The Parliament of the United Kingdom is advancing legislation that would expand government oversight and regulation of homeschooling, threatening parents’ freedom to raise their children as they desire.
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is sponsored by the U.K. Department for Education. In March 2025, the House of Commons voted 382-104 in favor of it, with the Labour, Liberal Democratic, and Green Parties in support, and all other parties either voting against or abstaining. The House of Lords is now considering the legislation.
The bill contains multiple provisions addressing aspects of education policy. Homeschooling parents, however, are sounding the alarm about provisions that would significantly expand government restrictions on homeschooling.
The Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) reports:
The authority the bill grants government officials over homeschooling is expansive. According to one newspaper, local councils would be given the power to terminate homeschooling rights if [a] home environment is “deemed unsuitable or unsafe,” but the bill does not define those terms, leaving the language open to interpretation and potential abuse by officials.
The measure also calls for issuing every student — including those being homeschooled — a national identification number. This allows each student to be tracked via a centralized database, not just for academic purposes, but across government agencies including those involved in providing health care and other social services.
Some advocates in England also fear the Schools bill could be used to restrict religious liberty. Though the legislation does not address faith-based education, the proposed registry for homeschooling families would require parents to submit detailed information about everyone who contributes to the education of their children, including how much time children spend with these individuals.
As one religious advocacy organization noted: “It appears that home-educating parents will have to report if their child attends Sunday School, including names and addresses of the Sunday School teachers.”
Because of the United Kingdom’s policy of devolution, the bill will, for the most part, affect parents only in England.
Part of a Worldwide Attack
This bill reflects the growing worldwide attacks on homeschooling, led by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). In September, UNESCO released a report on homeschooling that implied that homeschooling may violate “human rights,” invoked the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and called for homeschooling legislation to be “aligned with … internationally agreed standards.”
Such attacks are escalating in the United States. According to HSLDA:
The [U.K.’s] measure reflects the underlying ethos of pro-regulation model legislation released by a US organization in 2024, which is now influencing some American lawmakers. The Make Homeschool Safe Act suggests a litany of restrictions aimed at home education based on the presumption that parents can’t be trusted to raise and teach their own children.
What can we do about this? First, we must encourage parents to get their children out of government schools and into homeschooling or sound private schools. Second, we must urge our state legislators to robustly protect parental rights, including parents’ ability to freely homeschool their children. Finally, we must go on the offensive, and urge our legislators to get government completely out of education and return government to its size and scope prior the massive buildup of government beginning in the late 19th century.
