Elective home education

[Mumsathome]

Hi all am I required by law to register onto the council website for elective home education. I was told over the phone to do it but I don't really feel it's necessary as it's only a temporarily situation untill July. Before I took my son officially out of school ESBASS were involved because he was refusing to go, if that makes a difference to whether I have to or not. Many thanks.

Hello and welcome! I've seen your post on the other old thread of someone else's, in which you gave a bit more detail: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/home_ed/1260433-letter-received-from-elective-home-education-co-ordinator

No, there is no legal requirement to register or fill in any forms. Many LAs make up their own policies, but if they have no force in law then you don't have to comply. If I were you, I would be wary of your particular LA as they are either clueless or trying deliberately to mislead you - both of these are common problems with LAs.

Bear in mind that the ultimate sanction they have against you, if they had reason to believe you weren't giving your son a suitable education, would be to order him to school. They cannot issue a School Attendance Order until they have asked you to supply information, and then if they still aren't happy they must lay out their concerns and give you a chance to address them. Then a judge would have to agree with them. This process takes a while. Since you plan to send him to school in the autumn anyway, it isn't something you need to worry about much.

Having said that, you could probably do without the hassle of being threatened with court, and you want to retain the option to home educate later if you change your mind about secondary school or if your son tries it and doesn't thrive there. For this reason, it would be wise to comply with any requests they make when those requests do have a legal basis. If they ask you for anything which they don't have a right to, you can write to them asking them to quote the law which says you have to do it. Since there is no such law, they should drop it then.

The usual advice given for dealing with LAs is to ask them to keep everything in writing, decline any offers of home visits, and always respond to any communications from them - either by complying with what they want, asking for clarification, or challenging them. If you ignore them altogether, then they may decide you aren't engaging and escalate toward legal action.

Your son's attendance history has no bearing on the education you are now providing, and isn't relevant. In practice you may find that your LA targets you because they may imagine you removed him from school purely to avoid a truancy prosecution and that you have no genuine intention of home educating him. But that doesn't affect the legal situation.

What is ESBASS?

Ok thank you for all of that, really helpful, so I think I will wait for something in writing from them since this was just a suggestion over the phone. When attendance drops below a certain percent the school have to contact the LA and ESBASS are the people that get involved to help with the low attendance. At first she seemed helpful suggesting to the school since he had a processing disorder they should be using visuals and equipment more than verbal communication and I thought she would be really helpful, I was meant to contact her everytime I had any problems getting my son to school via a txt, however she rarely responded and when she did it would say I will call you tomorrow but she never called. One day I got a letter telling me his attendance had gone from 58% to 75% I was very proud of that yet the letter read on that there was no reason for these absences even though she knew he suffered anxiety and learning issues, my son is bigger and stronger than me, I couldn't physically take him to school unless he complied, it then read unless he meets 100% attendance within 19 days I will be prosecuted either by fine or prison sentance! Now I am almost certain I could have won this on grounds of his illness ( anxiety) but I decided it was not worth fighting since he wasn't going to school and he was behind on his work, so that was the 'back me into a corner' I needed to make the choice to teach him myself. I've gone back 3 years in work to go through what he does and doesn't know and get him hopefully bk to his age ability before secondary school starts. Thanks

Okay, sounds like you have made a sensible decision then! Good luck with it all. I hope your son will soon start to feel more relaxed.

I am off to a home education camp for the next week and won't be available here, but there are plenty of other helpful people who can help you if you need to quote from the law etc.