For home-educating families in England, September 2026 is likely to feel confusing. The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 is now law. News reports have discussed new registers for children not in school, changes to School Attendance Orders, additional local authority powers, safeguarding reforms and new procedures for some families who want to withdraw a child from school. At the same time, several education and safeguarding changes do begin on or around 1 September 2026. This creates an important distinction: The Act has become law, but not every provision within it takes effect at the same time.
Some changes applying to schools and safeguarding arrangements are beginning in September. However, the Children Not in School provisions affecting home education require separate commencement regulations and, in several areas, further regulations and statutory guidance before they become operational. Under section 78 of the Act, most provisions not specifically brought into force automatically must begin on a date appointed by the Secretary of State through regulations. Sections 37–42 contain the main Children Not in School measures. (Legislation.gov.uk)
So what actually changes on 1 September?
What is still coming?
And what should home-educating families do now?
This guide separates the confirmed changes from the measures that remain part of the future implementation process.
First: Home Education Remains Legal
The most important point is also the simplest: Home education has not been abolished.
Parents in England continue to have the legal responsibility to ensure that a child of compulsory school age receives an efficient, suitable, full-time education appropriate to their age, ability, aptitude and any special educational needs they may have. That education can be provided through school or otherwise, including elective home education. The Government’s own explanatory material for the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act recognises that many parents provide suitable home education and confirms that home education remains an available educational route. (Legislation.gov.uk) The new legislation changes the oversight framework surrounding some children educated outside school. It does not remove the underlying right of parents to educate their children at home.
Why There Is So Much Confusion About 1 September 2026
The confusion comes from the fact that several different reforms are happening at roughly the same time. Some measures introduced by the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act begin automatically after Royal Assent or through specific commencement arrangements. Other education reforms begin in September. Separately, new safeguarding guidance comes into force on 1 September 2026. But this does not mean every home-education provision in the Act suddenly becomes operational on that date. The Act’s commencement section specifically allows different provisions to start on different dates and even allows different commencement dates for different purposes or areas. (Legislation.gov.uk)
That means families need to distinguish between:
1. The law having been passed
2. A particular legal duty actually being brought into force.
Those are not the same thing.
What Is Definitely Changing on 1 September 2026?
Several education and safeguarding changes are confirmed for September. Although not all directly affect home educators, they are useful context because they show how the wider education system is changing.
Keeping Children Safe in Education 2026 Comes Into Force
The updated Keeping Children Safe in Education 2026 statutory guidance takes effect on 1 September 2026. Until 31 August, schools and colleges must continue using the 2025 version. The new guidance applies to schools and colleges and sets out their legal safeguarding duties. One notable change is that the shorter version of Part One previously contained in Annex A has been removed. All staff are now expected to follow the same core safeguarding expectations, with governing bodies and proprietors responsible for ensuring staff read the relevant guidance. (GOV.UK)
What does this mean for home-educating families?
For families already home educating independently, the guidance does not create a new requirement to follow school safeguarding procedures at home. However, it may affect families whose children:
attend part-time educational settings,
participate in alternative provision,
use tutors or organisations,
attend clubs or activities run by schools,
or move between home education and formal schooling.
It also reflects the wider direction of policy: safeguarding systems surrounding children are becoming more formalised and interconnected.
The Definition of Regulated Activity With Children Is Changing
From 1 September 2026, the supervision exemption in the legal definition of regulated activity with children is removed. Previously, some adults who regularly taught, trained, instructed, cared for or supervised children were not considered to be carrying out regulated activity if they were sufficiently supervised by another person. From September, regular supervised work can still count as regulated activity. The Government gives examples including school reading volunteers, assistant sports coaches and adults working with children in youth or outdoor settings. (GOV.UK)
What does this mean for home educators?
For most parents teaching their own children at home, it changes nothing. But it may matter to:
home-education groups,
co-operatives,
clubs,
tutors,
community organisations,
learning centres,
sports groups,
or educational providers employing or using regular volunteers.
Organisations may need to reconsider whether certain roles qualify for enhanced DBS checks including a Children’s Barred List check. Parents using external providers may also notice changes in safeguarding procedures.
Mobile Phone Guidance for Schools Also Changes
Statutory guidance on mobile phones in schools became statutory in June 2026, with schools expected to begin following it from 1 September 2026. The guidance asks schools to operate policies prohibiting pupils’ use of mobile phones and similar personal devices throughout the school day, including lessons, breaktimes and lunchtimes. (GOV.UK)
Does this affect home educators?
