Information Sheet for Home Educators in Tasmania

Transcription

1 HOME EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, Inc. PO Box 245 Petersham NSW Information Sheet for Home Educators in Tasmania How the Draft Tasmanian Education Bill 2016 could affect you: This Bill reflects a fundamental shift in the governance of home education, moving the locus of control over home education to unelected civil servants with no personal experience or expertise in how learning occurs in a home education context. The Draft Bill is a 319-page document that will shape all aspects of education, both schooling and home education, for the next generation. Here are the key parts of the Act that will impact home educators: 1. The Act will establish a new Statutory office called the Registrar, Home Education. The Registrar will have wide powers to oversee, assess, approve, place conditions upon, amend or cancel your registration to home educate. This new statutory body is not independent of the Department of Education (DoE) as demonstrated by the following: The Bill defines both the Registrar, Home Education, and the Registrar, Nongovernment schools as the Compulsory Schooling Registrar, which suggests these roles will be closely linked or even performed by the same person (Section 5 ). Having a Registrar who is responsible for registering non-government schools simultaneously performing the role of Registrar, Home Education diminishes the regulatory independence home education has had in Tasmania for more than two decades. This would seem to move Tasmania closer to the NSW model where attempts to assess home educating families according to criteria developed from a schooling/institutional mind-set, have caused much angst, difficulty and rejection of the system by many home educators. The Registrar, Home Education, will be required to report annually to the Secretary of the DoE (Section 217). The Registrar, Home Education, is not permitted under the Bill to employ any staff (Section 214) and so staff and services will be provided to the office of the Registrar, Home Education, by the Secretary of the DoE (Section 236). These staff are not precluded from having duties in other divisions of the DoE at the same time as performing work for the Registrar, Home Education. The Registrar, Home Education, also has the power to delegate his or her functions and powers to a State Service officer or State Service employee employed in the DoE (Section 218).

2 2. Both the parent AND the home education program will need to be registered by the Registrar of Home Education. When a parent applies to home educate, the Registrar, Home Education, in consultation with THEAC, will determine whether the parent should be granted full (ongoing) registration, temporary registration, registration subject to certain conditions, or to deny registration. Where registration is granted, the Registrar, Home Education, will issue the parent a Certificate of Registration as a home educator (Section 62) and enter their name and details on the state Register of home educators and approved home education programs. (Section 215) Home Education programs will also need to be submitted and assessed at least annually for each home educated child. The Registrar will have the power to assess these at any time to ensure that they continue to meet the standards prescribed by regulations (Section 72). If parents wish to amend their home education program they will have to apply to the Registrar (Section 70). The Registrar is also given the power to amend home education programs (Section 73) or to impose further conditions on the program whenever the Registrar considers it in the best interests of the child/youth (Section 69). 3. THEAC will be less involved in reviewing Home Education and Summary Plans (HESPs). According to the DoE fact sheet, this role will be given to Registration Officers reporting to the Registrar, Home Education. The Bill requires only that the Registrar, Home Education, consult THEAC in relation to the proposed home education program/hesp (Section 60). Since THEAC has recently stated that it is not sustainable to manage the review of programmes on a volunteer basis it may be that most of the HESPs will be entirely processed by Registration Officers without input from THEAC. Under our current system, HESPs are reviewed by several THEAC board members representing a range of experience, skills and perspectives. HESPs are also seen and checked by an experienced monitoring officer. If we transition to a system in which most of the applications in a region are assessed by a single individual, this could leave families vulnerable to bias, particularly if the registration officer has gaps in their knowledge or understanding of home education philosophy and methods or strongly favours one approach. Tasmania has more accountability, fairness and greater balance under our existing system than under the proposed Act.

3 4. Registration Officers will be required to have an education qualification but not any personal experience in home education. The DoE s Fact Sheet - Home Education states that registration officers must have education qualifications but only an understanding of the ethos of home education. These requirements are not described in the Draft Act but it seems probable that the DoE intends to prescribe the prerequisites for registration officers in regulations. This is a concern because 1) the regulations have not yet been written so we are unable to examine them and, 2) regulations are relatively easily changed. We are (most likely) going to lose our existing monitoring officers if this legislation is enacted. Our current highly experienced, skilled and widely trusted monitoring officers do not have education qualifications. In other states, assessment of home education programs by people without personal experience of home education, or a deep knowledge of home education, commonly makes the registration process difficult and stressful. In Tasmania, most home educators enjoy their monitoring visits because the monitoring officers are supportive of and knowledgeable about home education. This is arguably the characteristic of the Tasmanian home education registration system that has given Tasmania the reputation as the best place in the country to home educate. 5. Educational plans will be assessed by Registration Officers against defined standards. These standards will be defined in regulations that are yet to be written and so it is unknown what they might contain (Section 248). THEAC s Home Educator representatives are in the early stages of developing a consultative process that will allow all home educators in Tasmania to have their say on some broad standards or principles that should characterise a good home education program, without prescribing a particular pedagogy. The DoE will have the final say on these standards and will be drafting the regulations of which the standards form a part. 6. This Bill further weakens the knowledgeable oversight of home education in Tasmania by changing the rules governing the selection of candidates for THEAC. Up until now, three places on the council board have been specifically reserved for representatives chosen from within the home education community. The other four positions have been filled by Ministerial appointees. The Draft Bill requires the Minister to appoint at least one council member from within the DoE. In appointing the remaining 2-6 members, the Minister is merely required to consider the desirability of having as members persons with experience or skills in (i) home education; and (ii) education generally (Section 232).

