The increasing popularity of homeschooling in Australia

Share and Follow

As a former primary school teacher, Clarissa Valentine never pictured homeschooling her twin 12-year-old boys. From when they were six years old, they had been enrolled at their local school in a leafy north-eastern suburb of Melbourne.

But in March 2022, following multiple lockdowns as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Valentine made the snap decision to move the family interstate to Queensland.

Her boys Owen and Miles were nine at the time, and Valentine was craving a sea change.

She set her sights on the Sunshine Coast, with its relaxed, family-friendly lifestyle and pristine beaches — a far cry from Melbourne’s rolling lockdowns and vaccine mandates.

“Pausing and stopping, I saw that all those things that maybe I thought were important weren’t important, and the most important thing was just our little family unit,” she tells SBS News.

The twins had been remote learning in Melbourne from grade one for around two years, but Valentine decided then she would homeschool the twins.

Clarissa sits at a table with Miles. Papers and books are spread out on the table.

Clarissa helps Miles with some schoolwork. Credit: SBS

Valentine says she was also motivated by the vaccine mandate imposed in schools.

“I had some family members that worked at the school [on the Sunshine Coast] that I thought I’d put my kids in, and they lost their jobs because they wouldn’t get immunised,” Valentine recalls.

It just didn’t feel right to then put my kids in that system.

Valentine is one of a growing number of parents in Queensland who are opting to homeschool their children — a trend that is outstripping rates in other Australian states and territories.

As daily habits and routines changed during the pandemic, Valentine says she reflected on her family lifestyle and decided the school system “wasn’t ideal”, and that she “could do it differently”.

“Nothing is perfect and the education system is not perfect, but I think taking yourself out of it allows you to step back a little bit and have a little bit of a look at the reality of what’s happening,” she says.

Growing trend towards homeschooling

Clarissa is among thousands of Australian parents who homeschooled their children during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020, and statistics show some have continued to.

The number of children registered in home education nationally is estimated to be around 92 per cent higher in 2024 compared with 2020.

This data is based on home registration figures from state and territory home education departments, compiled by Vivienne Fox, president of the Sydney Home Education Network.

It shows that Queensland has experienced the biggest rise in homeschooling across all states and territories, increasing by 163 per cent since 2020.

Graph comparing the number of homeschooling students registered across Australia.

Queensland has experienced the most significant increase of homeschooling students, rising by 163% from 2020. Credit: Supplied/Vivienne Fox

Dr Rebecca English, a senior lecturer in education at Queensland University of Technology, says while homeschooling rates had been slowly increasing prior to COVID-19, numbers ballooned at the onset of the pandemic.

It gave parents a deeper insight into classrooms via remote learning, which was imposed during periods of the pandemic. English says this led some to believe they are better equipped to educate their children.

“Parents looked at that and said, ‘I’m already at home anyway, maybe I can do just as good of a job as the teacher is’.

“And they were seeing how that neurodiverse person, or that child who had reported they were bullied, was coping with that learning environment”.

Why has Queensland seen the biggest growth?

English says the reason behind Queensland’s pronounced uptick in homeschooling rates is unclear, but that the state has a complex history with mainstream schooling.

“I’m not really sure why it’s Queensland, but Queensland has a long history of quite a fractious relationship with state schooling,” she says.

According to English, lower vaccination rates and opposition to vaccine mandates in Queensland may also play a role.

“I think [that’s possible] when you look at the Brisbane area and the Sunshine Coast area and you look at other elements of maybe not going along with [the] mainstream, [and] higher rates of non-vaccination in [and] around Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast.”

A woman with shoulder-length blonde hair smiles in front of a bookshelf.

Dr Rebecca English is a senior lecturer in education at Queensland University of Technology. Credit: QUT/Anthony Weate

Parents also attribute the popularity of homeschooling to its vibrant community mindset, particularly in the Sunshine Coast, which Valentine says encourages families to consider alternative education.

“I think that once the community starts to grow a little, then other people get more confidence to join that community,” she says.

“There are so many things on the Sunshine Coast in particular that you could participate in that you could be busy all day, every day”.

The ‘school refusal’ cohort

Despite the potential motivations of parents, the primary driver for homeschooling in Australia comes from students.

English says that while around 10 or 15 per cent of people are “ideologically opposed to schooling”, the main reason people opt for homeschooling is school refusal.

This is typically as a result of bullying, social anxiety or because a child is neurodivergent and unsuited to the mainstream school environment, English explains.

“The increase in that 85 per cent [is] these accidental homeschoolers — they didn’t set out to homeschool [but] they find that this is the only choice. That is where the real research interest lies,” she says.

A young boy looks into the lens of a plastic white microscope.

Eight-year-old Ben started homeschooling two years ago after experiencing school refusal. Credit: Danika / Supplied

After a year of trying mainstream schooling, Sunshine Coast residents Danika and Joel resorted to homeschooling their eight-year-old son Ben, after his school refusal and anxiety reached a tipping point.

