Is home education always 'elective'?

Part 3 of Why do families choose home education?

This is part 3 of the survey analysis. 

Part 1: Details of the survey and who participated in it, including the ages at which children began home education and the length of time they had home educated for..

Part 2: Primary reasons given for home education at different ages, and how those reasons change over time.

Deregistration into home education

One of the big questions around home education is whether it is truly 'elective' - does it represent a positive choice, or are deregistrations driven by the actions of the schools that children leave?

As seen from part 1 and part 2 of the survey analysis, a subset of around 20% of home educated children never attended school, with home education chosen positively from the outset. However the majority did attend, and then for some reason or another made the decision to leave.

Off-rolling

A frequently raised concern is that schools may be 'off-rolling' pupils by putting pressure on them to home educate, particularly in instances where there is a risk of exclusion, or attendance is low.

Both this survey, and the official DfE statistics, show a very low percentage - less than 2% - of home education where the primary reason is down to either off-rolling, permanent exclusion, or the risk of exclusion. However the decision to home educate is typically a complex one, with a variety of factors (later posts will explore further questions on the survey looking at this).

In order to investigate whether families felt any form of pressure from the school or the Local Authority to home educate, I asked the explicit question "Did you feel under pressure from the school or LA to home educate?".

Overall, just over 12% of respondents felt that they had been under some form of pressure. Looking at responses by the age of starting home education, 1 in 6 home educators who began home educating at secondary school age felt they had been under pressure to do so.

In a free text option to expand on answers, respondents gave explanations such as this:

"After a year of child struggling to attend, hardly any support, we got to the point school said we should consider home ed. The inclusion officers were not understanding at all, lack of autism and the differences in autism presentation. School starting applying so much pressure and we were told by them and council it was highly unlikely we could get specialist provision because of the high demand. So we were basically pushed to home ed and now have no support. We reached out to gp a year ago, did a mental [health] 6 week session after 6 months, only just been given a possible appointment with community paediatrician after 2 declines due to school being involved but school were saying they couldn't do anything due to lack of diagnosis so we were caught between the two. Ending in the deregistering of a child. I never thought this would happen."

Parent of Year 7 child, home educated for 6-12 months at the time of the survey.

Attendance fines

Another factor suggested as leading to deregistration are attendance fines. This is not identified as a reason in the DfE statistics, so it was not included in the primary reason question in this survey. Instead I asked the explicit question: "Have you been fined or felt at risk of fines due to low attendance?". The question did not distinguish between fines that had been issued, or were feared, as anecdotally the threat of fines has a similar effect to those actually issued (whether this threat has been explicitly made or only assumed by the parent based on general discourse).

The responses show that parents who had deregistered commonly felt the threat of attendance fines, particularly in upper primary (30%) and secondary (just over 40%). While this is not necessarily a driving factor - the reasons behind low attendance are likely to be as significant as the risk of a fine - it is possible that in these cases, the possibility of a fine hastened a final decision to deregister.

Comments made by parents explained further, such as:

"Mainstream. My child has medical conditions and a low attendance. School refused to authorise absence once child's attendance hit 90%, they refused to accept they couldn't unauthorise if absence was related to medical condition. I was warned yearly for attendance and got the council involved, 0-19 services were involved and my child's medical experts were involved but the school and council failed to listen to any medical opinions that they shouldn't be unauthorising absences related to my child's medical condition.

The school claimed I was opening myself up to a fine because of my child's absence."

Parent of Year 4 child, home educated for 6-12 months at the time of the survey.

Pattern of attendance prior to deregistration

It is rare for a parent to decide to deregister a child who is happily attending school, and as such it is common for attendance issues to occur prior to deregistration. Asking about the pattern of attendance immediately prior to deregistration, the majority of children had had less than 90% attendance, and a significant proportion, increasingly through the secondary years, less than 40%.   

Respondents described a variety of issues leading to low attendance (and eventually deregistration) such as:

"Sons attendance was poor due to a mix of health issues which now believe to be anxiety related and severe bullying, son was refusing to attend as didn't feel safe or supported from the school and was struggling with the work he was given and not receiving help to complete it"

Parent of Year 1 child, 40-90% attendance and felt at risk of fining, deregistered for less than 6 weeks at the time of the survey.

Many respondents who did report high attendance, however also reported issues seen at home but not necessarily at school:

"Her attendance was fine, her behaviour was good . There were no meltdowns but she used to cry every day, have anxiety related tummy issues and was just generally unhappy. We kept sending her long past the point we should have de-registered her. "

Parent of Year 9 child, 90+% attendance, deregistered since Year 2.

Is a forced choice the wrong choice?

Although it is significant that some respondents felt pushed into making a decision to home educate, a clear majority also felt that it was the correct choice to make, and they were now happy to continue home educating. (It is important to note here that this survey was of current home educators only, and does not cover parents who may have made a decision to return their children to school after a period of home education.)

Respondents were asked a series of questions to rate on a 5-point scale of agreement.

Across all respondents (1220):

55% agreed that they had expected school would work for their child.

29% did not want to home educate initially.

24% felt they did not have a free choice in whether to home educate initially.

However,

88% felt that home education was the right choice for their child initially.

91% feel that they are happy to continue home educating now.

67% wish they had chosen home education earlier.

Typical comments made by parents are:

"We've seen a big difference in our child's confidence and her ability to work independently.  She's done so much better than in school and was able to focus on what interests her."

Parent of child in Year 11, deregistered in Year 9; initially did not want to home educate but now happy to continue.

Looking at the responses only of those who felt pressured to home educate (146), a much higher proportion felt pushed into the decision.

73% expected school would work for their child.

55% did not want to home educate initially.

62% felt they did not have a free choice in whether to home educate initially.

However, while the proportion who are happy to continue is also lower than overall, it is still a clear majority.

73% felt that home education was the right choice for their child initially.

75% are happy to continue home educating now.

Also, a higher proportion wish they had made the decision earlier:

76% wish they had chosen home education earlier.

A similar pattern holds true for those with very low attendance (<40%) prior to deregistration (233 responses):

70% had expected school would work for their child.

49% did not want to home educate initially.

42% did not feel they had a free choice in whether to home educate initially.

82% felt home education was the right choice for their child initially.

82% are happy to continue home educating now.

76% wish they had chosen home education earlier.

In some cases, respondents felt that the decision to deregister had been an essential, life-saving one, with positive results.

"Child was suicidal, bullied in school, no support from school, it was a clear case of take him off roll and keep him alive. He has blossomed since being home Ed, still studying but with new found confidence."

Parent of Year 10 child, deregistered in Y8. Did not want to home educate initially but now happy to continue.

Overall, the survey shows a significant number of families who felt home education was initially a 'non-elective' choice; but now feel it is the best route for their child.

Next: A look at whether the experience of home education matches parents' expectations.