Not directly. Home-educating families remain free to decide how technology, phones and digital devices fit into their own learning environment. However, it highlights a wider policy debate about attention, online safety and children’s relationship with technology, issues that are increasingly relevant to both school and home education.
What About the Children Not in School Register?
This is the change most home educators are watching. The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act creates a legal framework requiring local authorities in England and Wales to maintain Children Not in School registers. Eligible children will include many children of compulsory school age who are not registered at a relevant school, as well as certain children receiving education outside school for part of their time. (Legislation.gov.uk) Once implemented, the framework will require parents to provide specified information to their local authority. The legislation provides for information including matters such as:
the child’s name,
date of birth,
home address,
parent information,
and information relating to where and by whom education is being provided.
The Act also includes requirements for parents to notify local authorities of certain changes to information held on the register. (Legislation.gov.uk) However:
The register provisions do not automatically come fully into force simply because it is 1 September 2026.
Sections 37–42 are among the provisions that require commencement through regulations rather than automatically beginning on 1 September. (Legislation.gov.uk) This means that families should not assume that a national register suddenly becomes operational everywhere on that date unless the Government has formally commenced the relevant provisions and published the necessary implementation arrangements.
Do Home-Educating Families Need to Register on 1 September?
Based on the legislation currently in force, there is not a blanket requirement for every home-educating parent in England to submit a new registration on 1 September simply because the new academic year begins. The future register system is contained within the Act, but it requires commencement and implementation.
Families should therefore be cautious about social-media posts claiming things such as:
“All homeschoolers must register by September.”
or:
“Home education becomes permission-based from 1 September.”
Those statements oversimplify the legislation. The new framework is real. But it is not going to be implemented straight away. Families should rely on current Government guidance and any formal notice issued by their local authority once the relevant provisions are commenced.
What Information Could Families Eventually Have to Provide?
Once the Children Not in School register provisions are commenced, parents of eligible children will have statutory information duties. The legislation provides for local authorities to record information about eligible children and their education. The Act also allows information to be required from some people or organisations providing education to children outside school for more than a prescribed amount of time. (Legislation.gov.uk) This is significant because the future system is intended to give local authorities a clearer picture not only of which children are outside school, but also where education is taking place and who is providing it.
For families using:
tutors,
learning centres,
co-operatives,
online providers,
religious education settings,
alternative provision,
or multiple educational settings,
record-keeping may therefore become increasingly important.
What About Home Visits?
The Act gives local authorities stronger responsibilities around considering a child’s home and other learning environments. Government explanatory notes state that local authorities will be required to consider a child’s home at the point of Children Not in School registration and will have the power to request a home visit within 15 days of registration. Authorities will also be expected to consider other locations where a child is educated. (Legislation.gov.uk)
This has understandably caused concern among some home-educating families. However, there is an important distinction between: having the legal power to request a visit and a universal legal requirement that every family must admit an officer into their home. Exactly how these powers operate in practice will depend heavily on statutory guidance and regulations. Families should therefore wait for the final operational guidance rather than relying on speculation about what a visit will automatically involve.
Will Local Authorities Be Able to Decide Whether a Home Is “Suitable”?
The legislation changes the factors local authorities must consider when examining whether a child is receiving a suitable education. Under the new framework, authorities will consider not only educational provision but also the suitability of the home and other environments where learning takes place. This represents a meaningful change. Historically, debates about suitable home education have largely focused on whether the education itself is efficient, full-time and appropriate to the child. The new legislation brings the learning environment more explicitly into the framework. (Legislation.gov.uk)
The practical significance will depend on how “suitability” is interpreted in statutory guidance. That will be particularly important for families whose education does not resemble a conventional classroom. Home education may involve:
learning around a kitchen table,
libraries,
museums,
community spaces,
online learning,
outdoor education,
travel,
project-based learning,
autonomous education,
practical life skills,
or combinations of several approaches.
The eventual guidance will need to accommodate the reality that a suitable education does not always look like school.
What About School Attendance Orders?
The Act also reforms the School Attendance Order, or SAO, process. School Attendance Orders are not new. Local authorities have long had powers to act where they believe a child of compulsory school age is not receiving a suitable education. The new legislation is designed to make the process faster and more consistent. According to the Government’s explanatory notes, the reforms include:
statutory timeframes,
changes intended to streamline the process,
closer alignment between academies and maintained schools,
and new consequences relating to continued breaches of an SAO. (Legislation.gov.uk)
The future Children Not in School system is also linked to the SAO framework. Failure to comply with statutory information requirements connected to the register could eventually contribute to local-authority intervention. Again, these provisions depend on formal commencement.
