Home Education Numbers

Summary

The request sought current home education statistics and details on children removed from the register, including ages and compulsory school status. The Department disclosed total family and child counts but withheld specific age data for removed children due to prior deletion of records following parental requests.

Key Facts

• There are 98 families providing home education.
• There are 152 children being home educated.
• The Department received contact from parents in the last two months requesting removal from the register.
• Specific data on the number, ages, and compulsory school status of removed children was not provided because it had been deleted from records.
• Parents are legally required to notify the Department of changes in circumstances under Section 24A of the Education Act.

Data Disclosed

• 98
• 152
• 2019-04-16
• 2019-05-16
• 2019-07-04
• 799765
• 16
• Section 24A
• Article 5

Exemptions Cited

• Information removed from records per parental request
• Data Protection Act 2018 requirements to erase inaccurate data

Original Request

Please can the Department confirm an accurate and uptodate number of Home Educated families and children todate. Please can the Department confirm if they have been contacted by Home Educators to remove their children from the register in the last 2 months? Also if any of those children who were removed from the regiater were over compulsory school age of 16 and how many and what were the ages of those children when removed? Please can the Department confirm if it is the duty of Home Educators to maintain the Departments register?

Data Tables (1)

Data Tables (reformatted)

Full Response Text

Corporate Services Division Department of Education, Sport and Culture Hamilton House Peel Road, Douglas IM1 5EZ Telephone: (01624) 685808 Website: www.gov.im/dec Email: dec@foi.gov.im Our ref: 799765 16 May 2019

Dear ###,

We write further to your request which was received on 16 April 2019 and which states:

"Please can the Department confirm an accurate and up to date number of Home Educated families and children to date? Please can the Department confirm if they have been contacted by Home Educators to remove their children from the register in the last 2 months? Also if any of those children who were removed from the register were over compulsory school age of 16 and how many and what were the ages of those children when removed? Please can the Department confirm if it is the duty of Home Educators to maintain the Departments register?"

Our response to your request is as follows: I have detailed below the information that is being released to you. Up to date number of Home Educators: Number of families providing home education = 98 Number of children being home educated = 152 Contact from Home Educators: I can confirm the Department has been contacted by parents via email and telephone in the last two months to check if their children are still registered as home educated. Some of the parents who contacted the Department have requested that their children are no longer registered as home educated with the Department. Number of children and their ages: While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Department does not hold or cannot, after taking reasonable steps to do so, find some of the information that you have requested.

As per the requests of the parents who recently informed the Department that their children are no longer being home educated the information on the number of children, their ages and if any were over compulsory school age of 16 has been removed from the Departments records. Maintenance of the Departments records Section 24A of the Education Act states: (1) Where a child of compulsory school age is not a registered pupil at a provided school, maintained school or special school, the parent of the child must notify the Department in writing of the arrangements made for the child to receive education. Currently section 24A (1) of the Education Act is achieved by completing the ‘Home or Private Education Registration Form’ and returning it to the Department. Within this form the following request is made by the Department: Can you please inform the Department of any change in circumstances, i.e. change of address or if you cease to Home School your child. In addition to the above the Department is required under Article 5, ‘Principles relating to processing of personal data’, of the Data Protection Act 2018 to do the following: 1. Personal data shall be: d. accurate and where necessary kept up to date; every reasonable step must be taken to ensure that personal data that are inaccurate, having regard to the purposes for which they are processed, are erased or rectified without delay Therefore whenever the Department is informed in writing that a child is being home educated or there has been a change in circumstances the information the Department holds is updated to ensure it is accurate.

Please quote the reference number 799765 in any future communications.

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I will now close your request as of this date.

Yours sincerely

Freedom of Information Coordinator