The Education and Training Reform Act 2006, came into effect in Victoria on 1st July 2007.
It requires home educators to: “register children for homeschooling in accordance with the regulations and to ensure that the child receives instruction in accordance with the regulations.”

There are two levels of legal requirements for home education:
– the Legislation (The Education and Training Reform Act 2006) and
– the Regulations.

This means that it is now the law to register your child if you are home educating in Victoria.

Failure to register is effectively breaking the law.

Details of the legislation and regulations are available above.

Registration is a decision for individual families, and will not affect families’ membership of HEN.

The information below should assist you in your decision…

How to register

Registration is a simple process.

Registration forms can be obtained from the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority (VRQA).

You fill in your form and send it off to the VRQA together with proof of your child’s birthdate. You will receive your registration certificate within 14 days. You cannot be fined for truancy whilst waiting for your registration to be processed.

You will receive a renewal form once a year to confirm you are still home educating. If you cease home educating, you must advise the VRQA.

There is no fee payable for registration.

To contact the VQRA: Telephone: (03) 9637 2806, Fax: (03) 9637 2422, Email: vrqa@edumail.vic.gov.au or visit the VRQA website.

Why register?

The law requires it. It is a serious thing to break the law.

The regulations and processes are not intrusive.

• The only new requirement is the necessity to register.  All other requirements are effectively unchanged, and Victorian home education law remains among the least restrictive regimes in Australia.
• You are required to provide regular and efficient instruction that broadly covers the 8 key learning areas, but do not have to follow the state curriculum or VELS. Note that you are not required to cover all the KLAs every year e.g. you could not do LOTE and still be considered to be complying with the regulations.
• You are also required to teach in accordance with the “Australian values” recited in the Act, which are expressed very generally and include openness, tolerance, freedom of religion, acceptance of democratic principles and the rule of law.
• You do not have to submit any kind of lesson plans or curriculum for approval. You can home educate using any method you choose, including natural learning. You will not be told what to teach your children.
• There are no home visits.

The Powers of the VRQA are limited

• At present, the VRQA will only seek to review a household’s program (including inspection of materials etc) if it has reasonable grounds to believe that there is non compliance. This process will be triggered by specific complaints. Complaints must be in writing. It is anticipated that parents will be notified of any concern in writing and will have an opportunity to respond (and if necessary, rectify any non compliance). At this point, it would be of great assistance to be able to demonstrate compliance by records made by the parent.
• Suspension or cancellation of registration should only occur once these opportunities have been given. That decision can then be reviewed in VCAT if the parent disagrees.

Other benefits of registration

• Registered home educators are exempt from the Welfare to Work requirements and will be entitled to the School Start allowance and will be able to access Distance Education materials.
• It is also hoped that lobbying will result in the granting of student concession cards.
• It is also hoped that as home education has now been explicitly recognized as an alternative to formal schooling, universities may put processes in place to assess and admit home educated children.
• Registered home educators will be in a better position to promote home education to others, and in public forums.

If you don’t register

If you fail to register your child for school or home education, you are committing a criminal offence. You are breaking the law and are liable to be fined and have a conviction imposed. Apart from the financial burden, a criminal conviction can lead to other difficulties, for instance, in some employment contexts.

Any fine would be based on a calculation of $110 per day of non compliance, although depending on the number of days and the financial position of the family, it may be reduced.

The old “defence” of providing “efficient and regular instruction” (which applied under The Education Act of 1958) will no longer be available. The primary requirement of the law is the obligation to register.

If prosecuted, it would be particularly important to be able to produce records showing adequate instruction, not because this would provide a defence, but because it may reduce any penalty imposed for failing to register. Conversely, if a parent has failed to register and also fails to demonstrate (to a skeptical magistrate) that their children have nonetheless been well educated, the offence would be viewed more seriously.

Further, unregistered home educators may have problems obtaining Centrelink payments for school age children as the Federal Government has recently outlined plans to link payments to school attendance.

What to do?

Although many home educating parents worked hard to prevent the law from changing, two things should be borne in mind. First, the law has changed and we must now deal with the law as it stands. Second, and most importantly, the changes to the law have, in practice, been much less onerous and restrictive than had been feared. Victorian Home Educators are still in a very good position to get on with the job of raising and educating their children to a high standard. It is important that we don’t throw away the freedoms that we still hold.

Home educating parents are thoughtful and responsible. The education of  our children demands no less.

Now, more than ever, it is important to demonstrate that responsibility and seriousness of purpose. We do not want to see further more restrictive regulations being imposed, but non compliance may provoke that result. Further, it is important that home educating parents are seen by both government and the general community as being credible. This will be very important if the time comes to argue against further change, but it may be harder to win future battles if we are seen as unreasonable and irresponsible because of non compliance.

It’s your decision, make it a good one.