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Nine questions that actually decide it, for Australian families — and honest about the three places this can end, because two of them are not home education.
Start the nine questions or read them all at once ↓First
A thinking tool for a decision most families make once, under pressure, with someone else’s opinion ringing in their ears. Work through it with both carers and — if they are old enough to have a view — your child.
The shape of it
Three places, and two of them are not home education. Most families who start this arrive somewhere they did not expect — which is the point of doing it properly.
Answer honestly rather than hopefully. A “no” is not a failed question — it is the specific thing to go and fix, and every one of them names what that is.
Prefer the whole map at once? It is printed below, and it is what comes out if you print this page.
What is actually driving this?
Be specific. The honest answer here changes what the rest of the questions mean — and it is the one families most often skip past.
Have you raised it with the school and given a fix a fair go?
Year coordinator, guidance officer, deputy or principal — and in writing, so there is a record of what was asked and what happened.
If not, start there. A documented request often gets a result, and it is also the evidence you will want later either way.
None of this commits you to staying. It costs a few weeks and it either fixes the problem or proves the problem cannot be fixed there.
Is at least one adult free to run the learning during school hours?
A parent, a co-parent, a grandparent, a tutor, an online teacher or a co-op — but somebody specific, not a hope.
Home education needs a named adult doing the work. Without one, distance education is the arrangement built for exactly this.
Home education requires an adult to deliver and supervise the learning, and your state will want that person named on the application. Distance education through a state school is the option designed for households that cannot supply it — a government school, delivered at home, with real teachers.
Can the household absorb it financially?
A likely drop in income, plus curriculum, resources, excursions, and any tutoring or co-op fees.
If money is tight, distance education is usually the lowest-cost path — it is a government school and it leads to a senior certificate.
Home education is rarely free, and the income side usually bites harder than the curriculum side. Distance education through a state school is the low-cost middle option and is worth pricing properly before you rule it out.
Are you willing to register and keep the records your state requires?
An application, a written learning plan, evidence of learning, and a review on their schedule rather than yours.
Home education is regulated everywhere in Australia. This is not optional, and it is the question most families underestimate.
Every Australian state and territory regulates home education. Keeping a child home without registration — or an exemption, in South Australia — can be treated as truancy or as a child protection matter. If the record-keeping is the objection, distance education or a different school carries none of it.
Is your child genuinely on board?
Buy-in matters at every age and becomes decisive from about ten. “Not resisting” is not the same as on board.
Forced home education rarely works. A short trial or a change of school usually answers this better than persuasion does.
Have the honest conversation instead of the persuasive one. Then consider a trial of a single term, or a different school first. This is a delay, not a refusal: come back to it once you actually know the answer.
Is there a real plan for friends and physical activity?
Sport, scouts, a faith group, a co-op, clubs, music, arts, a part-time job, volunteering, home education meet-ups.
Being cut off is the single biggest risk in home education — particularly for only children and families outside a town.
Losing touch with other kids is the number one thing that goes wrong in home education, and it goes wrong slowly enough that families do not notice for a year. Two anchors outside the house, already booked and paid for, before you withdraw — not “we will sort it out in term two”.
Have you mapped where this leads after Year 10?
A senior certificate, university entry, TAFE, an apprenticeship — or re-enrolling for Years 11 and 12.
Home-educated students do not sit a senior certificate and do not get an ATAR. The alternative routes are real, but they have their own timing.
Home-educated students in Australia do not receive an ATAR. The routes that do work — a TAFE diploma, Open Universities units, a foundation program, the STAT, mature-age entry, or re-enrolling for the senior years — have age limits and lead times. Read the section further down, then pick one.
Have you scored the trade-offs honestly?
The scorecard below puts both options side by side on the same ten factors. It takes about two minutes.
Fill in the scorecard. Within five points, the middle path is usually the right call; a gap of ten or more is a clear answer.
The scorecard is directly below this box. Rate all ten rows for both columns, read the totals, then come back and finish this question.
You told us safety or wellbeing is what is driving this. Whichever ending you land on, that part does not wait for a schooling decision — a GP and a professional first, and a written report to the school if anyone is at risk.
Because this started with learning needs: ask for the existing support plan in writing before you go. It is useful evidence for a home education application, and it is the thing a new school would want to see too.
Rate each row from 1 (low) to 5 (high) for both columns. It starts filled in with a middling example so you can see how it reads — change every row to your own family. The totals and the reading update as you go.
Before anything else
The Australian part
Home education is regulated in every Australian state and territory, and registration does not travel — moving interstate means starting again with the new authority. This table is who you contact. What they require changes, so treat the next list as the questions to ask them.
| Where you live | Who you deal with | What it is called |
|---|---|---|
| NSW | NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA), Home Schooling Unit | Registration |
| Victoria | Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority (VRQA) | Registration |
| Queensland | Department of Education, Home Education Unit | Registration |
| South Australia | Department for Education | An exemption from school attendance, not a registration |
| Western Australia | Department of Education, via your regional home education moderator | Registration |
| Tasmania | Office of the Education Registrar, advised by the Tasmanian Home Education Advisory Council | Registration |
| NT | Department of Education | Registration, reapplied for each year |
| ACT | ACT Education Directorate | Registration |
Keeping a child home without registration — or without an exemption, in South Australia — is not a grey area. It can be treated as truancy or as a child protection matter. Apply first, then withdraw from the school in writing.
Authority names checked 11 September 2026. Requirements change without much fanfare, so confirm with your own authority rather than with any page on the internet, this one included.
“Homeschooling” covers at least six different arrangements with different costs, different paperwork and different outcomes. Most families who think they want the first one actually want the second.
| Option | What it actually is in Australia |
|---|---|
| Home education | You register, you write the learning plan, you teach and you keep the records. Maximum flexibility, maximum responsibility. Your child does not sit a senior certificate through this route. |
| Distance education | A government school delivered to your home, with set curriculum and real teachers. Usually the lowest-cost middle path, and it leads to a recognised senior certificate. Eligibility rules vary by state. |
| Private school, online | A private school delivered over the internet. Structured and teacher-supported, with fees, and it enrols your child rather than leaving you responsible. |
| Co-op | Families share the teaching — one parent takes science, another art. Sits on top of registration rather than replacing it, and it is the best answer to the other-kids question. |
| Micro-school or pod | A small group with a hired teacher or rotating parents. Check carefully whether the arrangement is a registered school; if it is not, each family still registers individually. |
| Unschooling | Child-led, interest-driven learning. Legal, but you still have to describe it in a plan and evidence it against what your authority asks for — which is the part families underestimate. |
A home-educated student in Australia does not sit the senior certificate and does not receive an ATAR. That surprises families in Year 11, which is the worst possible time to find out.
It is not a dead end. Home-educated students get into Australian universities every year. It just means a different door, and the doors have their own timing and age rules — so pick one while your child is in Year 9 or 10, not Year 12.
Pick two or three courses your child might plausibly want, find their admissions page, and read what they say about applicants without an ATAR. Fifteen minutes in Year 9 is worth more than a year of worrying in Year 12.
Whatever you decide, deciding on purpose beats drifting. That is most of what this page is for.
Pass it on
Send them this page. It is free, nothing on it is recorded, and it works just as well for a family who ends up staying exactly where they are.
And if you land on ending three and want a hand shaping the learning plan and keeping the records, that is the part ParkSyde Learning is for. How we support families who home educate →
Support, not a school. Whatever you decide, registration stays between you and your state’s home education unit, and you stay in charge.