4 There is therefore, no guarantee that future THEAC boards will always have even one member with home education experience. This means that THEAC would not be able to offer knowledgeable advice on home education to the Registrar or to the Minister. Right now, the DoE is assuring THEAC that there will be no requirement for home educators to follow a particular syllabus or to participate in standardised testing or to follow any particular educational philosophy (eg. natural learning, curriculum-based learning and so on). However, under this legislation, THEAC may lose its power to speak authoritatively in favour of a continued acceptance of diverse educational philosophies. The combination of a less representative advisory council and the employment of Registration Officers who have little knowledge and no personal experience of home education, may make it impossible for any fair and accurate assessments of education programs (HESPs) to be made. Experience in other states has shown that those whose educational philosophy diverges most from school at home will experience difficulties with such assessments. 7. New applications to home educate must be submitted to the Registrar by the end of Term 3 in the year prior to the calendar year in which the child would start home education (Section 67). This means that parents who fail to submit their application by this date, may have to keep their child in school for an additional period of up to 15 months before they are able to legally commence home education. There are many reasons why a child may need to be withdrawn from school at short notice in order to be home educated.the inclusion of this unworkable requirement in the Draft Bill is a symptom of a greater problem - which is that massive changes to home education regulation have been proposed without any meaningful consultation with stakeholders. 8. From 2021, the starting age for compulsory education, including home education registration, will drop by 6 months. Children who turn 5 by 30 June 2021 will need to be registered for home education or enrolled in Prep at the commencement of the 2021 school year (Section 10). 9. From 2020 a young person must remain in full-time education or training through an approved learning program until they complete Year 12, gain a certificate III, finish an apprenticeship or turn 18 (unless they are in full-time employment, defined as 35 hrs/week) (Section 9).

5 10. The Registrar has the power to deny an application to home educate in regard to children who have been absent from school for more than 20 days in the 12 month period leading up to their application to start home education (Section 60). It is common for children who are withdrawn from school to be home educated because of bullying, anxiety, chronic disengagement due to boredom, or various medical conditions, to have had many days absent from school. While, this provision doesn t automatically disqualify the parents from obtaining registration to home educate, it would give the Registrar power to deny registration solely on the basis of school absenteeism. The Registrar may be persuaded by schools that denying registration is in the child s best interests in situations where a child s special needs have been difficult to accommodate in the school resulting in absences and conflict between the family and the school. Additionally, a school may be reluctant to let go of a student with special needs because of the funding implications. This provision of the Bill may prevent children who desperately need home education from being registered. 11. School Principals will have the power to access private medical and other information about children enrolled in their schools (including part-time home-educated children) and to require children to be examined by a DoE-nominated medical practitioner (Section 55). Examination by a specified medical practitioner may be required if the child has a history of absenteeism due to a medical condition or if parents refuse to divulge a child s medical information (and the principal believes the child s behaviour may put the child or others at risk of harm). The first scenario is of particular concern in situations where the child has an unusual or difficult to diagnose medical condition which may not be recognised by the doctor specified by the Registrar. In such cases, the DoE may consider the reasons given for a child s absence to be illegitimate and therefore the parents may be prohibited from registering to home educate. 12. Part-time enrolment in school will be allowed for home-educated students as long as the majority of their education program is delivered by the parent (Sections 74, and also 67,70, 75). School principals would evaluate part-time enrolment applications according to a set of guidelines (permission for part-time enrolment is not guaranteed). In order to access parttime school, a parent may be required show that they cannot adequately teach the subject in question themselves. This would bar children from participation in a school course if their parents have the capacity to teach that skill adequately at home. There may be many other valid reasons for a child or youth to choose to study at school part-time. In addition, the parameters which the Bill imposes on this part-time enrolment option do not allow for

6 situations where the child s educational needs would be best suited to a majority school attendance with a minority home education component or where a gradual move from fulltime home education to full-time school would best support the student s individual needs. Concerningly, where students are part-time schooled, principals would report to the Registrar, Home Education, on the child s attendance and completion or non-completion of the school course. Non-completion would trigger an assessment of the home education program (but not of the school) (Section 77) and failure to attend would be subject to fines (Section 75) unless the student has been excused or exempted from attendance If families wish to change their home education plan they will have to apply to the Registrar, Home Education for permission to do so. The Registrar is required to check that the requested amendment satisfies the standards that will be set down in regulations and also to consult with THEAC about the application to amend a program. The amended program will then be recorded in the Register of Home Educators and Approved Home Education Programs maintained by the Registrar, Home Education (Section 215). At present, families are able to make progressive adjustments in their home education programs provided they are able to justify these modifications at their next monitoring visit and in their subsequent HESP. 14. The Registrar will have the power to override a parent s home education decisions if they believe this is in the best interests of the child or youth (Section 61). This provision may be applied at any time. This effectively gives one individual, the Registrar for Home Education, enormous power over a family. What s the significance of these changes? The Home Education Association (HEA) believes that the following issues are most significant and should be raised with the government. This Draft Education Act has been developed without proper consultation with the wider home education community. This is evidenced in aspects of the Act 1) being completely unworkable (e.g. applications for home education having to be submitted at a particular time of year);

