The order matters, and the states contradict each other. In Victoria you must be approved before you withdraw. In Western Australia you withdraw first and then have 14 days to register. In South Australia you do not deregister at all. Getting this wrong is the most common mistake in Australian home education, and it is the one that leaves a child neither enrolled nor registered, which no state has a category for.
Almost every guide tells you how to home educate. This page is about the fortnight before that, which is the part people actually get wrong.
When to withdraw, by state
| State | Order of operations | The trap |
|---|---|---|
| Victoria | Apply, wait for approval, then withdraw. Your child stays enrolled while the VRQA assesses | Withdrawing first. Assessment takes up to 28 days, and only from a complete application |
| NSW | Apply while your child is still enrolled. Contact the Home Schooling Directorate about timing before you withdraw | Up to 12 weeks from application to certificate. Withdrawing early leaves a long gap |
| WA | Withdraw, then register within 14 days of the last day of attendance | The clock runs from the last day attended, not from when you decided. The form is collected and lodged in person |
| Queensland | Apply, receive provisional registration, then full registration | The certified birth certificate. Certified, not photocopied, which sends people back out at the last minute |
| South Australia | You do not deregister. You apply for an exemption from attendance, and your child remains enrolled at their school | Assuming SA works like the others and withdrawing the enrolment, which is not how the exemption model works |
Victoria and Western Australia are exact opposites, which is why families moving between them get this wrong in both directions. If you have moved states recently, check the rule for the state you are in now rather than the one you came from, because your instinct will be wrong.
South Australia is a different model entirely
Worth pausing on, because the vocabulary misleads people. In South Australia, home education is an exemption from attending school rather than a deregistration. If it is approved, your child stays enrolled at their existing school and simply is not required to attend for the exemption period.
Two practical consequences. There is no withdrawal letter to write, and your relationship with the school continues rather than ending, which some families find useful and others find awkward. And because the enrolment persists, going back later is a different and generally simpler conversation than in states where the enrolment was cancelled.
What to actually say to the school
Once you are at the right point in your state’s order of operations, the withdrawal itself is short. Do it in writing, even if you have already had the conversation.
A withdrawal letter needs four things and nothing else: your child’s full name and year level, the last date of attendance, a statement that they are being withdrawn to be home educated, and your signature and the date. Email is fine, and keep a copy with the sent date, because this becomes the document that proves when your clock started, which matters enormously in WA.
You do not need to explain your reasons, justify the decision, or answer questions about your program. Schools vary from warmly supportive to visibly annoyed, and neither reaction changes anything about your rights. If a school asks for information it has no basis to require, the polite version of no is: “I am notifying you of the withdrawal, and the registration process is handled by the relevant body.”
Ask for these before you go
This is the part almost everyone skips and later regrets. You have far more leverage as a current family than as a former one, and some of these are genuinely hard to obtain a year later.
- The most recent school reports, and ideally the previous few. These describe your child in the school’s own language, which is exactly what a registration application benefits from when it explains your child’s learning needs.
- NAPLAN results, if your child has sat it. Useful as a starting point, and harder to chase down once you have left.
- Any assessment or specialist reports: speech, occupational therapy, psychology, learning support plans, funding documentation. If your child has a diagnosis or a support plan, get every document now.
- A note of where they actually got to. Not the year level, but the topic. Which maths unit, which text, which stage of a project. It costs a teacher two minutes and saves you a month of guessing.
- Samples of recent work, if the school will release them. These become the first entries in your portfolio, and more usefully they become the “before” half of a pair that demonstrates progress a year later.
Timing within the year
There is no legally best time, but there are practical differences worth knowing.
- End of a term or year is administratively cleanest, and it gives you the break to prepare the application without also managing a child at home who has just left school.
- Mid-year is completely normal and no state penalises it. If a situation is bad, waiting for a tidy date is not a good enough reason to stay in it.
- In WA the calendar is a real factor, because the 14 days runs regardless of school holidays and the regional office needs to be open for you to collect and lodge the form. Withdrawing on the last day before a long break is the version of this that goes badly.
- In Victoria and NSW, start earlier than feels necessary, because the waiting period is real and your child stays at school throughout it.
The gap you must not create
Every Australian state requires children of compulsory school age to be either enrolled at a school or registered for home education. There is no third state, and no informal period in between.