Does a School Attendance Order Mean Home Education Is Illegal?
No.
A School Attendance Order is not issued simply because a family chooses home education. The underlying issue is whether a child is receiving a suitable education. A family providing suitable home education does not automatically become subject to an SAO merely because the education takes place outside school. The important practical lesson for families is that it may become increasingly useful to maintain straightforward evidence showing the nature of the education being provided.
Should Families Start Keeping Evidence of Learning?
There is currently no requirement for home education to resemble school or for parents to create enormous portfolios simply for the sake of paperwork. However, as oversight increases, maintaining a sensible record of learning may become increasingly helpful. Evidence could include:
reading lists,
photographs of projects,
samples of writing,
maths work,
learning journals,
educational visits,
online programme records,
science investigations,
art,
practical projects,
certificates,
notes about progress,
or examples of independent learning.
The purpose should not be to document every hour. A small, representative record can demonstrate how education develops over time without allowing paperwork to take over family life.
What Is Changing for Children With SEND?
Families of children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities are likely to pay particularly close attention to the legislation. Many children are home educated because school environments have not adequately met their needs. The new Act does not make SEND home education unlawful. However, some children will fall into categories where additional procedures apply. The Act provides that local-authority consent will be required before certain children can be removed from school for home education. This includes some children attending special schools under local-authority arrangements. (Legislation.gov.uk) For families whose child has an Education, Health and Care Plan, circumstances can already vary depending on the type of placement and who arranged it. Families considering deregistration from a special-school placement should therefore seek current, individual guidance rather than assuming the rules applying to mainstream-school deregistration are identical.
Which Families Will Need Local Authority Consent?
The future system creates a consent requirement for certain children before they can be withdrawn from school for home education. The categories include children:
attending certain special schools,
subject to a section 47 child-protection enquiry,
currently on a child-protection plan,
or who were on a child-protection plan within the previous five years. (Legislation.gov.uk)
For these families, once the relevant provisions are fully commenced, deregistration will not simply follow the standard process used by most families. The local authority will have a formal role in deciding whether withdrawal should be permitted. This is one of the most significant changes introduced by the Act.
What Are the Mandatory Meetings?
The legislation also provides for a pilot scheme requiring some parents to attend a meeting with the local authority before a child is removed from school for home education. The pilots may operate in selected local-authority areas rather than everywhere immediately. The Government explains that these meetings are intended to:
help families make informed decisions,
identify support needs,
discuss safeguarding,
and improve communication between parents and authorities.
The mandatory-meeting pilot is not the same thing as requiring permission to home educate for all families. For children outside the specific consent categories, once a required pilot meeting has taken place, the local authority does not gain a general power to refuse deregistration merely because it disagrees with the parent’s decision. (Legislation.gov.uk) The Act provides for the pilot period to run for two years after the relevant provisions come fully into force, with further decisions required before any wider national rollout. (Legislation.gov.uk)
Could a Local Authority Require an Already Home-Educated Child to Attend School?
In limited circumstances, the new framework will give authorities stronger powers. The Government’s explanatory notes state that for certain children connected to child-protection processes, local authorities may review whether school attendance is in the child’s best interests and may be able to require registration at school. This applies to specific safeguarding categories and is not a general power to order every home-educated child into school. (Legislation.gov.uk) For the wider home-education population, intervention will continue to centre on questions of whether suitable education is being provided, although the new statutory framework expands how authorities gather information and assess circumstances.
What About Families Who Already Home Educate?
This is perhaps the most important practical question. If you are already lawfully home educating, you do not need to panic or suddenly redesign your education because September has arrived. Continue providing your child with a suitable education. Continue responding reasonably to legitimate correspondence. Keep informed about national implementation and any formal guidance issued by your local authority. The key future change will be the introduction of the Children Not in School registration framework once the relevant provisions are commenced. When that happens, families will need to understand the information they are legally required to provide and the timescales involved. Until then, avoid acting on rumours that treat future provisions as though they are already operational.
What About Families Thinking of Deregistering This Autumn?
If your child currently attends school and you are considering elective home education, the position depends on your circumstances. For many mainstream-school families, existing rules continue unless and until the relevant new provisions are commenced. However, families should be particularly careful if the child:
attends a special school,
is subject to safeguarding processes,
has recently been on a child-protection plan,
or is otherwise within one of the categories identified by the new Act.
