How to Deregister a Child With SEND or an EHCP to Home Educate (UK)

Deregistering a child with SEND or an EHCP to home educate

Choosing to home educate a child with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) is a real and lawful option in the UK. Parents have a duty under section 7 of the Education Act 1996 to secure a suitable, efficient, full-time education for their child, “either by regular attendance at school or otherwise”. The word “otherwise” is what makes home education legal, and it applies to children with SEND and to children with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan just as it does to any other child.

What trips families up is the process of coming off the school roll. The rules are different depending on the type of school your child attends, and this is the single most important thing to get right. This guide explains the position in England, with a brief note on Wales where it differs.

Do I need permission to deregister a child with an EHCP from a mainstream school?

No. If your child attends a mainstream school, you do not need anyone’s permission to deregister them, and this is true even if they have an EHC plan. You simply write to the head teacher stating that your child will no longer attend after a stated date and will receive education otherwise than at school. The school must then remove your child from the admission register.

The current legal basis in England is regulation 9(1)(f) of the School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024. This ground applies where “a parent of the pupil has told the proprietor in writing that the pupil will no longer attend the school after a certain day and will receive education otherwise than at school”. Once that day has passed, and provided no school attendance order is in force, the school deletes the child from roll. These 2024 Regulations replaced the older Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006, so if you come across guidance referring to “regulation 8”, it is describing the old rule. The principle is unchanged, but the current citation is regulation 9.

The school cannot refuse, delay for its own reasons, or insist on a meeting first. The EHC plan does not change this. A mainstream placement, even one named in an EHC plan, does not require local authority consent to leave.

Can I deregister my child from a special school without council consent?

No, not if the local authority arranged the place. If your child attends a special school, and they were placed there under arrangements made by the local authority, you cannot simply write to the head and have them removed. You must first obtain the local authority’s written consent.

This is set out at regulation 9(2) of the School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024. It provides that where a compulsory-school-age pupil became registered at a special school under arrangements made by a local authority, the school’s proprietor must not delete the pupil from the register unless the local authority that made the arrangements has given its consent, or the authority has refused consent but the Secretary of State has directed that the name be deleted. A short list of unrelated grounds is exempt, such as the death of the pupil or permanent exclusion, but none of those apply to a family choosing home education.

In plain terms:

• Mainstream school: parent writes to the head, child comes off roll, no permission needed.
• Special school arranged by the local authority: the head cannot remove the child until the local authority gives written consent.

The reason for the extra step is that the child’s placement at that special school was the local authority discharging its own legal duty to arrange the special educational provision in the EHC plan. The consent requirement lets the authority check that the child’s needs will still be met before it steps back. It is not meant to be a veto on home education in principle, and it should not be used as one.

What happens to an EHCP if you home educate?

The EHC plan stays in place. A common myth is that home educating “loses” the EHC plan. It does not. Deregistering your child does not automatically cause the EHC plan to cease. The plan stays live and the local authority remains responsible for it.

Key points to hold onto:

• The plan continues. The local authority must keep the EHC plan in place and must continue to carry out the statutory annual review to check the plan is still appropriate.
• The plan can be amended. Once you home educate, the authority will usually review the plan to reflect that education is now being provided otherwise than at school. Section I of the plan, which names a school or type of placement, is often amended to record the home education arrangement.
• The authority is relieved of arranging the provision, but not of the plan. Where a parent has chosen to home educate and the authority is satisfied the arrangements are suitable, the authority is no longer required to arrange the special educational provision set out in the plan, because the parent is making their own suitable arrangements. The authority still keeps and reviews the plan.
• The authority is not obliged to fund your home education, although it has a discretionary power to help, for example by contributing to therapies or resources. Whether it does so varies between authorities.
• Ceasing the plan is a separate decision. You can ask the authority to cease the plan, but it does not have to agree, and you may prefer to keep it. Keeping the plan makes it far easier to return to school or college later, and it preserves your appeal rights. If the authority proposes to cease the plan against your wishes, you have a right of appeal to the SEND Tribunal.

Is home education the same as EOTAS?

No, and the difference decides who pays. It is worth being clear about a distinction that catches families out. “Education otherwise than at school” (EOTAS) in the technical SEND sense is where the local authority itself decides, under section 61 of the Children and Families Act 2014, that it would be inappropriate for the provision in the plan to be made in a school, and the authority then arranges and funds that package. That is different from elective home education, where you as the parent choose to take on the education yourself. With elective home education you are making your own arrangements, so the funding and delivery become your responsibility, even though the plan stays open. If your case is really one where no school can meet your child’s needs, it may be worth exploring an LA-arranged EOTAS package rather than elective home education, because the funding position is very different.

