Education and home-schooling in different countries

This page links to pages and organisations as well as containing a bit of our own information, mostly about home-schooling and its legal aspects. I plan to add more on small/church schools in the future.

I intend to put a short review only, and if you are interested in more detail, there is an excellent internet site related to this subject. Most of the information presented below is simply a digest from Amanda Petrie's extensive list.

Sue's Home Education Abroad page also contain lots of information and links related to home-schooling in different countries. Sue is from the UK but lives in Cyprus and this makes her a good expert on 'exporting' home-based education.

	United Kingdom: Home-schooling is allowed and the control over the programme tends to be minimal but the experience with the inspector visits vary; I do not know the official status of small private/church schools but there seem to be plenty of them. The Education Act 1944, section 36 (as amended by the Education Act 1981, section 17), states: "It shall be the duty of the parent of every child of compulsory school age to cause him to receive efficient full-time education suitable to his age, ability, and aptitude, and to any special educational needs he may have, either by regular attendance at school or otherwise."
	Poland: Home-schooling is not allowed, but it is possible to open a private school. I am waiting for a review of the current law related to the education.
	Germany: Home-schooling not allowed; it is possible to open a private/church school but as far as I know the programme and teachers are strictly regulated by the government.
	France: Home-schooling is allowed, but I do not know more details at the moment.
	Ireland: Home-schooling is allowed, as are small private/church schools.
	USA: Home-schooling is allowed, as are private/church schools. Different states may require different levels of control over programme and testing. A good and detailed overview of laws governing home-schooling in different states is given by crosswalk.com. Another good site to check is of Home School Legal Defence Association