Home Schooling Consultative Group meeting – 18 September 2020

None

None declared

HSCG member feedback has been incorporated into the draft amendments to the Guidelines for Home Schooling Registration in NSW. The draft amendments will be published shortly on the NESA website together with a report, which summarises feedback from the 2019 survey. An online survey will also be published on the NESA website to seek feedback on the draft amendments. The survey will remain open until 11 October 2020.

Action arising: NESA to report on preliminary findings of the survey at the next HSCG meeting.

Temporary changes to the home schooling registration process remain in place, given the ongoing nature of the COVID-19 pandemic. Members provided feedback in relation to the current process, to help inform NESA’s review of the temporary approach.

Action arising: NESA to consider member feedback.

An update on the number of applications received to date this year was provided along with data from the same period in 2019 for comparison. It was noted that the data reflects a significant increase in the number of children registered for home schooling.

Action arising: Nil

6a. Part-time school enrolment

Members were informed that the NSW Department of Education had written to NESA confirming that the NSW Education Act 1990 does not allow for a student to be enrolled in more than one provision.

Action arising: Nil

6b. Access to distance education

A member expressed the view that many parents of children with a disability chose to home school because they were ineligible for distance education and asked if NESA could represent this view with the NSW Department of Education.

Action arising: NESA to consider this request as relevant to NESA’s function for home schooling registration.

6c. National Forum

NESA recently attended an online meeting of home schooling regulators from all states and territories. Experiences of responding to the impact of COVID-19 in differing regulatory contexts were shared.

Action arising: Nil