Can I just deregister my child from school?

Yes. In England, parents have a legal right to deregister a child to home educate, and schools cannot refuse. You notify the school in writing, and the school is required to remove your child from the register under Regulation 13 of the School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024. The only narrow exception is if your child has an EHCP naming a special school, where the local authority must agree to the deregistration first.

How much notice do I need to give the school to deregister?

There is no statutory notice period for most children in England. A written notification to the headteacher is enough, and under Regulation 13 of the School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024 the school must remove your child from the register on receipt of that letter. You can set the effective date as the same day you send. The only situation in which an LA must agree before deregistration takes effect is where a child has an EHCP naming a special school.

What should I write in the deregistration letter?

No prescribed format exists in English law. A short letter or email to the headteacher is enough, including your child's full name and date of birth, the effective date, and a clear statement that you are withdrawing your child to home educate under Section 7 of the Education Act 1996. You don't need to explain your reasons, describe your curriculum, or list qualifications. Keep a copy for your records.

What happens after I deregister my child from school?

The school removes your child from the register. The local authority's elective home education team will usually be in contact at some point after that, often by letter, weeks later, as a matter of routine. This is not an investigation. You are not required to allow home visits, follow the National Curriculum, or have teaching qualifications. The LA can make informal enquiries if they have specific concerns about the education being provided, but not as routine monitoring.

Do I have to follow the National Curriculum when home educating?

No. Home-educating parents in England are not required to follow the National Curriculum, keep school hours, or use any particular teaching method. Section 7 of the Education Act 1996 requires a "suitable" education for the child's age, ability, aptitude, and any special educational needs, but does not define that in curriculum terms. The DfE's 2019 guidance for parents confirms this. You have significant flexibility in how you structure learning.

Getting started

How to take your child out of school to home educate: what UK families need to know

Jon Hewines

23rd Apr 20266 min read

Taking your child out of school in England is a legal right, and the process is shorter than almost anyone expects. You write to the school, the school removes your child from the register, and you become a home-educating family. No permission is required. The school cannot refuse.

If that sounds too simple, that's because the fear around deregistration is usually bigger than the paperwork. Most of the anxiety parents carry into this moment comes from not knowing exactly what the law says, what the local authority can and can't do, and what the first few weeks are supposed to look like. Let's walk through each of those, one at a time.

Deregistration is simpler than most parents expect

A lot of parents worry that deregistration will be a battle: that schools will push back, that the LA will want to vet them first, that they'll have to prove something before they can start. In reality, none of that is in the law.

Under Section 7 of the Education Act 1996, parents of every child of compulsory school age have a legal duty to secure an efficient, suitable, full-time education, "either by regular attendance at school or otherwise." The word "otherwise" is what makes home education legal.

To move from school to home education, you deregister. In practical terms, that means writing to your child's current school with clear notice that you are withdrawing your child to home educate. The school is then legally required to remove your child from the admission register.

The precise legal basis for this sits in Regulation 13 of the School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024. On receipt of written notification from a parent that their child is being home educated, the school must remove the child from the register. Removal is mandatory, not discretionary. The headteacher does not have authority to refuse, delay, or impose conditions.

There is one narrow exception, flagged in the callout below.

Writing the letter to the headteacher

There is no prescribed format for a deregistration letter in English law. A short, clear statement is enough. You do not need to explain your reasons, list your qualifications, or describe what you plan to teach. The school does not have authority to require any of that.

A workable letter includes:

Your child's full name and date of birth
The date you want the deregistration to take effect (typically immediate)
A clear statement that you are withdrawing your child to home educate, under Section 7 of the Education Act 1996
Your signature and the date

Email to the headteacher is fine and is usually the fastest route. Keep a copy for your own records. You can send the letter the same day you make the decision. There is no waiting period built into the law.

What the school does next

The school removes your child from the register

Once your letter is received, the school must remove your child from the register. The regulation doesn't specify a time limit, but the removal itself is an administrative step that follows the notification. The school's duty is triggered by your letter, not by any internal review process on their side.

The local authority finds out

After the school removes your child from the register, the local authority's elective home education team will normally be in contact at some point. You do not need to write to the local authority separately. In practice, the LA finds out about the change through normal school-LA communication. If you want to introduce yourself directly, you can, but there's no legal requirement to.

