Home eduction question

[Pandora55]

I'm currently caring for a teenager who hasn't been in educational for the last 3 years. Their parent deregistered them and told the education authority that they would be home schooling. What actually happened was the child was left to do what they wanted. No education at all.

Were there no checks supposed to be made?. I'm honestly so shocked that this has been allowed to happen.

I know lots of home Ed parents and I see their children thrive and learn. Is there anyone on here who can tell me if there was supposed to be anything in place by the education authority to make sure the child was getting an adequate amount of education.

What you've described there is unschooling. I'm a home educating parent and this is the most common approach to home education at the moment. Unfortunately it's interpreted by many that their child can just do whatever they want all day, even if that is video games and nothing else.

Technically the local authority are meant to check in one a year for an annual report (that's the only check they're legally entitled to do, they aren't entitled to samples of work or to meet the child), but I haven't heard a peep from my own LA in three years now, despite me keeping in touch with them.

There is a little to no support for home educating parents from the council or LA. I suspect their hope is that if parents feel unsupported they will send their child back to school.

Having had a look, I don’t think that checks are made routinely. There used to be, and still is EOTAS, which is education other than at school, but that is the local authority I believe.

To HE, you tell the school that’s what you’re going to do and derigister the child. Most HE will already have researched, joined groups, have plans, but if someone has simply said that’s what they’re going to do, but chooses not to do any education, it doesn’t seem as if anyone follows up, from what I could see.

Thanks so much for replying. I'm very shocked. It seems parent just couldn't be bothered in this case but I honestly thought someone would be checking in. Child wants to go back to school and I'm trying to figure out best way to go about it all seeing as there's a massive gap in education now. Thanks again

The key factor is what is considered education.

I'm in Scotland so things may differ but home education juts means that - it doesn't mean you have to replicate school at home or do any sort of coursework towards taking exams. Of course you can choose that route but it isn't necessary so even if there were checks done regularly, there is no obligation to teach the child the school curriculum.

Clearly this is an extreme case as the child has been failed by their parents, but not all of the kids who don't follow curriculum are not learning anything. It's juts done in a different way.

Access to an education is a human right, and the parent who did this was being highly neglectful in not providing any education at all. However, I am getting the impression from your OP that this is some kind of fostering arrangement so perhaps this isn't the only form of neglect this child has suffered.

How old a teenager? Do you know what yeargroup they should be in for their age?

If they should be Y9 having just turned 13 you might consider using a year of genuine home-learning using an online school like Kings Interhigh as well as visiting tutors in order to get the child into the swing of education gradually, and apply for a school place for y10 next year. This could be the case for a y10 child if you feel you could make a case for them being educated a year below their year cohort having missed so much (any child with a May-August birthday is supposed to have the right to be educated with the yeargroup one year below if that's in their best interests, and occasionally kids without a birthday in these months if there are other factors at play, which there clearly are)

Schools will generally refuse to take a child into y11 - generally they will finish teaching the GCSE course by not long after Christmas of y11 and then it's just revision and exam prep until the summer exams.

Manage expectations - from a standing start with 3 years out of education, it might be asking too much to expect them to get a full quiver of GCSEs, but with support and assuming they are bright and motivated, it should be possible for them to focus on 5 or 6 subjects and get into the swing of learning fairly swiftly - the teenage mind is phenomenally elastic and adaptable, and you may find they can dive right in and start learning really well.

Sorry I should have added in Scotland you don't have to give a report or anything but you have to give an updated 'provision' every year, basically outlining how the child will have access to learning.

I would get in touch with the local authority ASAP to see about a school place and reintegration into school.

How old are they? It would be much harder 14-16 to join (although not impossible) but there are usually a range of options 16+

Schools are used to children joining with different issues(we had several Ukrainian refugees locally for example)

But it's important to talk with the LA and then with the school. Let them visit the school, meet some staff, go on a tour etc

I am sure the schools pastoral team will help and understand it might be a shock after 3 years out.

Assuming they're in foster care you may be able to request lessons 1-2-1 from the council to get them back where they should be. I knew a child whose dm had "homeschooled" her by doing absolutely nothing until the child was taken into care at the age of 9yo (with other neglect reasons). The council provided lessons for nearly 2 years with the aim of getting her up to the level she could go into school. I think she dropped a year, but I might be wrong there.
She did really well with it, and loved school once she'd started.