Home education law in the UK: 2026 guide for parents

Home education law in the UK sits on top of one very short piece of statute, then a stack of regulations, guidance and case law that fills out the practicalities. For most of the last decade the numbers were steady. In 2026 it started to move: the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026 and, once fully commenced, will bring in a mandatory register, new consent rules and other changes.

This guide walks through where the law stands as of July 2026, what's been enacted but not yet in force, and what most families need to know before they start.

England is the default here, with quick sections on Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland where the law differs.

Every conversation about home education law comes back to Section 7 of the Education Act 1996:

"The parent of every child of compulsory school age shall cause him to receive efficient full-time education suitable to his age, ability and aptitude, and to any special educational needs he may have, either by regular attendance at school or otherwise."

The last two words carry the entire home education framework. Compulsory schooling isn't a thing in the UK. Compulsory education is.

Section 7 was last amended by the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018 to add the England/Wales distinction on special educational needs vs additional learning needs. The amendments came into force in phased commencement between 1 September 2021 and 1 September 2025. The 2026 Act doesn't touch Section 7 itself.

The 2026 Act (c. 21) is a wide piece of legislation covering safeguarding, school attendance, admissions and children not in school. For home educators, the material sections are 37 to 41.

Section 37 inserts a new Section 434A into the Education Act 1996, requiring LA consent to withdraw a "relevant child" from a school's admission register in England. A child is "relevant" if they're at a special school (or an independent school providing SEN provision) under LA arrangements, or if the LA is conducting Section 47 child welfare enquiries, or the child is subject to a child protection plan, or has been within a specified prior period (the DfE's May 2026 explanatory material has said "within the last five years" for that condition).

The consent standard is set on the face of the Act: the LA "must refuse consent if the local authority considers that it would be in the child's best interests to receive education by regular attendance at school, or that no suitable arrangements have been made for the education of the child otherwise than at school, but otherwise must grant consent".

Section 38 introduces the "Children Not in School" register in England: a duty on parents of children not in school to notify the local authority and provide information specified in a new Section 436B of the Education Act 1996 (with Section 436C governing the content and maintenance of the registers). This is what most media coverage means when it talks about the register.

Section 39 amends the School Attendance Order procedure. Section 40 covers processing of information for the register. Section 41 covers guidance.

Very little, for most families, right now.

The deregistration process is still governed by the School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024 (SI 2024/208), which came into force on 19 August 2024 and replaced the 2006 regulations. Under Regulation 9(1)(f), a written parental notice that the child will be educated otherwise than at school lets the school remove the child's name from the admission register. There's no prescribed format and no legal duty to give a reason.

Regulation 9(2) still requires LA consent to remove the name of a child at a special school where placed by the LA (consent "must not be withheld unreasonably"). That's the pre-existing rule. The new Section 37 consent regime is on top of that, not a replacement.

Section 436A of the Education Act 1996 still gives LAs a duty to identify children not receiving suitable education, and Section 437 still gives them the escalation route (Section 437(1) notice with at least 15 days; School Attendance Order under Section 437(3) if the LA remains unsatisfied).

If your child has never attended a school, you don't have to do anything to start home educating. You just start.

If your child is currently on a school roll, the process in England is:

1. Write to the head teacher or school proprietor stating clearly that your child will no longer attend from a specified day. There's no prescribed format and no legal duty to give a reason.
2. Keep a dated copy of the letter (email is fine, though a signed hardcopy adds belt to braces).
3. The school has to remove the child's name from the admission register under Regulation 9(1) of the 2024 Regulations once the trigger date is reached.
4. The school then has to notify the LA of the deletion at a "nonstandard transition time" under Regulation 13(4) to (5) of SI 2024/208. You don't have to notify the LA yourself.
5. Until the deletion is processed, the parent is at risk of prosecution for non-attendance, so the written notice with a clear date is the parent's protection.

Two exceptions still apply. If your child is at a special school placed there by the LA, Regulation 9(2) requires the LA's consent first. If a School Attendance Order is in force, the LA must revoke or amend it first. A mainstream school pupil with an EHC plan doesn't need LA consent to deregister; the DfE guidance is explicit that instructing a school to add a child's name to the admission register without parental agreement is "not lawful".

