General information about Scotland, not legal advice. The rules in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are different. Check the Scottish Government guidance and the legislation linked below before you act.
If you've been reading about England
Most advice online about home education describes England. There, you usually just write to a mainstream school and it must take your child off the roll, and council permission is needed only for a special school or under a school attendance order (deregistering from school in England has the details). England is also bringing in a Children Not in School register, though as of 23 October 2026 legislation.gov.uk showed the duty to keep it still not in force. Our guide to the register follows its progress.
Scotland has its own law and guidance. Here, taking a child out of a council school is something the council agrees to, not something you notify. We found no equivalent of England's register: the 2025 guidance says only that the Scottish Government will work with councils on options for collating high-level numbers of home-educated children (paragraph 5.5).
What the law and guidance say
The duty is in section 30 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980. Every parent of a child of school age must "provide efficient education for him suitable to his age, ability and aptitude either by causing him to attend a public school regularly or by other means." Home education is one of the "other means". School age is broadly 5 to 16 (section 31).
Neither "efficient" nor "suitable" is defined in Scottish legislation. There's no set curriculum, Curriculum for Excellence included, and you don't need a teaching qualification.
Councils must have regard to the Scottish Government's home education guidance, because it's issued under section 14 of the Standards in Scotland's Schools etc. Act 2000. The current version came out on 23 January 2025, with a small correction in May 2025, and replaces the guidance from 2004 (updated in 2007). It also tells councils not to specify a curriculum that must be followed (section 6).
When you need the council's consent
Strictly, the consent is to leave a school, not to home educate as such. Section 35 makes it an offence for a parent when a child who has attended a public school "on one or more occasions" stops attending regularly without reasonable excuse, "unless the education authority have consented to the withdrawal of the child from the school (which consent shall not be unreasonably withheld)". A public school is one run by the council.
The guidance lists the cases where no consent is needed (paragraph 3.8). That's when your child:
- has never attended a public school;
- has never attended a public school in that council's area;
- is leaving an independent school;
- has finished primary at one school and hasn't started secondary at another;
- attended a school that has closed;
- isn't yet of school age.
In any of those cases you have no legal duty to tell the council you're home educating, though the guidance strongly encourages you to.
Asking for consent
Write to the council, ideally well before the date you want your child to leave. Councils are meant to give families the contact details of the officer responsible for home education. You don't have to give a reason, and the guidance says any reason you do give should have no bearing on the decision (paragraph 3.1).
What does matter is how you plan to educate. If there's no evidence of reasonable grounds to refuse, and you've given "some indication" of your educational objectives and resources, consent can be granted straight away (paragraph 3.15). Early plans can be brief. A letter might look like this:
Dear [home education officer],
I am writing to ask for the council's consent to
withdraw my child, [full name, date of birth], from
[school name] so that I can educate them at home,
from [date].
In outline, I plan to [your approach in a few lines:
main areas of learning, resources, groups or
activities, and how you'll follow their interests].
Please let me know if you need anything further.
Yours sincerely,
[your name]The council should seek your child's views if they want to give them, and shouldn't make them. It should aim to decide within six weeks of receiving your request, and keep you informed if it can't. While you wait, it would usually be inappropriate for the council to start attendance procedures because your child is awaiting withdrawal (paragraphs 3.12–3.13 and 3.17). Your child stays on the school roll until consent is given, though, so agree the gap with the school and the council.
If the council refuses
It must tell you in writing, with its reasons, and give you a chance to answer them and ask again. Past irregular attendance isn't enough on its own to refuse. Open child protection matters, such as a child protection plan or a current referral to the Children's Reporter, may mean consent can't be given straight away (paragraphs 3.16 and 3.21).
There's no statutory right of appeal against a refusal. You can ask for an internal review, use the council's complaints procedure and then go to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman. Judicial review in the Court of Session is possible in principle (paragraph 3.28).
Contact with the council afterwards
The council has no statutory duty to monitor home education. The guidance does strongly recommend a conversation at least once a year about your child's progress, with your child included if they want to take part (section 4), but it isn't a legal requirement. Contact should start with a letter, and you can meet at an agreed place, talk online, or send written work, recordings or samples instead; councils shouldn't be prescriptive about the format. Afterwards the council should write to tell you the outcome.
The council has no right of access to your home or your child, and refusing a home visit isn't in itself a ground for concern. Only where it has concerns that written evidence and discussion haven't settled may it ask to visit, and then it must explain its grounds (paragraphs 4.9 and 4.11).
A simple record of what your child does makes that yearly conversation easy, and home education records has ideas for what to put in it.
Notices and attendance orders
If the council isn't satisfied you're providing an efficient education suited to your child's age, ability and aptitude, it must serve a notice giving you between 7 and 14 days to explain your arrangements (section 37). You choose whether to meet the council or reply in writing. If that doesn't satisfy it, the council must make an attendance order naming a school.
You can appeal an attendance order to the sheriff within 14 days of it being served (section 38). Later, you can ask the council to revoke it because suitable education is in place elsewhere, and appeal to the sheriff if it refuses or hasn't decided within a month (section 39). The guidance expects councils to try ongoing dialogue first (paragraph 4.12).
Additional support needs
The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 puts duties on councils for children whose school education they're responsible for. Once your child is home educated, those duties no longer apply.
The council may still help. If you ask, it may work out whether your child has additional support needs (section 7), and it may provide support (section 5(4)), but it doesn't have to. A child aged 12 or over who has the capacity to ask can make the request too. The guidance strongly recommends finding out what support you'd keep, if any, before you withdraw (section 5, paragraphs 5.8 and 5.10). Enquire, the national advice service for additional support for learning, is a good place to ask.
Qualifications
There's no requirement to study for any particular qualification. Home-educated young people can take National Qualifications, GCSEs, A levels or something else, and you pay the costs (guidance, section 6). If you're considering GCSEs, see GCSEs as a private candidate. The SQA website says Qualifications Scotland replaced the SQA as Scotland's national awarding body on 1 February 2026.
You can't enter yourself. A home-educated candidate needs an approved presenting centre, such as a school, college or training provider, to enter them (information for private candidates). The guidance warns that some subjects with coursework or internal assessment aren't open to external candidates unless a centre can make suitable arrangements, so ask local centres or your council well before the academic year begins.