In Queensland, the great, unexpected success story in this homeschooling boom, there are now approximately 45,000 children registered in the home education system. In addition, this expansion has created significant safety concerns regarding the visibility of these children. Consequently, state officials and education leaders alike are beginning to reconsider the long-term impacts of this nationwide trend. In order to protect families from radicalization and unequip potential risks from inheritance, Commissioner Luke Twyford has called for more oversight within the homeschooling system.
The reasons behind this dramatic uptick in homeschooling remain unclear, according to Dr. Rebecca English, a senior lecturer in Education at Queensland’s University of Technology. There’s no one answer why families are choosing to homeschool, and that’s the beauty of it. Many of them have been rejected or failed in typical public schools. A frequent public misconception, as Dr. English emphasizes, is that 85% of homeschooling students are school refusers. These children not only struggled in regular school settings.
Beyond school refusal, Dr. English notes that some 15% of homeschoolers resist conventional schooling on ideological grounds. This ideological position is frequently paired with a push for more freedom and flexibility in education. In Queensland, parents need not teach their homeschooled children anything in line with the Australian curriculum. This ruling has opened the floodgates for invigorating debates on the importance of educational standards and accountability.
Researchers finished the study with an initial random sample of 500 homeschooled students. Based on home environment assessments, they found that 35 of these children were living in hazardous home settings. Such a statistic leaves little doubt as to the treatment of vulnerable children in the unstable world of homeschooling. Commissioner Twyford stated,
“So our review was very careful to try and not suggest that it is homeschooling parents that are at risk. That’s absolutely not the case. What we are mostly concerned about is that the registration system in homeschooling isn’t always picking up risk factors that other government departments are identifying.”
The legislative changes currently under consideration by the Queensland government would go a long way to fixing these issues. By March 2025, the 정부 introduced further legislation scrapping all homeschooling reforms that had initially faced the same backlash from stakeholders. Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek has prioritized children’s safety and is working to implement recommendations from an independent review into the homeschooling system.
Families like Danika and Joel have been forced into homeschooling. Two years ago, they started homeschooling their then-eight year old son, Ben, when he told them he was feeling anxious about going to school. Danika recalls the emotional toll it took on their family:
“He was four, turning five the year that he started prep. And for him to come home in tears saying school’s not for me… it was quite overwhelming for us as parents.”
The emotional health of kids like Ben is just one big concern among a host of other reasons that have driven families to homeschool in droves. Parents are balancing more than ever and finally coming to the realization that traditional schooling isn’t the right fit for their child’s special needs. Ben himself reflects on his experience:
“Like normal school, I made it up to grade one and it was a bit hard for me… but with homeschooling you get to solve so many things at your own pace.”
Dr English says the Brisbane and Sunshine Coast areas are particularly bad for non-vaccination. This trend might be fueling the rise of homeschooling. This positive correlation speaks to larger societal matters, like systemic racism and classism, at work.
Clarissa Valentine, a former primary school teacher who transitioned to homeschooling her twin 12-year-old boys, shares her perspective on this shift. She explains that the COVID-19 pandemic prompted her to reassess her approach to education:
“Over Covid, a lot of things that were habitual and just part of life changed… And then everything was kind of stripped back.”
Valentine emphasizes the importance of creating an intentional educational environment for her children, stating:
“I think moving here, starting again… I thought okay now’s the time to, let’s create an intentional life.”
Patricia Fitzgerald, a Brisbane-based campaign manager with ties to the homeschooling community, has said similar things about educational freedom. She claims that a large proportion of parents are choosing to homeschool for reasons such as believing it can better support their children individually. Fitzgerald states:
“The freedom that we have now is a lot of why we choose homeschooling. So if we’re going to take that away, our children may as well be in school.”
This Free2Homeschool campaign is picking up steam incredibly quickly. It has gathered nearly 21,000 signatures and over 2,000 written submissions against the federal government’s efforts to force the Australian curriculum on homeschoolers in the past.
As the homeschooling community continues to grow in Queensland, Dr. English notes that increased connections among families can bolster confidence:
“If you were at home homeschooling and you didn’t really know anyone, it can be really isolating… But if you’ve got other groups of people that are homeschooling… you could participate in that.”
Even with the rapid growth of homeschooling, unanswered questions related to the quality of education and the safety of children remain a significant issue. Education Minister Langbroek acknowledges a strong correlation between homeschooling choices and school refusal:
“So often there is a strong correlation between the choice of homeschooling and school can’t or school refusal in Australia… how can we better meet the needs of particularly neurodiverse children in our classrooms.”
