The home-education of children with special needs or disabilities in the UK: views of parents from an online survey

The home-education of children is one 'choice' of provision that is often overlooked or unreported in the debate on inclusive education for children with disabilities or special educational needs. This study aimed to access the views of these hard-to-reach home-educating families through an online survey. Twenty-seven parents, with at least one child with special educational needs or disabilities/being educated at home, responded, and over two-thirds identified 'push' factors away from the school as their main reasons for educating their children at home, such as bad experiences with formal provision and the perceived failure of schools to meet their child's needs adequately. A majority of children had been at a mainstream school at the time of the decision to home-educate and 48% of the children were described as having an Autistic Spectrum Disorder. Findings are discussed in relation to the 'personalisation' agenda of education in the UK.