Sex and family / X3
Homeschooling
Parents want to homeschool their 10-year-old using their own curriculum.
What we score
Can they, and on what terms?
Default assumptions: Unless a vignette says otherwise, the person is a 30-year-old citizen of sound mind with no criminal record, acting alone, on their own behalf and not for profit, in an ordinary residential area. Where subnational units (states, provinces, cantons, Länder) make their own law, each unit is scored and the result is weighted by population. 'The state' includes police, prosecutors, courts, regulators, tax authorities and anyone acting on their orders, including platforms obeying takedown orders.
Score anchors
Both the law score and the practice score use these anchors. Half points are used when a country sits between two of them.
| Score | What it means for this vignette |
|---|---|
| 10 | No notification or oversight. |
| 8 | Notification only. |
| 6 | Approval on objective criteria, or periodic testing. |
| 4 | Discretionary approval, rarely granted. |
| 3 | Banned; fines on parents. |
| 2 | Banned; criminal penalties. |
| 0 | Banned; children removed from the parents. |
Evidence used: Compulsory-schooling law; homeschooling rules; enforcement cases.
How each country scores
| Country | Law | Practice | Process | Score | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 9 | 9 | 0 | 9.0 | In England and Wales parents may home educate without registering or seeking permission (Education Act 1996 s7), except where a school attendance order or special-school placement applies. Councils can make informal enquiries and serve attendance orders if education seems unsuitable. The Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 (Royal Assent 29 April 2026) creates compulsory 'children not in school' registers and consent requirements in safeguarding cases, but these are not yet in force (expected 2027). Scotland requires council consent only to withdraw a child already in a state school; NI requires nothing. |
| United States | 7.5 | 8 | 0 | 7.8 | Homeschooling is legal in every state. About 26% of the population lives in states that need no notice at all, scored 10: TX, IL, MI, NJ, IN, MO, OK, ID, AK, plus CT and IA. Roughly 60% live in states needing notification only (8) or notification plus testing or evaluation (6). About 12% live in high-regulation states, scored 5.5: NY, PA, MA, RI and VT need approval or curriculum plans plus assessments. No state forbids a parent's own curriculum. |
| Mexico | 6 | 8 | 0 | 7.2 | Constitution art. 31 I obliges parents to ensure children 'concurran a las escuelas' for compulsory education. Homeschooling is not regulated, but the General Education Law sets no penalty on parents (its infractions in art. 170 apply to education providers). Art. 145 lets the SEP certify knowledge 'adquiridos en forma autodidacta' by examination. Homeschooling families operate openly and are not prosecuted. |
| Denmark | 7 | 7 | 0 | 7.0 | Grundloven § 76 guarantees home education. Parents only need to notify the municipality in writing before starting, naming the children, the place and the teacher (friskoleloven § 34). The municipality supervises and may hold annual tests in Danish, maths, English, history/social studies and science; if teaching is twice found inadequate, the child must attend school (§ 35). Supervision can be waived once teaching is found adequate. |
| New Zealand | 6 | 7 | 0 | 6.6 | Parents need a Certificate of Exemption from the Ministry of Education (Education and Training Act 2020 s38). The Ministry assesses whether the proposed programme will teach the child 'at least as regularly' and 'as well as' a registered school; applying is free and takes 4-6 weeks. Parents set their own curriculum, and the certificate lasts until age 16 with no periodic testing. Refusals come with reasons and can be reviewed. |
| Ireland | 6 | 7 | 0 | 6.6 | Article 42 of the Constitution protects home education, but Education (Welfare) Act 2000 s14 requires parents to apply to Tusla to register the child. An authorised person then assesses the education, materials and time to decide whether the child receives 'a certain minimum education', with a home visit only with parental consent. No refusal statistics were found; the test is a low 'minimum education' standard. |
| Czechia | 5 | 6 | 0 | 5.6 | Education Act § 41 lets the school director permit individual (home) education on written application. The applicant must show 'serious reasons', suitable conditions, and that the teaching parent holds at least a secondary school leaving certificate (a university degree for grades 6-9). The child takes exams at the school every half-year on the national curriculum. Permission ends if the child fails. Directors usually approve, but the curriculum must track the national framework. |
| Singapore | 4 | 6 | 0 | 5.2 | Compulsory Education Act s3 requires citizen children to attend a national primary school, and parents who do not comply face a fine of up to S$5,000 and/or 12 months (s7). Homeschooling needs an exemption granted at the Minister's discretion (s4). Under MOE rules, homeschooled children must sit the PSLE in 4 subjects and reach the 33rd percentile, plus a National Education quiz. |
| Switzerland | 5 | 5 | 0 | 5.0 | Homeschooling is cantonal, and the Federal Supreme Court found no constitutional right to it (2C_1005/2018). Population-weighted: Vaud and Aargau (about 17%) need only notification plus inspections or tests (about 7); Bern, Geneva, Neuchâtel, Jura and others (about 15%) need a permit with oversight (6). Zurich (about 18%) allows one year without a teaching diploma (4.5). Eleven cantons including Lucerne, Valais, Fribourg and Basel-Landschaft (about 28%) require a teaching diploma (4). Ticino, St Gallen, Basel-Stadt, Zug, Uri and Obwalden (about 14%) in practice forbid it (3). The weighted average is about 4.9. |
| Netherlands | 4 | 5 | −0.5 | 4.1 | Parents must enrol a school-age child (Leerplichtwet art. 2). The only homeschooling route is an exemption under art. 5(b): a declaration of 'overwhelming objections' to the denominational or ideological orientation (richting) of all schools within reasonable distance, which is invalid if the child attended such a school in the past year (art. 8). Pedagogical or curriculum reasons do not qualify. Breaching compulsory education is a minor offence punishable by up to 1 month's detention or a second-category fine (art. 26), and school-attendance officers routinely start proceedings against non-exempt families. |
| Germany | 0 | 2 | −1 | 0.2 | Compulsory school attendance applies in every Land, and homeschooling is allowed only in narrow exceptions (e.g. travelling families, illness). Enforcement escalates from fines and coercive payments to police escorts, criminal penalties in some Länder, and partial removal of custody. The ECtHR upheld a removal of children from homeschooling parents in 2019 (Wunderlich v. Germany). Most homeschooling families emigrate or face repeated proceedings. |