General information about England, not legal advice. Admissions rules vary in detail from council to council, and the law on home education is changing, so check the official pages linked below before you act.
Can you deregister temporarily?
Not in law. Once you've told a school in writing that your child will be educated otherwise than at school from a certain day, and that day has passed, the school must take their name off its admission register (unless a school attendance order names the school). That's regulation 9(1)(f) of the School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024. Nothing keeps the place open while you try home education out.
The Department for Education's guidance for parents warns that if you change your mind, "there is no guarantee that a place would still be available at the school", and you'd apply through the council's in-year admissions process, or straight to the school where that's how it works (paragraph 3.7). It also calls it unwise to use temporary home education as a way into a different school (paragraph 3.3).
If you want to keep the place
- Flexi-schooling keeps your child on the school's roll, with some days at home. The head can say no. There's more in flexi-schooling in England.
- If illness is why your child can't attend, talk to the council before deregistering. Under section 19 of the Education Act 1996 it must arrange suitable education for a child who, because of illness or otherwise, wouldn't get one without its help.
Applying for a place mid-year
A parent "can apply for a place for their child at any school, at any time", says the School Admissions Code 2021 (paragraph 2.23), still the current version on GOV.UK. A mid-year application is called an in-year application.
Who you apply to depends on your area and the type of school, and GOV.UK says to start with your local council. The council is usually the admission authority for community and voluntary controlled schools. Academies, foundation and voluntary aided schools set their own arrangements, and some take in-year applications directly. By 31 August each year, every council must publish on its website how in-year applications work locally, including which schools handle their own. If you send the council an application for one of those, it must pass it on promptly.
What the Code promises you
| Rule | Code paragraph |
|---|---|
| The council must, on request, tell you which schools in its area still have places | 2.27 |
| A school with a place must offer it, unless it's a designated grammar school or admitting your child would prejudice efficient education or use of resources | 2.28 |
| A school can't refuse because your child followed a different curriculum, or because no information has come from a previous school | 2.28 |
| You can't be refused the chance to apply, or told you can only go on a waiting list | 2.30 |
| You should hear within 10 school days, and must hear in writing within 15 | 2.30 |
| A refusal must give the reason and explain your right to appeal | 2.30, 2.32 |
| After you accept, the start should be arranged as soon as possible, particularly where the child is out of school | 2.31 |
Grammar schools follow a variant of the 15-day rule. On start dates GOV.UK is more cautious than the Code, saying a child offered a place will usually start at the beginning of the following term, so ask the school what it can manage. Until your child starts, they're still home educated and their education is still yours to arrange.
Which year group?
Children are normally placed with their own age group, but you can ask for another. The Code's examples include a child who is gifted and talented, or who has had problems such as ill health (paragraph 2.18). The admission authority decides each case in the child's best interests, weighing your views, the head teacher's, and your child's academic, social and emotional development, and it must give you its reasons (paragraph 2.19). Put the request in writing with your evidence. If you're offered a place in a year group you didn't want, there's no right of appeal against that (paragraph 2.20).
Going back to the same school
You can apply to the old school like any other, and if it has a place it must offer one. If it's full, being a former pupil doesn't move your child up the queue. A waiting list must be ranked by the school's published oversubscription criteria, never by the date someone joined (paragraphs 2.15 and 2.29).
If every nearby school is full
Appeal
You can appeal any refusal to an independent panel. Under the School Admission Appeals Code 2022, you get at least 20 school days from the decision to lodge a written appeal and at least 10 school days' notice of the hearing (paragraph 2.1). An in-year appeal must be heard within 30 school days of being lodged (paragraph 2.3). In reception, year 1 and year 2, classes are limited to 30, which narrows the grounds an appeal can win on (GOV.UK).
The Fair Access Protocol
Every council must have a Fair Access Protocol to place vulnerable children, and children struggling to find a place in-year, as quickly as possible (Code, paragraph 3.14). It covers only the groups in paragraph 3.17, and only once reasonable steps through the usual in-year process have failed. Home education isn't one of the groups, but two can fit a child coming back from it:
- children with special educational needs (but no EHC plan), disabilities or medical conditions;
- children who have been out of education for four or more weeks, where it can be shown there are no places at any school within a reasonable distance of home (not if a suitable place was offered and turned down).
The DfE's Fair Access Protocols guidance uses an example from the pandemic, when some parents of clinically extremely vulnerable children chose home education. Those who later struggled to get a place qualified under the first group if they had a medical condition, and others might under the second. Once the council agrees to consider a child under the Protocol, a place must be allocated within 20 school days (paragraph 3.21). The council needn't follow your preferences, though it should take your views into account (paragraph 3.19), and you keep your right to appeal (paragraph 3.18).
If your child's old school has no place, the council is obliged to find a state school place or arrange education otherwise than at school (DfE guidance for parents, paragraph 3.7).
If your child has an EHC plan
The route is different. The council names the school in the education, health and care plan, and a school named there must admit your child (section 43 of the Children and Families Act 2014; Code, paragraph 1.6). You can ask for a particular school, and the council must name it unless it would be unsuitable for your child or incompatible with others' efficient education or the efficient use of resources (SEND Code of Practice, paragraphs 9.78 and 9.79). So talk to the council's SEN team about amending the plan rather than making an in-year application. Home education and SEND explains how the plan works in the meantime.
Joining in year 10 or 11
The DfE guidance for parents singles out years 10 and 11 as the time children are already preparing for public exams (paragraph 3.3). Joining then can still work. Before you accept a place, ask which GCSE options have room, which exam board each subject uses, and how far each course has got. The school can't turn your child down for following a different curriculum, but fitting into courses that began a year earlier takes planning on both sides.
School isn't the only way to exams. A teenager can sit GCSEs as a private candidate: see taking GCSEs as a private candidate and finding an exam centre. Some further education and sixth-form colleges can also enrol 14 to 16 year olds full-time, and the funding rules include home-educated children.
The Children Not in School register
The Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 adds sections 436B to 436G to the Education Act 1996, setting up council registers of children not in school. They're inserted only for the power to make regulations, and the rest is prospective (legislation.gov.uk, 30 October 2026), so the register isn't running.
Once it is, a child registered full-time at a school stops being eligible. If your child is on the register, you'll have to tell the council within 15 days, beginning with the day they stop being eligible (section 436D). A flexi-schooled child can still be eligible. Schools, separately, already have to tell the council within five days of adding a pupil to the admission register mid-year (regulation 13 of the 2024 Regulations). For anything newer, see our guide to the register.
Helping the new school
A short summary from you helps the staff place your child well from the first day. Cover:
- roughly where your child is in reading, writing and maths, with a few recent pieces of work;
- what they've studied at home, and any courses, classes or tutors;
- health needs, special educational needs and any reports from professionals;
- what they enjoy, and what worries them about going back.
If you've kept home education records, most of this is written already. To hand over something printed, the free education record builder will make it from your notes.
Then the practical side. Ask for a visit before the first day, and who your child should go to if they're lost or worried. Find out the timetable, the uniform and what to bring. Move to school-day mornings a week or two ahead, and agree when you and the school will check in once the first few weeks are done.