Home education by country

Children of compulsory school age: ⚠ Not yet verified
Children of compulsory school age, Bavaria: Exemptions only

Children of compulsory school age: School attendance
Children of compulsory school age, Bavaria: School attendance
Children of compulsory school age, Hesse: School attendance

Children of compulsory school age: Full-time compulsory schooling starts in the year the child turns six and lasts nine years (ten years in Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen and Thuringia). Part-time vocational schooling follows for young people not in full-time education.
Children of compulsory school age, Bavaria: Compulsory schooling lasts twelve years: full-time compulsory schooling ends after nine school years, followed by vocational school attendance. Children become subject to it at the start of the school year in which they turn six (with deferral rules).

Exemptions only

School enrolment

There is no general home-education route. A parent is exempt from the enrolment duty only while one of the grounds in the Act applies: the child is not fit for school on physical or psychological grounds, serious objections exist to the denomination or philosophy of all schools within reasonable distance, the child is enrolled at a school outside the Netherlands, or the family leads an itinerant life. Requests for a full exemption go to the municipal attendance officer before 1 July and apply for one school year.

From the first school day of the month after the child turns five until the end of the school year in which the child turns sixteen. A qualification duty then applies until the age of 18 or until a basic qualification is obtained.

Children of compulsory school age, England: Permitted, no notification
Children of compulsory school age, Scotland: Permitted, no prior approval or notification
Children of compulsory school age, N. Ireland: ⚠ Not yet verified

Children of compulsory school age, Eng. and Wales: Education duty
Children of compulsory school age, Scotland: Duty to provide education, at school or at home
Children of compulsory school age, N. Ireland: Duty to provide education, at school or at home

Children of compulsory school age, England: No approval is needed to educate a child at home from the start. If the child is registered at a school, the parent should tell the school, which must accept full removal. Council permission is needed first if the child is at school under a school attendance order, or attends a special school because of special educational needs. Parents need not follow the national curriculum.
Children of compulsory school age, Scotland: The local authority's consent is needed to withdraw a child from a public school (section 35 of the 1980 Act); it must not be unreasonably withheld. Consent is not needed if the child has never attended a public school in that authority's area. There is no statutory duty to tell the authority about home education when consent is not required.
Children of compulsory school age, N. Ireland: ⚠ Not yet verified

Children of compulsory school age, Eng. and Wales: Compulsory school age begins when a child reaches five on a prescribed day and ends on the school leaving date of the school year in which the child turns 16. The leaving date is set each year by order.
Children of compulsory school age, Scotland: A child is of school age from five until sixteen. Starting and leaving dates are set by sections 32 and 33 of the 1980 Act.
Children of compulsory school age, N. Ireland: ⚠ Not yet verified

Permitted with authorisation

Education duty

Prior authorisation from the departmental director of education (Dasen) is required, on one of six grounds: the child's health, disability, intensive sport or arts activity, the family's itinerant life, geographical distance from any public school, or a situation specific to the child that justifies the educational project. Authorisation is normally for one school year (up to three years on health or disability grounds). The Dasen has two months to decide; silence means acceptance. Teaching without authorisation can lead to a fine of 1,500 euros.

3 to 16

Exemptions only (health)

School attendance

There is no general home-education route. Home or hospital-based instruction is authorised only in exceptional cases for health reasons.

6 to 16

Permitted with notification

Education duty

Parents, or those with parental responsibility, send a prior notification (comunicazione preventiva) every year to the head teacher of the school in their area of residence. The child sits an annual aptitude examination as an external candidate at a state or accredited private school until the education obligation is fulfilled.

6 to 16

Permitted after registration with Tusla

School attendance unless registered

The parent applies in writing to the Child and Family Agency, stating the place where the child receives education. An authorised person assesses the education, materials and time spent, and may with the parent's consent visit and assess the child. The Agency then registers the child, registers the child subject to a written undertaking, or refuses. A refusal, an undertaking requirement or a removal from the register can be appealed to the Minister within 21 days. Refusing to consent to an assessment leads to refusal or removal.

A child is a person resident in the State who is at least 6 years old and who has not reached 16, or has not completed three years of post-primary education, whichever is later, but not a person who has reached 18.

Permitted with school head's authorisation

School attendance unless authorised

Parents apply to the head of the school to which the child has been admitted. The head decides by administrative decision. The application must include a parental declaration that the child will have the conditions to follow the core curriculum for that stage, and an undertaking that the child will sit annual classification exams each school year (not required for children with a certificate of moderate or severe intellectual disability). The exams cover a part of the core curriculum agreed with the head and are held by that school; no behaviour grade is given. The authorisation is withdrawn on the parents' request, if the child misses or fails the annual exams without justification, or if it was issued in breach of the law.

Education is compulsory until age 18. The school duty starts at the beginning of the school year in the calendar year the child turns 7 and lasts until completing primary school, but not beyond age 18. A child turning 6 in that year must complete one year of preschool preparation, and may start primary school at 6 on the parents' request.