You should get written confirmation

You should receive written confirmation from the school that your child has been removed from the register. If you don't hear anything within a week, a short follow-up email is reasonable. The school's legal duty to remove does not depend on their acknowledgement of you (the removal must happen regardless), but having confirmation in writing is worth asking for.

Attendance rules end immediately

From the moment of removal, your child is no longer subject to the school's attendance rules. No fines, no absence marks, no truancy concerns. The school's authority over your child's education ends at the register.

When the local authority gets in touch

It is normal and expected for the local authority's elective home education team to make contact after you deregister. For most families, this is a letter or an email some weeks later. This is not an investigation, a challenge, or a sign that anything is wrong. It is routine.

The DfE's Elective Home Education guidance for parents (April 2019) sets out that local authorities can make informal enquiries where they have reason to believe a child is not receiving a suitable education. These enquiries are proportionate to concern; they are not a power to inspect, assess, or monitor home-educating families as a matter of routine. Section 437 of the Education Act 1996 is the separate enforcement mechanism that only activates if an LA has serious, evidenced concerns about suitability. It is not what a first LA letter is doing.

What this means in practice:

You are not required to allow a home visit. You can decline, and offer other ways to show what your child is learning (for example, a written description, photographs of work, or a meeting in a neutral location).
You are not required to follow any particular curriculum, timetable, or assessment schedule.
You are not required to have formal teaching qualifications.
You are not required to respond to every piece of LA correspondence immediately, though a polite, clear reply when you do respond keeps the relationship straightforward.

Your LA may have specific local guidance on how they run their home education team. GOV.UK's contact your local council tool is the quickest way to find your council's page. Your LA may differ in style and tone from another LA a few miles away; the underlying legal framework is the same either way.

If the LA has a genuine reason to believe the education you are providing is not suitable, the process it can follow under s.437 is spelled out in law. It starts with written notice, and only as a last resort a School Attendance Order. This is not the normal path. For the vast majority of families who deregister, the LA's first contact is also its only meaningful one in any given year.

The first weeks do not need to look like school

In our conversations with home-educating parents, the biggest anxiety in the first days after deregistration is often the sense that you should already be running a mini-school at home. You don't. There is no legal minimum number of hours, and there is no requirement to follow the National Curriculum. Section 7's "suitable education" is defined by fit to the child (their age, ability, aptitude, and any special educational needs), not by a timetable.

For many families, the first weeks look more like decompression than teaching. Children who have been unhappy or unwell at school often need time before they're ready to learn formally again. That recovery time is not lost time; it is the foundation everything else is built on. The DfE guidance for parents makes clear that there is no prescribed structure, and that parents are free to shape the approach around their child.

When you are ready to add more structure, you can; when you aren't, you don't have to. There is no inspector at the door on Monday morning.

You are not the only one finding your way

If you're reading this on the evening of the day you sent the letter, or the night before you plan to, or in the anxious weeks afterwards: you are part of a much larger group of families than it feels like from where you're sitting. According to DfE figures, 71,500 children started home education in England in 2023/24 alone. Many of their parents describe exactly what you're feeling now.

Termly is being built to help home-educating families in the UK find each other, find local groups, and find trusted information without having to piece it together from scratch. If the idea of a calmer route through the first months is useful, you can join our mailing list for updates as we build - new articles like this one, and news about the app itself. No cost, no pressure.

Sources

Education Act 1996, Section 7. Parental duty to secure an efficient, suitable, full-time education. legislation.gov.uk
Education Act 1996, Section 437. Local authority enforcement mechanism (School Attendance Orders). legislation.gov.uk
School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024, Regulation 13. Mandatory removal from the school register on notification of home education. legislation.gov.uk
Department for Education: Elective Home Education, Guidance for Parents (April 2019). Non-statutory departmental guidance on the legal position, local authority enquiries, and suitable education. assets.publishing.service.gov.uk
Department for Education: Elective Home Education statistics (2023/24). Source for the 71,500 figure cited above.
GOV.UK: Home education. gov.uk/home-education
GOV.UK: Contact your local council about home schooling. gov.uk/home-schooling-information-council