It was not a choice I wanted to make: the SEND families turning to home education

For a growing group of parents, home education did not begin as a philosophy. It began as the only option left after a school placement broke down and no alternative was available in time.

The pattern the families describe is remarkably similar. Rising anxiety, then reduced attendance, then a part time timetable presented as temporary. Support that depends on a plan that has not been finalised. A child who stops sleeping. Eventually a parent who decides that waiting is doing more damage than leaving.

One important point of law: if a child has an EHCP and is registered at a named school, deregistration works differently and it is worth taking advice before writing to the school. Where a child attends a special school, local authority consent is generally required. Families in that position should not assume the standard deregistration route applies to them.

What helped, in their words: dropping academic expectations entirely for the first term, treating recovery as the curriculum, and finding one other family who understood. What did not help: comparison with school year groups, and trying to recreate a school day at the kitchen table.

All three families said the same thing about the transition. It was not a choice they wanted to make, and it is not a decision they regret.