, religious extremist education, neglect or child abuse.

This occurs to children who are in school, often without officials noticing it. My dcs were getting poor education (no education in the case of my younger dc) at school. My youngest was put in an isolation booth on numerous occasions at age 5 for behaviour that was due to his autism and was unsupported by the school - I consider that abuse/neglect.

HE in itself is not a safeguarding issue. You can't just assume there is a problem just because a parent home educates.