The Home Education Network (HEN) has been supporting home educators for forty years. Our surveys provide the best Australian data on home education, allowing us to advocate effectively and represent the community accurately.
While we operate mainly in Victoria, our stats can be useful to home educators anywhere in Australia.
HEN volunteers work hard for the home ed community.
HEN surveys the wider home education community to help shape our future work.
Since 2015, this data has proven enormously useful in accurately representing our community both to government and in the media e.g. by exploding a myth of widespread non-registration.
In 2023 HEN conducted a survey on School Can’t (School Refusal). This survey was conducted in response to a request for HEN to appear as witnesses in the Senate Inquiry into School Refusal and Related Matters. HEN Survey for the Senate Inquiry into The National Trend of School Refusal and Related Matters.
On 21 June 2023 the Senate agreed to extend the committee’s reporting date to 10 August 2023 to allow the committee to gather data in relation to the impact of ‘school refusal’ on the educational attainment of students.
HEN conducted a second survey into ‘educational attainment’ in children with School Can’t who had been or were currently being home educated. You can access that report here.
Without good data, the government dictates the narrative. You can help protect home education by taking part in our surveys when they are announced.
HEN and home education in the media
HEN has been featured in news media for many years. Our representatives have been on TV, in newspapers and on radio. If you would like to speak to a HEN media representative, please use the contact form to get in touch.
We have a comprehensive listing of media articles and home education news articles which you can view on our media roundup page.
Videos on home education and general education
- Sir Ken Robinson’s famous TED talk in which he argues school undermines creativity.
- Interview with developmental psychologist Dr Alan Thomas by Education Otherwise, speaking about informal education.
- Prof. Peter Gray on how schools thwart passions, and the need to move away from school as we know it.
- Meet the New Homeschoolers, a segment from The Feed featuring three home educating families.
- Neuroscientist and actress Mayim Bialik on why she home educates her children, and addresses viewer comments.
Research on home education in Australia and internationally
Please see our page Summary of Australian Research. We also have a number of blog articles referencing research both in Australia and internationally, which you can find here.
Dr. Glenda Jackson of the Australian Home Education Advisory Service is a leading researcher of home education in Australia and in May 2020 published her Summary of Australian and New Zealand Research on Home Education.
Dr. Peter Gray’s report on 75 formerly unschooled adults in A Survey of Grown Unschoolers I: Overview of Findings.
Beverley Paine of The Educating Parent has list of research studies which you can find here.