Because implementation is evolving, check the current legal position at the point you intend to deregister, rather than relying on guidance from earlier in the year. This is one area where dates matter enormously.
What Families Do Not Need to Do on 1 September
Unless your circumstances are covered by a separate existing requirement or you receive lawful instructions under newly commenced regulations, families should not assume they must suddenly:
register with a new national home-school database,
follow the National Curriculum,
reproduce school timetables,
submit daily lesson plans,
conduct formal testing,
teach for six hours a day,
allow every requested home visit automatically,
or prove that home education looks like classroom schooling.
None of those assumptions should be treated as fact simply because the Act has passed. Suitable home education remains capable of being flexible, individualised and substantially different from formal schooling.
What Families Should Do Now
The most useful response is not panic.
It is preparation.
Stay informed
Follow official Government publications and your local authority’s formal communications. Legislation involving home education is developing quickly, so advice published months earlier may become outdated.
Know your current legal responsibilities
Parents remain responsible for ensuring their child receives suitable, efficient, full-time education. That is the foundation of the law.
Keep simple records
You do not need to create a school-style bureaucracy. But maintaining representative evidence of learning may make future conversations much easier.
Keep important correspondence
Save letters and emails relating to deregistration, local-authority contact, EHCP arrangements and educational provision.
Separate law from commentary
Home-education policy attracts strong views from all sides. Campaign groups, social-media creators, newspapers and commentators may interpret reforms differently. Read opinions but verify legal claims against legislation and official guidance.
Why These Changes Are Controversial
Supporters of the reforms argue that local authorities need better visibility of children outside school in order to identify children who may not be receiving suitable education or who may be at risk of harm. The Government’s explanatory notes explicitly connect the new framework with safeguarding concerns and recommendations arising from recent reviews. (Legislation.gov.uk) Many home-educating families and organisations, however, have raised concerns about:
privacy,
increased state oversight,
home visits,
how “suitable education” will be interpreted,
whether flexible educational approaches will be properly understood,
and whether safeguarding concerns could be used to justify disproportionate monitoring of responsible families.
The explanatory notes themselves acknowledge that many home-educating parents who responded to consultation opposed compulsory registration and expressed concerns about privacy and criminalisation. (Legislation.gov.uk) Both sides raise good points. Ultimately, safeguarding children is essential. So is ensuring that lawful, suitable home education is not automatically treated with suspicion. Much will depend on implementation.
The Most Important Stage May Still Be Ahead
Passing legislation is only part of the process. For home educators, the practical reality will be shaped by:
commencement regulations,
secondary legislation,
statutory guidance,
local-authority procedures,
pilot schemes,
prescribed information requirements,
and how legal terms are interpreted in practice.
This means the months following September 2026 may be just as important as September itself. Families should therefore expect further announcements. The detailed guidance accompanying the Children Not in School framework will be particularly important because it will influence how local authorities apply their new responsibilities.
A Quick Summary
Confirmed
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 is law.
Home education remains lawful.
The Act contains a future compulsory Children Not in School registration system.
It also contains reforms to School Attendance Orders, home-education oversight, safeguards for certain vulnerable children and powers relating to learning environments. (Legislation.gov.uk)
Keeping Children Safe in Education 2026 comes into force on 1 September, and the definition of regulated activity with children also changes from that date. (GOV.UK)
Not automatic on 1 September
The Children Not in School provisions do not all automatically become operational merely because the new academic year begins.
Sections 37–42 require formal commencement arrangements. (Legislation.gov.uk)
Families should therefore check official commencement regulations and guidance before assuming a future duty is already in force.
September 2026 marks an important point in the development of education policy in England. For home-educating families, the most important message is not that everything changes overnight. It doesn’t. Instead, England is moving towards a system with greater registration, information sharing and local-authority oversight of children educated outside school. Some families will eventually face additional procedures. Local authorities will gain new responsibilities and powers. Record-keeping may become more important. But home education itself remains lawful, and parents continue to have responsibility for ensuring their children receive a suitable education. For now, the best approach is simple:
Stay informed.
Understand what is actually in force.
Keep reasonable evidence of your child’s education.
And do not mistake future legislation for a current legal duty.
As further regulations and statutory guidance are published, the practical picture will become clearer. For home-educating families, that distinction between what the law says will happen and what families are legally required to do today may be one of the most important things to understand.
This article provides general educational information and is not legal advice. Home-education law can depend on individual circumstances, particularly where special-school placements, EHCPs, safeguarding processes or School Attendance Orders are involved. Families needing advice about a specific legal situation should seek appropriate professional guidance.
