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Many aspects of the documents issued by BELB are misleading at best. Throughout, there is an assumption that it is necessary to seek permission to home-educate; this is not true. NI legislation places on a parent an obligation to make educational provision "either by regular attendance at school or otherwise". Education provided "otherwise" does not require permission or monitoring.
The Guidelines repeatedly mention "proposals" to home-educate; there is no need for any "proposal": NI law does not suggest any requirement for permission, therefore no Education Board has the authority to give (or deny) permission for home-education. Likewise, there is no legal requirement to follow the NI Curriculum (nor any formal curriculum), nor to have any particular number of hours of formal study.
The Board has no right of access to the home or the child, and to insist on such contravenes many aspects of human rights legislation.
If your child is registered at school, you should inform the school of your intention to home-educate. If your child is not registered at a school, you have no legal obligation to inform the Board. There is nothing in NI law which says you need the permission of the Board.
The "Home Education Programme Form", which BELB requests that parents complete before beginning home-education, asks for the reasons for wishing to home-educate, for details of the planned curriculum, and for a timetable. None of these is required by law, and indeed the inclusion of a timetable to be completed suggests a complete lack of understanding of the differences between education at home and education in the school setting.
Deregistration
HEdNI has asked for documentation to support the claim that pupils may not be deregistered for the purpose of home-education. BELB has offered two documents to support its stance on this point. The first - DENI Circular 1994/15 - is no longer in force, and has been superseded by DENI Circular 1995/19. Although this Circular does indeed list a specific and limited number of situations in which a school may deregister a child, it does not address the issue of deregistration *initiated by a parent*. Parents do not waive their right to home-educate in the future when they register their children at school. It is also important to note that the purpose of a Circular is to clarify the legislation; it cannot add to or take away from legislation.The second document offered by BELB to support their assertion that it is not possible to deregister a child from a school in NI is the Statutory Rules 1978, Number 78. This document may be downloaded here. It does not specifically address home-education. On the issue of deregistration in general, it says:
6 (1) A parent shall not withdraw his child from a school at which the child is a registered pupil except after acquainting the principal with his intention to do so.
It is clear from this statement that the parent has the right to withdraw his child from school. It does not place any limits on the circumstances under which that withdrawal might take place.
6 (2) Upon the withdrawal from school of a registered pupil the principal shall furnish to the parent in respect of the pupil a certificate of attendance as in Form S.A.I. in the schedule and shall at the same time delete from the General Register the name of the pupil.
This clearly states that when a parent has withdrawn a child from school, the principal must remove the child's name from the register.
It is difficult to see how this could be interpreted as saying that a parent may not initiate deregistration.