About 16% of home-educated children in England are on SEN Support and 6% have an EHC plan (DfE autumn 2024 census), a little above the school-population figures. The legal framework has some SEND-specific detail.

Section 42(2) of the Children and Families Act 2014 places an absolute duty on the LA to "secure the specified special educational provision for the child or young person" where an EHC plan is maintained. Section 42(5) is the exception: the duty doesn't apply if "the child's parent or the young person has made suitable alternative arrangements". In practice, when a family elects to home educate, the LA typically annotates Section I of the EHC plan as "parent has made own arrangements" and does not fund the provision at home.

The LA's duty to keep the EHC plan under annual review continues while you're home educating. If at any point the LA considers the home education is no longer suitable, it "must ensure that the special educational provision specified in the EHC plan is made available".

Section 61 of the same Act covers Education Otherwise Than At School (EOTAS): the LA arranges special educational provision to be made in the child's home. That's a different regime from elective home education – the LA retains responsibility and Section 42 applies to it in full. If you're offered an EOTAS package, that's not the same as electively home educating.

The DfE's April 2019 Elective Home Education Departmental Guidance for Local Authorities is the current baseline. It was last updated 19 August 2024 to align with the new attendance regulations. It's explicitly non-statutory guidance and it applies to England only. A parallel parents' guidance sits alongside it.

On what LAs can require:

The statutory escalation route runs through Section 437 of the Education Act 1996. If the LA becomes not satisfied that the education is suitable, they serve a Section 437(1) notice giving you at least 15 days to demonstrate that it is. If they remain unsatisfied and think school attendance is expedient, they can issue a School Attendance Order under Section 437(3). The order continues until the child reaches compulsory school-leaving age or the LA revokes it.

In 2023/24, the DfE recorded around 7,000 Section 437(1) notices and about 2,100 school attendance orders issued in England. The notices figure was roughly 80% up on the year before. Most home-educating families never encounter either.

An LA can also apply for an Education Supervision Order under Section 36 of the Children Act 1989 (which doesn't require the "significant harm" threshold), or in extreme cases a care order under Section 31 (which does require significant harm, defined by case law – In re B [2013] 1 WLR 1911 – as "considerable, noteworthy or important"). These are rare and reserved for cases well beyond typical home education.

Wales works to the same Section 7 duty (with an "additional learning needs" limb rather than "special educational needs") and the Education (Pupil Registration) (Wales) Regulations 2010. Those Welsh regulations are still in force and were not replaced by the 2024 England regulations. Welsh Government has confirmed they will be amended to reflect the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 changes; Welsh commencement is on a timeline set by Welsh Ministers.

Scotland uses Section 30 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 for the parental duty. Section 35 of the same Act requires LA consent to withdraw a child from a public school in Scotland, and that consent "shall not be unreasonably withheld". Scottish Government's home education guidance (updated 23 January 2025) is explicit that "there is no statutory duty upon local authorities to 'monitor' ongoing home education provision", that consent isn't required if the child has never attended school, and that the correct term in Scotland is "withdrawal", not "deregistration". Section 29 of the 2026 Act (limited Scottish provisions) comes into force on such day as Scottish Ministers appoint.

Northern Ireland uses Article 45 of the Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1986, which mirrors the Section 7 wording. The Education Authority is the relevant body. Monitoring is generally informal.

The July 2026 position is stable enough to plan around. The register isn't live yet. The current DfE guidance still applies. The 2024 Regulations govern deregistration.

For most families that means: read the DfE's parents' guidance end to end, deregister formally in writing if your child is on a school roll, keep dated records of what you're providing, and engage lightly with your LA (a short annual summary is generally enough to keep you clear of the Section 437 route). If your child has SEND or an EHC plan, get advice from IPSEA (free legal advice on EHCPs and home education) before you deregister.

Once the register commences (expected 2027), the register duty will add a notification step at the point of starting to home educate. It will not, on its face, change the Section 7 substantive duty or the DfE's guidance on what LAs can and can't ask for. Watch the gov.uk pages for the commencement statutory instrument rather than press coverage.