Sample Letter for first contact with an LEA

Thank you for your letter. Please note that it is not convenient for you to visit us in the near future, and I would ask you to keep all correspondence in writing for the time being. I will not be returning the questionnaire included with your letter as it is not relevant to our style of education.

I would like to clarify my position with regard to supplying evidence of the provision I am making for my child's education. I am aware that under Section 7 of the Education Act, 1996, I have a responsibility to cause my child to receive efficient, full-time education, suitable to his age, ability, aptitude and special educational needs. As you are aware, I consider it to be in my child's best interests if this education takes place at home, rather than in a school.

I am also aware that an LEA has a duty to act if it appears that a parent is not discharging this responsibility. Further to this, I understand that case law has established that, since no such ‘appearance’ can exist or not exist in the absence of any information, it is reasonable for LEA’s to make informal enquiries about provision. I understand that, although I have no legal requirement to respond to these enquiries, this could be perceived as an appearance of no provision. In consideration of this understanding of my rights and responsibilities, I will be happy to supply information to you about my arrangements for my child's education once we have had sufficient time to thoroughly consider all the information available about home education and arrive at a method which is best suited to my child's age, aptitude and ability.

I understand that I am under no legal responsibility to accept home visits from you and that there are various ways in which this information may be supplied. I am currently considering which will be the most convenient and effective way of communicating our plans and provision to you.

I feel that a number of months will be required for us to settle in to home education and establish our provision. I will therefore contact you around ( ) concerning my child's education.

I am sure you are aware that, as a home educator, I am under no obligation to follow a curriculum, give formal lessons, cover a school type syllabus or to expect my child to match school based age-specific standards. The education provided does not have to be academically based but suited to the individual child's age, aptitude, ability and special educational needs.

I would like to point out that XXX is not a student undertaking academic studies, but a young person/child taking advantage of the opportunity to initiate and follow a course of education uniquely suited to him as an individual, with the full time support of his (mother) as one-to-one facilitator and assistant. As such, any work he produces is his own property, and I am not at liberty to share it with you or anyone else.

Further, it is neither your duty, nor your right to pass the home education as satisfactory but rather, to collect such information and evidence as would be sufficient to convince a reasonable person, on the balance of probabilities only, that a suitable education is taking place. I will consider this requirement when preparing information concerning my children's education.

I enclose a copy of the Summary of the Law produced by Education Otherwise for your information.

Yours

General points when writing to the LEA.

1. Always send by post. Use recorded delivery if you want to have proof of delivery.
2. Keep a paper copy of all correspondence.
3. If the letter you have received is copied to anyone else (ie CC’d on the bottom) make sure your letter is also copied to all concerned. Don’t forget to CC your letter so all parties know.
4. Make sure all correspondence contains details of your and your child’s name, address, dob etc so there is no excuse for it getting lost.
5. Always write assuming that the person reading the letter/report doesn’t know anything about you. If the file is then transferred or needs to be passed to a legal team etc they know exactly what’s gone on from your point of view.
6. The Summary of the Law is available here