Has the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 changed the rules?

Not yet. You may have read that the law on taking children out of school is tightening. That is true, but the timing matters. The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026. Among other things it introduces compulsory “Children Not in School” registers in every local authority in England, and it strengthens the consent requirements before certain children can be withdrawn for home education, specifically children who are subject to a child protection enquiry or plan (or were recently), and children at special schools.

The important point for families right now is that most of these new register and consent measures are not yet in force. They will be commenced on dates set by later regulations. As at 28 September 2026, sections 37 to 39 of the Act (local authority involvement in withdrawal from school, the register of children not in school, and the new school attendance order rules) are in force only for the purpose of making regulations, so they do not yet apply to families. Until then, the rules described above are what apply. We keep a plain-English breakdown in our guide to the 2026 Act.

Note too that the special-school consent rule is not a new invention of the 2026 Act. It already exists today in regulation 9(2) of the 2024 Regulations, and existed before that under the 2006 Regulations. So if your child is at a local-authority-arranged special school, you need the authority’s consent now, regardless of the 2026 Act’s commencement timetable.

How do I deregister a child with an EHCP?

For a mainstream school (including with an EHC plan):

• Write to the head teacher stating your child will be educated otherwise than at school from a named date, and asking that they be removed from the admission register.
• Keep a dated copy. Email is fine, and gives you a record.
• The school notifies the local authority that the child has come off roll. Your legal duty to educate under section 7 continues from that point.

For a special school arranged by the local authority:

• Write to the head teacher setting out that you wish to home educate, and to the local authority (usually the SEND team) asking for consent to remove your child from the register. The school will not delete your child from roll until the authority agrees.
• Expect the authority to want to discuss how you will meet your child’s special educational needs. Many authorities ask for a written “statement of how home education will meet the child’s special educational needs”. This is not a formal legal test set out in statute, but it is the practical basis on which authorities decide whether to consent, so it is worth preparing carefully.
• Your statement should show, in concrete terms, how you will address the needs and outcomes in the EHC plan: the approach to learning, any therapies or specialist input you will arrange, the environment, and how you will monitor progress. You do not have to replicate school, and you are not required to follow the national curriculum, but you do need to show the education will be efficient, full-time and suitable to your child’s age, ability, aptitude and SEND.

Our deregistration letter generator will produce the right letter for your situation, including the special-school route, and our local-authority response generator helps with the reply once the council writes back. The GOV.UK elective home education guidance sets out the expectations on both sides, and the wider SEND system is described in the GOV.UK guidance on children with special educational needs.

How long does the council have to consent to deregistration from a special school?

There is no fixed statutory deadline by which a local authority must decide whether to consent to removal from a special school register. In practice authorities will often convene an early or interim review of the EHC plan once you notify them. That is reasonable, but it should be done promptly and should not be used to stall a genuine decision indefinitely.

If consent is delayed:

• Put your request in writing with a clear date, and ask the authority for its timescale and the name of the officer dealing with it.
• Provide your statement of how you will meet your child’s needs early, as missing information is the most common cause of delay.
• Chase in writing and keep a paper trail.

If consent is refused:

• Ask for the reasons in writing. The authority should be able to explain what specifically it is not satisfied about.
• Address those concerns and resubmit if you can.
• Use the local authority’s formal complaints procedure if you believe the refusal is unreasonable or the process is being handled poorly.
• Where an authority has refused consent, the Secretary of State can direct that the name be deleted, so a refusal is not necessarily the end of the road, though this route is used rarely.
• Free, independent advice is available from your local SENDIASS service, and from national SEND charities. It is worth taking advice before escalating.

A brief note on Wales

The position in Wales is similar in principle but rests on different regulations. The relevant rules are in the Education (Pupil Registration) (Wales) Regulations 2010. As in England, a parent does not need local authority permission to deregister from a mainstream school, but a child at a special school arranged by the local authority cannot be removed from roll until the authority agrees. If you are in Wales, follow the Welsh Government’s elective home education guidance rather than the GOV.UK pages.

This article is general information about the law in England (with a note on Wales) and is not a substitute for individual advice about your child’s situation. For SEND matters it is always worth speaking to your local SENDIASS or an independent SEND adviser before you act.

Related: NHS Right to Choose for ADHD and autism assessment, and why an EHCP does not require a diagnosis in the first place.

Free tool: the EHC needs assessment request letter generator, which works whether or not your child is on a school roll.

More on this: everything we have on SEND, EHCPs and neurodivergent kids is gathered in the SEND hub, including the free EHC needs assessment letter generator.

The plan does not stand still once it is issued: see the EHCP annual review timeline, including the four week decision deadline and the eight weeks for an amended plan.