Queensland’s home-school regulator needs overhaul, review finds

The news

Queensland should overhaul its home-education regulator to better support the massive increase in families taking the alternative approach to schooling, an independent review has recommended.

The review has called for the renamed Queensland Home Education to be informed by a group of regional parent representatives appointed for two-year terms, including Indigenous parents.

Home-schooling numbers in Queensland have more than tripled since before the COVID pandemic, with 10,048 students registered last year.Credit: iStock

Led by Deborah Dunstone, a former Education Department assistant director-general and principal, the review also proposes improving and expanding existing templates for reporting a student’s progress.

Trialling new combined written and online interview-based parental updates is also recommended, along with boosting the resources available to parents and information around compliance.

Departmental efforts to request student and teacher educational discounts for home-schooling families, along with cheaper access to places like museums, galleries and sports venues, are also recommended.

Why it matters

The review was sparked after Education Minister Di Farmer dumped planned changes to home-schooling in Queensland, which would have forced parents to teach the Australian curriculum.

That proposal, which also included asking parents to provide an annual report on their child’s progress in each subject, was fiercely opposed by the home-schooling community.

This opposition led Farmer to dump major parts of draft laws in April – along with the ability of a parent to appeal against a short state-school suspension – warning of “unintended consequences”.

Home-schooling numbers in Queensland, which are likely under-reported, have more than tripled since before the COVID pandemic, with 10,048 students registered last year, up from 3411 in 2019.

What they said

“Queensland has a vibrant and growing home education community,” Dunstone wrote in the conclusion to her 56-page final report, set to be published by the government in coming days.

But she noted that the “vital” regulation of the sector by the Home Education Unit (HEU), and the scope of its work, needed change “in a time of rapid growth”.

“HEU resources have been prioritised to meet the demands of registration and reporting associated with the increasing number of children registered for home education,” she said.

“The recommendations aim to expand and enhance supports intended to reduce the regulatory burden for both families and HEU staff, enabling success for home-educated children and young people.”

She said the expanded role of the unit, to be renamed Queensland Home Education, was “central” to this, with the “critical” need to engage an “educational leader” to drive the transformation.

“Importantly, this report is not inclusive of all issues, nor all solutions. The recommended ongoing communication and consultative mechanisms will strengthen relations … [with] the home educating community.”

Reviewer Deborah Dunstone

What you need to know

The government is expected to accept all eight of Dunstone’s recommendations.

Consultation for the review included the Home Education Expert Group, made up of 12 parents whose children are registered for home-schooling, focus groups of more than 120 people statewide, meetings with sector groups and experts, and a survey of almost 1200 parents with registered children.

Its terms of reference did not allow it to consider legislative changes, nor proposed changes among those dumped by the government recommended by the Child Death Annual Review Board to strengthen oversight of children registered for home education.

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