Homeschooling

To register as a home educator, you must:

• live in Western Australia
• be a natural or adoptive parent or have legal guardianship of the child
• be a permanent Australian resident, a New Zealand citizen or the holder of visitor or temporary resident visa
• if leaving a school, notify the principal and register within 14 days of the last day your child attended the school
• if registering for a new school year, register by the last Friday in February.

Contact your local education regional office. The office will provide you with a form which you can complete and lodge in person.

You need to produce a copy of child's birth certificate or extract, and any court orders.

If your registration is approved, you will be given a certificate of registration.

Your home education registration can be cancelled where concerns about the home education program are not met. Details about this process are in the Home Education Procedures (Appendix B).

As a home educator you need to develop a curriculum program which meets the requirements of School Curriculum and Standards Authority Act 1997.

Resources are available for Pre-primary to Year 12 on the School Curriculum and Standards Authority's website. You can also include materials from other sources.

Home educated students can choose to participate in the following education programs:

• National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) – Assesses student achievement in literacy and numeracy. All students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 in schools across Australia do the same tests on the same days during May.
• Online Numeracy and Literacy Assessment (OLNA) – An online literacy and numeracy assessment designed to enable students to successfully meet the Western Australian Certificate of Education requirements.
• Work experience – Secondary students can have work experience while studying at home. To do this you may need to make arrangements such as inspection of work sites to ensure suitability for work experience and insurance.
• Community service – Community service hours accumulated by students over Years 10, 11 and 12 can be reported to the School Curriculum and Standards Authority. The hours reported are recorded on the student's Western Australian Statement of Student Achievement (WASSA).
• Vocational Education and Training (VET) courses – Your child may wish to complete a VET accredited course while continuing their home education program. As a home educator you remain responsible for their full program and evaluation.
• Interm Swimming program – Primary school aged children are entitled to access Interm Swimming classes.

As a home educator you are responsible for reporting the progress of your child’s education to your education regional office.

A home education moderator will arrange visits to check the educational program links to the Western Australian Curriculum and progress of registered student. The moderator will prepare an evaluation report.

The report usually includes:

• an evaluation of the program
• links to curriculum and courses developed by School Curriculum and Standards Authority
• an indication of the child’s achievement
• areas needing attention
• suggestions for strategies or resources to help the child’s progress
• answers to any questions raised at the visit.

Further visits may be arranged to confirm recommended changes have been made.

It is important that you prepare for the visit so you can provide an update of your child’s progress and report any learning concerns you may have. The meeting will focus on what the child can do, has achieved, and can understand, rather than the work that is completed. You may like to prepare a report on your child’s progress.

The Home Education Procedures (Appendix A) outline what you and the moderator can discuss at the meeting and ways you can show your child’s progress.