Elective home education

Elective home education means you take full responsibility for your child's education instead of a school. It is legal in all four UK nations, though the exact rules and the council Local authority Your local council. In England, Wales and Scotland, this is the body you ask to assess what extra help your child needs. Read the full definition of Local authority 's powers differ in each.

Before deciding, it helps to know what changes. Once your child comes off a school roll, the local authority usually stops providing education and any funded support that came through the school, and getting a school place back later can be hard. Taking a child off the roll of a special school has extra rules. Home education should be a positive choice you make freely: if a school suggests it to avoid excluding your child or because it says it cannot cope, you do not have to agree, and it is worth getting independent advice first.