The school must take reasonable steps to ensure that all individuals with parental responsibility are aware of the request.
If a parent with parental responsibility does not live with the child, they should still be informed.
The only exceptions are:
- Where there is a clear safeguarding reason not to notify them, or
- There is a court order stating that the individual no longer has parental responsibility.
If there is any disagreement between parents, refer to the appropriate guidance on parental disputes, see Parental disputes below.
Where There Is No Parental Dispute
If all parents with parental responsibility are in agreement:
- The school should acknowledge the parent’s written request in writing.
- The child’s name must be removed from the school roll.
This must be completed within 5 working days of receiving the written request.
- Inform the LA immediately of the removal of the child’s name from the register (Section 12 (3) of 'The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006'). Schools should inform the LA of the removal of a child’s name from the register via the CME schools portal.
- Complete and send to the EHE team an EHE Form 1.
- Please be aware that a young person's full safeguarding record held by the school, should remain at the school that the young person is deregistering from, until either the young person goes back into another education setting (at which point the new education setting will request this from the young person's previous school setting), or if the young person does not go back into another education setting, the school that holds the young person's safeguarding record should follow their own retention policy.
Where a parent does inform a school, they are considering EHE then SCC strongly recommends:
- Schools convene a meeting to talk through parents’ reasons to home educate their child/children and resolve any issues about school and the child's needs that might influence the parents’ decision to continue with their attendance at the school. As a result, parents will be fully aware of their responsibilities and if there are any concerns that the school may have regarding their decision to home educate. The meeting could be attended by an EHE officer if this would be supportive to the parent.
- Parents are provided with contact details and encouraged to speak with SCC's Elective Home Education (EHE) team for guidance and support before making a final decision that their child be removed from the school roll.
- Where appropriate, schools and parents are encouraged to work together to consider the support available through SCC's Family Support Team, Education Access Team, Special Education Services or Statutory SEND Services, where home education is being explored in response to wider unmet needs or ongoing challenges.
- If the child or young person has an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan, or has additional needs that have previously been supported in school, it may be helpful for the school to offer an early annual review or review of needs. This can provide a shared opportunity for parents and professionals to reflect on any emerging or unmet needs, with the request and any new information recorded as part of the review. Together, this process can explore whether adjustments to support within school could be made, or whether further referrals to other services (some of which may not be accessible if the child is home educated) could be made. This collaborative approach may also help to ease any concerns that parents may have.
Parental Disputes
This is a private matter between the parents, the local authority or a school cannot take the side of any parent. Where there is a Family Court order the local authority and school must follow this decision.
Schools should strongly urge parents to try to come to some agreement about home education, but where this is not possible advise that independent legal advice is sort.
We would advise that school also seek legal advice from their trust or local authority around any decision to remove the child from roll and whilst doing this the child should remain on the school roll.
Withdrawal from a special school to electively home educate
Local authorities may encourage parents to inform them directly of the withdrawal of a child from school but have no legal right to insist that parents do so.
The only exception to this is where the child is attending a special school under arrangements made by the local authority, in which case additional permission is required from the authority before the child's name can be removed from the register.
When a special school receives written notification from a parent of their intention to home educate their child, it is the responsibility of the school to inform the Elective Home Education department and the Family Services coordinator.
The Local Authority will then speak to the parent to make arrangements for them to share information. It is the expectation that this will not be a lengthy process and that the child will continue to attend the school until consent to remove from roll is given.
School Attendance Orders
If a child is registered at a school as a result of a school attendance order the parents must have the order revoked by the local authority on the ground that arrangements have been made for the child to receive suitable education otherwise than at school, before the child can be deleted from the school's register and educated at home.
Flexi-schooling
Part-time attendance is an arrangement (between the parent and the school) by which the child is registered at school but attends part time; the rest of the time the child is electively home educated. Part-time attendance is a legal option, but it depends on the agreement of the head teacher and governing body. The child will be required to follow the National Curriculum whilst at school but not whilst he or she is being electively home educated.
Schools may enter into flexi-schooling arrangements if the parent request it, provided they correctly mark children as absent (Code C) in attendance registers when they are being educated at home.
The GOV.UK web page containing the home education guidelines says "Pupils who are being flexi-schooled should be marked as absent from school during the periods when they are receiving home education."
The GOV.UK home education web page also says "Write to the headteacher if you plan to take your child out of school. They must accept if you’re taking your child out completely. They can refuse if you want to send your child to school some of the time.”
Elective Home Education
Elective Home Education
Children and Young People's Services
Suffolk County Council
Endeavour House
8 Russell Road
Ipswich
IP1 2BX
Telephone: 01473 265139
Email: EHE@suffolk.gov.uk