If you have already withdrawn and are not yet registered, the fix is the same everywhere and it is to make contact now:
- Contact your state’s registration body directly and say where you are up to.
- Lodge whatever you can lodge, even if the program is not polished. An application in progress is a completely different situation from silence.
- If the gap arose because a school withdrawal happened faster than expected, say so. It is a common and unremarkable situation.
A problem you raise is treated very differently from a problem that is discovered. That is true in all five states and it is the single most useful sentence on this page.
Before you tell anyone: two things worth doing first
- Draft the program before the last day. In WA you have a fortnight, and in every state the application is really the program. Writing it while your child is still at school is much easier than writing it while they are at home expecting something to happen. Our guide to choosing a homeschool curriculum in Australia covers what to build it against.
- Decide what you are telling your child, and when. Once a child knows, the school usually knows within a day. That is fine if you are ready and awkward if the application has not been lodged in a state where it needs to come first.
The short version
Check your state’s order before you do anything. Victoria: approval first, and stay enrolled until it arrives. NSW: apply while enrolled and allow twelve weeks. WA: withdraw, then register inside 14 days. Queensland: apply, provisional, full. South Australia: you are applying for an exemption and your child stays enrolled.
Then withdraw in writing with four facts and no explanation, keep a dated copy, and collect the reports, assessments, specialist documents and work samples on the way out, because they are much harder to get later and they are the raw material for both your application and your portfolio.
And if you have already created a gap, contact the registration body today rather than reading another page about it.
Once you are registered, what goes in an Australian home education portfolio covers the records side, and how to start homeschooling in Australia covers the first term.
Sprout Lessons builds curriculum-aligned lessons in about thirty seconds, which is the fastest way to turn a decision into the program your application needs. Start free.
Checked against the five state processes as at 31 August 2026. This is general information, not legal advice: confirm the current order of operations and timeframes with your own state’s registration body before you withdraw your child, because the consequences of getting the order wrong fall on you rather than on the school.
FAQ
Do I withdraw my child from school before or after registering?
It depends entirely on your state, and two of them are exact opposites. Victoria requires approval before you withdraw, and your child must stay enrolled while the VRQA assesses the application. Western Australia is the reverse: you withdraw and then have 14 days to register, with the clock running from the last day attended. NSW wants you to apply while your child is still enrolled and allow up to twelve weeks. Families who move between states get this wrong in both directions.
Why does South Australia not require deregistration?
Because it uses a different model. In South Australia home education is an exemption from attending school rather than a deregistration, so if the application is approved your child stays enrolled at their existing school and simply is not required to attend for the exemption period. There is no withdrawal letter, the relationship with the school continues, and going back later is generally the simplest return of the five states.
What do I put in a school withdrawal letter?
Four things and nothing else: your child’s full name and year level, the last date of attendance, a statement that they are being withdrawn to be home educated, and your signature and the date. Email is fine, and keep a copy with the sent date because it evidences when your clock started. You are notifying, not asking. You do not need to explain your reasons, justify the decision or answer questions about your program.
What should I ask the school for before we leave?
Five things, all much harder to obtain a year later: the most recent school reports, NAPLAN results if your child has sat it, any specialist or assessment reports such as speech, occupational therapy or psychology and any support plan, a note of where your child actually got to by topic rather than year level, and samples of recent work. The reports describe your child in the school’s own language, which is exactly what a registration application benefits from, and the work samples become the earlier half of a pair that demonstrates progress later.
Is there a best time of year to withdraw?
No legally best time, but there are practical differences. The end of a term or year is administratively cleanest and gives you a break to prepare the application. Mid-year is completely normal and no state penalises it, so if a situation is bad, waiting for a tidy date is not a good reason to stay in it. In WA the calendar is a real factor, because the 14 days runs regardless of school holidays and the regional office has to be open for you to collect and lodge the form.
What if my child is already out of school and not registered yet?
Contact your state’s registration body today. Every Australian state requires children of compulsory school age to be either enrolled at a school or registered for home education, with no informal period in between. Lodge whatever you can, even an unpolished program, because an application in progress is a completely different situation from silence, and say plainly if the withdrawal happened faster than expected. It is a common and unremarkable situation, and a problem you raise is treated very differently from one that is discovered.