“Homeschooling sort of chose us,” Danika says,

“It was something that we as a family decided for Ben’s mental health, [that it] was a better option to try homeschooling just because of how school was making him feel.”

Ben was experiencing “a lot of separation anxiety”, and was arriving home in tears as he voiced to his parents daily that school wasn’t for him. Danika says this initially “derailed” her and Joel, who had both had a positive school experience.

“He just was this little five-year-old boy whose heart had been broken, spark had been put out and it was not the school’s fault, it was just the sheer volume of everything on such a little human being,” she says.

“And then we peeled back the layers, and the neurodiverse aspect in a mainstream school was quite overwhelming.”

A woman and two young children sit at a table doing schoolwork together.

Danika, Ben and Milly learning together at home. Credit: Supplied

Ben has since been diagnosed with ADHD, which Danika says contributed to his school refusal.

While she doesn’t blame the school or teachers, she says public school resourcing isn’t designed to support all children, especially those who are neurodivergent.

She says Ben felt he was being punished for his “neurodiverse idiosyncrasies”, which was “quite shameful” for him.

“We thought: ‘What’s happening in the school grounds that’s making him feel this way?’ But there [were] no particular incidents. He just didn’t feel safe and secure mentally”.

Shortcomings of mainstream schooling

Remote learning during the peak of the pandemic caused many parents to question traditional schooling, according to Queensland Family and Child Commissioner Luke Twyford.

He says increasing rates of homeschooling indicate parents are being “very conscious of the wellbeing of their children” and choosing homeschooling as a “positive outcome”.

“I think there’s a change in our society around questioning traditional schooling methods,” Twyford says.

I’ve certainly seen increases in adolescent mental health and ‘school can’t’ and ‘school refusal’ movements.

English says it’s important to reassess the psychosocial care limitations of state-based school systems, given the main driver of homeschooling results from school refusal.

“I think that’s something that we really need to look at: How can we better meet the needs of particularly neurodiverse young people in our classrooms?”

Calls for more regulation in home schooling

The former Queensland government was unsuccessful in attempts to pass legislation last year that would enforce homeschooling parents to follow the Australian curriculum, among other reforms.

That was largely thanks to the Free2Homeschool movement, led by homeschooling parents, who gathered more than 21,000 signatures and more than 2,000 submissions in opposition to the bill.

“So the freedom that we have now is a lot of why we choose homeschooling,” campaign manager Patricia Fitzgerald tells SBS News.

“So, if we’re going to take that away, our children may as well be in school, but we didn’t want that”.

The current Queensland government introduced new legislation in March this year, which is still under review, removing clauses that homeschooling parents had objected to, such as enforcing the Australian curriculum and removing provisional registration options that parents argue allow for more flexibility to commence homeschooling.

The legislation does maintain a reform to change the eligibility age range for homeschool students, lifting the cut-off age from 17 to 18, which is a move that has been advocated for by homeschooling parents.

Two smiling women take a selfie in front of a large group of people sitting on picnic rugs.

Patricia Fitzgerald and Amanda Bartle started the Free2Homeschool campaign seeking to protect caregivers’ ability to meet the specific education needs of homeschooled students. Credit: Patricia Fitzgerald

Queensland’s Family and Child Commission conducted a report last year into Queensland’s home education system, in response to concerns raised by the Child Death Review Board in their 2022-2023 report.

The December 2024 report into Queensland’s home education system “affirmed a parent’s right to choose the most suitable learning environment for their child”, but called for improved information-sharing between state government departments to ensure child safety.

“What we are mostly concerned about is that the registration system in homeschooling isn’t always picking up other risk factors that other government departments are identifying,” Twyford says.

Queensland Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek told SBS News that the department is considering the findings of a separate independent home education review and “will work with families, Child Safety, and other agencies to implement all accepted recommendations of the report”.

“It’s a parent’s right to choose the type of education that best suits their family, but safety must always be the priority,” Langbroek says.

Changing lifestyles and greater flexibility

The growing trend towards homeschooling also raises questions about the future structures of work, education and family life.

One of the key changes could be a more tailored approach to education, says English.

Homeschooling is much more child-centred and I would expect to see that schools will adopt more of that child-centred learning.

Valentine has seen the advantages of homeschooling firsthand and says she appreciates the time she shares with her two sons.

“It allows me to spend quality time with my kids every day, and I’ve really seen the benefits of that in terms of our closeness and our relationship, [which] is beautiful,” she says.

A woman, man and two young boys smile for a selfie taken by the woman in front of a glimmering blue ocean.

Valentine says there are so many varying learning opportunities afforded by the flexibility of homeschooling. Credit: Supplied

She says her family feels part of a “bigger community”.

“It’s a beautiful thing to be able to go out into the world and be able to talk to different people. Everywhere we go is a learning opportunity”.

English says the rise in homeschooling has also coincided with greater numbers of people working from home since the start of the pandemic, which could offer greater flexibility for families.

“I think homeschooling does offer parents an opportunity to balance that work, family life, school situation,” she says.

“And homeschooling offers families the opportunity to spend more time with that young person.”