.

    De-registration

    The grounds on which a pupil's name must be deleted from the admission register are listed in Education (Pupil Registration) Regulation 9, 1995 [SI 1995/2089]. Under regulation 9(1)(c), a 'school-age' pupil's name is to be deleted from the admission register if:

      he has ceased to attend the school and the proprietor has received written notification from the parent that the pupil is receiving education otherwise than at school.

    If the parent writes to the proprietor explaining that the child is being educated at home, they are obliged to take the child's name off the register, and the duty to secure regular attendance thus comes to an end.

    Since 1995 this has been an absolute legal requirement: no discretion is involved. (Under regulation 13(3) the proprietor must also report the deletion of the pupil's name from the admission register to the LEA 'within ten school days'.) In this way the legal position of a parent embarking on home-based education is the same regardless of whether or not the child has been withdrawn from a school for this purpose. i.e., the LEA is entitled to make informal enquiries of the parent(s).

    The only circumstances under which parents are under an obligation to inform the LEA of the intention to home educate a child concerns pupils registered at a special school where parents must seek the consent of the LEA, and pupils with dual enrolment at a school and LEA-run referral unit or special school, where the consent of both proprietors is required.

    LEA Duties

    The wording of the Act gives the LEA duties and powers to act only if something comes to its attention which gives it reason to suppose a breach of the parent's section 7 duty. It gives it no power or duty to investigate any instances of home education which come to its attention, unaccompanied by any grounds for suspicion that an adequate education is not taking place.

    However, case law (Phillips v Brown, Divisional Court [20 June 1980, unreported] Judicial review by Lord Justice Donaldson) has established that an LEA is entitled, though not required, to make informal enquiries of parents. Lord Donaldson said:

    "Of course such a request is not the same as a notice under s 37 (1) of the Education Act 1944 (now s 437 (1) of the 1996 Education Act) and the parents will be under no duty to comply. However it would be sensible for them to do so. If parents give no information or adopt the course .......... of merely stating that they are discharging their duty without giving any details of how they are doing so, the LEA will have to consider and decide whether it "appears" to it that the parents are in breach of s 36." (now s 7 of the 1996 Education Act.)

    [Page 3]

 .