Qld home-schooling faces shake-up under new laws

Queensland’s schooling laws will be overhauled – this is what it all means.

Queensland’s home-schooling laws will be overhauled in the wake of the number of students learning at home nearly tripling since the Covid-19 pandemic, with increased scrutiny on what education parents were providing.

The new laws were introduced to Parliament on Wednesday by Education Minister Di Farmer, and would require home education programs align with the national curriculum.

The new laws would also tackle the issue of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and students with a disability facing far greater rates of suspension than their peers, with new support measures written into legislation.

Ms Farmer said the changes would mean parents or caregivers would now also be required to provide a summary of the planned home education program at the time of registering for home-schooling.

Flaws in the state’s home-schooling program were recently brought to light during The Courier-Mail’s Prayed Upon series, exposing Queensland cults and revealing some were keeping their children home-schooled with limited or no departmental supervision.

The number of Queensland students being home-schooled has skyrocketed beyond 10,000, with parents not currently required to deliver programs aligned with the curriculum.

“Since 2019, we have seen a 195 per cent increase in the number of students registering for home education,” Ms Farmer said.

“Noting these high numbers, it is more important than ever that students are undertaking a high-quality program, and that the legislation provides safeguards for student wellbeing.”

Ms Farmer also said a key part of the new laws would be the establishment of a new “guiding principle” that home education be in the best interests of the child or young person.

“(It is) something I’m confident Queensland families and home educators will support,” she said.

“(The Bill) also sets out that home education programs in Queensland must be consistent with the Australian Curriculum or Queensland syllabus, or senior subjects consistent with approaches in other jurisdictions.”

Among the other new education laws introduced by the government were changes to decisions around school disciplinary absences, including clear time frames for SDA decisions.

The new laws would give appeal rights to students who had accumulated 11 or more school days of short suspensions within a year, as opposed to the current provision, which limits appeals to those related to long suspensions of 11 to 20 days.

“Right now, the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and students with a disability receiving suspension and exclusion is higher than the rest of the cohort,” Ms Farmer said.

“We need to do something different if we are to provide equal opportunities and address this unacceptable pattern.”

The new laws would introduce a new legislative requirement for a student support planning framework for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, students with a disability and prep students who were suspended or excluded.