Permitted with school approval

School enrolment and attendance

The parent (encarregado de educação) applies in writing to the director of the school in the area of residence that offers the wanted course, stating the grounds; the director decides within 15 working days and the enrolment becomes effective once a collaboration protocol with the school is signed. The protocol normally lasts one school year and must be renewed. The person doing the teaching (a family member or someone living in the household) must hold at least a bachelor's degree (licenciatura), and the language of teaching is Portuguese.

6 to 18

Only with exceptional reasons

School attendance

There is no general right to home education. The child's home municipality may allow a child to fulfil the school duty in another way. Permission is to be given when the activity is a fully adequate alternative to the education otherwise available, the need for insight into the activity can be met, and there are exceptional reasons (synnerliga skäl). Permission is given for up to one year at a time and is withdrawn if the conditions no longer apply.

The school duty begins in the autumn term of the calendar year in which the child turns six (it may be postponed to the year the child turns seven if there are special reasons) and ends at the end of the spring term in the tenth year after the child began, or one year later if the pupil has not finished the top year, at the latest at age 18.

Permitted with notification

Duty to provide education, at school or at home

Parents notify the education directorate (Bildungsdirektion) by one week after the end of the previous school year, with the teacher's details, place of teaching, the last school report or external-exam certificate, the curriculum and school year, and a summary of the teaching concept. Adequate progress is shown each year by an exam between 1 June and the end of the school year at a corresponding school, and by a reflection talk on the child's level within two weeks after the semester holidays. The directorate must prohibit home teaching if equivalence is more likely than not missing.

Compulsory schooling begins on 1 September after the child's sixth birthday and lasts nine school years.

Health or disability only

School attendance

Medical request to the directorate

Pre-primary from 4, then 9 years

Permitted with school head's authorisation

School attendance unless authorised

The legal guardian applies in writing to the head of the school where the child was admitted, with the reasons, a description of the premises and health protection, the teacher's qualifications, the textbooks and a statement from a school counselling facility. The head grants it only if there are serious reasons, adequate conditions, a qualified teaching person and suitable textbooks. The child sits an exam on each half-year's material at that school, and the head ends the arrangement if conditions are not met or the child fails at the end of a half-year.

Schooling is compulsory for nine school years, but no longer than to the end of the school year in which the child turns 17. It starts at the beginning of the school year after the child turns six, unless deferred.

Exemptions only

School attendance

A parent (or an adult pupil) applies to the body that grants exemptions for an individual work schedule for a fixed period, normally by 15 June before the school year; a later application is accepted only if something prevents school attendance.

A child becomes subject to compulsory education in the year in which he or she turns six by 31 August; it lasts until the end of the school year in which the pupil turns 16 (longer for some pupils with special educational needs).

Permitted, with municipal supervision

Education duty

A compulsory-education child must either take part in basic education organised under the Basic Education Act or obtain knowledge corresponding to the basic education syllabus in another way. If the child does not attend the organised teaching, the child's home municipality must supervise the child's progress.

Compulsory education begins when the school year starts in the year the child turns seven. It ends when the person turns 18, or earlier on completing an upper secondary or vocational qualification. Basic education ends at the latest when the school work of the year in which the pupil turns 17 ends.

Allowed with notification

Education duty

Parents must notify the municipality before starting private primary education at home. The teaching must meet the aims of education, follow the curricula and the subject and hour distribution, be free of preaching and follow the rules on teaching religion, philosophies of life and ethics. The municipality supervises and must open supervision within three months of the teaching starting, and may require the child to take tests. If the teaching does not meet the requirements, the child must attend school. Only parents may teach their own children.

Children have a duty to primary education from the year they turn six until they have completed the 10th grade. The duty applies once the child has been in Norway for three months, and lapses when the child stays abroad for three months.

Exemptions only

School attendance

Education is compulsory with attendance in the school setting. Pupils who cannot travel for medical reasons or because of a disability are taught at home for a set period, on a parent's request and under a ministerial procedure; no general parent-chosen home-education route is provided.

Compulsory education covers pre-school, primary, lower secondary and upper secondary education. A child enters the preparatory class if the child turns 6 by 31 August of the enrolment year, with exceptions on written request.

Exemptions only

School attendance

Guardians must enrol the child at school. For a child who is hard to enrol because of illness, incomplete development or other unavoidable reasons, the municipal board of education may defer or exempt the duty according to rules set by the Minister of Education. A guardian who still does not comply after a written reminder can be fined up to JPY 100,000.

The duty starts at the beginning of the first school year after the child's sixth birthday and lasts until the end of the school year in which the child turns 15 (nine years of general education: elementary then lower secondary school). If elementary school is not completed by the end of the year of the child's twelfth birthday, the elementary duty runs until the end of the year of the fifteenth birthday at most.