7 2) showing a lack of recognition of characteristics of home educated children (e.g. that many have poor school attendance records because of special needs); and 3) being highly unacceptable to home educators (e.g. removing home education expertise as a mandatory requirement for assessors). The vast majority of changes to home education included in this Act have come as a complete shock to the home education community. Broad consultation with the home education community is needed before any changes are made to the regulation of home education in Tasmania. This Draft Act represents a major philosophical shift. Until now, Tasmania has had a highly effective model for home education regulation with an independent THEAC monitoring and assessing home education programs and reporting directly to the Minister of Education. By contrast, the Draft Act effectively places home education under the regulation of the DoE. Since education within a family is very different from education within an institution it is inappropriate for home education to be managed and assessed by an education official whose main roles will be the regulation of non-government schools and the prevention of school truancy (i.e. Compulsory Schooling Registrar). The regulation of home education should remain the responsibility of a completely separate and independent body with specific expertise in assessing home education. Any individual conducting assessments of home education plans and programs must have extensive personal experience of home education (10+ years), be knowledgeable about the breadth of educational philosophies and methods utilised in home education practice and recognise the validity of a diversity of styles of education including, but not limited, to natural learning, curriculum-based learning, theme-based approaches, eclectic styles and school at home. They may also have formal educational qualifications, but it is unacceptable for Registration Officers not to have extensive personal experience of home education. Part-time schooling options should allow for more flexibility across the spectrum from full-time home education to full-time school attendance. Gaps in a student s school attendance record should not be a sufficient reason for refusing to register children for home education. No bureaucrat should be given the power to determine what is in the best interests of a home educated child any more than they should have the power to determine what is in the best interests of a school educated child. It is widely understood that intrusion of the state into families and removal of parental rights to decide what is best for their children should only occur in extreme cases and with due process. The Tasmanian home education system is the most successful in Australia. It simultaneously has a high level of oversight and a high level of acceptability to home educators. This means, that unlike every other state, we have very few people who are outside the system. Ill-advised changes to the system are likely to reduce oversight by reducing parental engagement with the system.

8 What can you do about it? In order of priority: Contact each of your local members in both Houses of the Tasmanian Parliament over the next 3 weeks asking for a review of the whole Bill or of the specific parts that most concern you. Please consider including the above points of concern from the HEA in your communications. Write letters. (hold letter-writing parties with your home educating friends or in your co-ops). Phone all your local members Make appointments to visit your local members. You could team up with one or two other home educators and take your most confident home educated children with you. Contact Details for members of the Tasmanian Parliament can be found at: Lower House/House of Assembly Members: Upper House/Legislative Council Members: If you are not sure who your own local members are, type your address into Some Tips on Writing to your M.P.s: Introduce yourself and your family. Briefly explain why you home educate at the beginning of the letter. Keep your message focused on the changes that most personally concern you. Put your key message up front and include a short pithy story from your own experience. Be respectful. Make your case without being antagonistic or aggressive. In order to increase the likelihood of getting an open-minded hearing avoid: saying that the government is seeking to ban home education (they re not) using the term unschooling (experience in other states has been that parliamentarians get very confused by this term. It is better to say natural learning or child-led learning) criticising the national curriculum or the school system in general Don t CC other people into an to an M.P. or your s will probably just end up in a junk folder. Join the Home Education Association (HEA), a national not-for-profit organisation run by home educators for home educators. HEA is already working for you and has made submissions to the DoE during the review process but needs the support of membership. If you are interested in helping the HEA in facilitate lobbying please contact: lobby@hea.edu.au Complete the feedback survey on the DoE s website by 13 May. and/or your comments directly to: comments@education.tas.gov.au Keep up to date by contacting any of the following: the HEA website ( Facebook pages such as Tasmanian Home Education Supporters. your local or regional home education groups such as:

9 Hobart Home Educators Group Home Education Network (HEN) [ a regional advocacy and support network based in Victoria,] HEA contact in Launceston: martinhamilton.yiah@gmail.com HEA contact in Hobart and Swanston St HomeSchool Group co-ordinator (lyndacarlos@bigpond.com) Home Ed Works (in Hobart) home.ed.works@gmail.com) HEA contact on the east coast of Tasmania: emmalee1509@gmail.com Attend an HEA information meeting in your region (Dates to be announced HEA website) o 27/04/2016, 1pm-4pm - Swanston St Children's Centre, 80 Swanston St, New Town, TAS lyndacarlos@bigpond.com Tamara Kelly, HEA President and the HEA 2016 Committee Members 22 April