Can I homeschool my child in the UK?

Short answer: yes. If you're a UK parent wondering whether you're allowed to educate your child at home, the law says you are. You don't need a teaching qualification, you don't need permission from the local authority (in most cases), and you don't need to prove anything up front.

That's the honest yes. But there's some useful detail behind it, especially if your child is currently at school, has an EHC plan, or if you're in Scotland where the rules are slightly different. This guide walks through who can home educate, when you need to notify anyone, and the small print for special cases.

In England and Wales, home education sits under Section 7 of the Education Act 1996. It says the parent of every child of compulsory school age must make sure the child gets "efficient full-time education suitable to age, ability and aptitude and to any special educational needs, either by regular attendance at school or otherwise".

Those last two words, "or otherwise", are the whole legal basis for home education. Education is compulsory. School attendance is not. You have a choice.

Scotland works to Section 30 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980, which uses similar language: parents must provide "efficient education" suitable to the child either at a public school or "by other means". Northern Ireland uses Article 45 of the Education and Libraries (NI) Order 1986, again with the same core wording. All four UK nations recognise home education as a legal alternative to school.

In most cases, no. There's a clean rule of thumb:

If your child has never been enrolled at a school, you can just start. No letters, no forms, no notification required. You're already meeting your legal duty by educating them at home.

If your child is currently on a school roll in England, you need to write to the head teacher to deregister them. The school then removes the name from the admission register under the School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024. There's no prescribed format for the letter and no legal duty to give a reason. The school informs the local authority afterwards.

There are two situations where you do need explicit local authority consent before you can deregister: if your child is at a special school arranged by the LA, or if a School Attendance Order is in force. In both cases consent must not be withheld unreasonably, but you do need to go through them.

Scotland works differently. If your child is currently at a public school, Section 35 of the 1980 Act requires LA consent to withdraw. Consent "shall not be unreasonably withheld" and can't be delayed unfairly, but you do need to ask. If your child has never attended a Scottish public school, no consent is needed.

Any parent of a child of compulsory school age can home educate. That's five to sixteen in England and Wales, five to sixteen in Northern Ireland, and roughly five to sixteen in Scotland (technically to the end of the academic year in which the child turns sixteen).

A few things people often assume are required but aren't:

You don't need a teaching qualification. The law doesn't ask about your qualifications, and Department for Education guidance to local authorities is clear that they "should not specify a curriculum or approach which parents must follow".

You don't need to be at home all day. Home education can happen at libraries, museums, parks, tutoring sessions, online, at a co-op with other families, or anywhere else. The word "home" is a bit misleading.

You don't need to be a British citizen or a UK-born parent, though there are separate visa and residency rules that might affect a family's situation. The education law itself doesn't turn on nationality.

You don't need a curriculum plan approved before you start. You'll want a rough idea of what you're doing, but nobody has to sign it off.

Home education is legal for children with special educational needs and for children with an Education, Health and Care plan. The Department for Education's autumn 2024 census shows about 16% of home-educated children in England are on SEN Support and 6% have an EHC plan, slightly above the school-population rates.

The funding picture is where it gets more complicated. Under Section 42 of the Children and Families Act 2014, the local authority has a duty to secure the special educational provision named in an EHC plan, unless the parent has "made suitable alternative arrangements". In practice, when a family elects to home educate, the LA typically marks Section I of the plan as "parent has made own arrangements" and doesn't fund the provision at home. This is different from an EOTAS package (Education Otherwise Than At School) under Section 61, where the LA retains full responsibility.

If your child has an EHC plan and you're weighing up home education, it's worth speaking to IPSEA (Independent Provider of Special Education Advice) for free legal advice before you deregister. Once you've deregistered, changing the funding arrangement back is much harder.

Once you've deregistered (or if the LA becomes aware of your home-educated child some other way), they'll usually make contact. In England this is under Section 436A of the Education Act 1996, which asks LAs to identify children who might not be receiving a suitable education.

The contact is often a letter asking about your plans: what you're teaching, what resources you're using, sometimes a request for a home visit. This can feel intimidating the first time. It shouldn't.

What you're legally required to do: provide a suitable, efficient, full-time education. That's it.

What you can lawfully decline: a home visit, a meeting with an LA officer, a meeting with your child, following the national curriculum, entering your child for exams, keeping school hours, or accepting LA support. Department for Education guidance is explicit that LAs "should not specify a curriculum or approach which parents must follow".

A short written summary of your approach, sent by email, is usually enough to satisfy a friendly informal enquiry. Education Otherwise and HEAS both publish template responses if you'd like a starting point.

If the LA isn't satisfied, they can serve a formal notice under Section 437 giving you at least 15 days to demonstrate the education is suitable. If they remain unsatisfied and think school attendance is expedient, they can then issue a School Attendance Order. In 2023/24 the DfE recorded around 7,000 Section 437 notices and about 2,100 school attendance orders in England. Most home-educating families never encounter one, but the escalation path is worth knowing.

The Department for Education's autumn 2024 census counted about 111,700 children in elective home education across England, roughly 1.4% of the school-age population. Over the whole 2023/24 academic year, 153,300 children spent at least part of the year home educated. The number has been rising steadily since 2020.

So it's not fringe, and it's not experimental. It's a mainstream choice made by ordinary families, for a wide range of reasons. The DfE census records the top stated reasons as mental health (14%), philosophical or preferential reasons (14%), and lifestyle (9%). More than 40% of families give reasons that fall into other or unknown categories, which tells you it's a broader mix than the numbers alone suggest.

The Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026 and includes a new "Children Not in School" register for England. The idea is that parents will need to notify the LA that they're home educating.

As of July 2026, the parental duty to register isn't yet in force. Commencement regulations are expected during 2027, with consultation on the detail before then. Nothing you decide now depends on it, but if you're planning to home educate for the long term, keep an eye on gov.uk for updates so you're not caught out when the register goes live.

Yes, you can. The law is on your side. You don't need permission (in most cases), you don't need qualifications, and you don't need to prove anything up front.

What you do need is a reasonable plan for how you'll educate your child, a rough sense of what the coming year will look like, and – if you're going to sit exams eventually – some awareness of the exam pathway by the time your child is 13 or 14. That's a very different question from "am I allowed to", though. That question has a simple answer, and the answer is yes.