Opinion

Don't abandon the Children Not in School Register

We cannot let the scrapping of the Schools Bill be the end of plans to create a Children Not in School Register, says Ava Berry


Home educated children are some of the most invisible and under-researched cohorts in the UK (Danechi & Long, 2022).

This is largely down to the fact that legislation does not currently require parents to notify their local authority if they choose to home educate, which means no-one knows exactly how many children are being home educated at any given time (Danechi & Long, 2022).

The government doesn’t routinely collect any data on the long-term outcomes of children who are home educated. We don’t know how many home educated children and young people go to university or experience mental health difficulties, or how they feel about their home education experience. All because of a lack of research or consultation (Education Select Committee, 2021).

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