Western Australia gives you 14 days. You must apply to register within 14 days of the last day your child attended school, or of the day they would have first enrolled. That is the shortest and hardest deadline in Australian home education, and it is the one thing to know before anything else.
You apply to your local Education Regional Office rather than to a central authority, and a home education moderator evaluates your program against the Western Australian Curriculum. WA is the only state where you withdraw first and register after, which is the exact opposite of Victoria.
Western Australia at a glance
| Requirement | Western Australia |
|---|---|
| Registration required | Yes, within 14 days of leaving school |
| Who you apply to | Your local Education Regional Office, not a central body |
| Who may register | Only a parent. Step-parents and grandparents cannot, without adoption or guardianship |
| Ages covered | The compulsory period: from the year the child turns 5 years 6 months, until 17 years 6 months, 18, or graduation |
| Registration period | Runs for the compulsory period. No annual re-application |
| Ongoing check | Evaluation by a home education moderator, who may ask to see evidence and meet your child |
| Curriculum basis | Consistency with the Western Australian Curriculum |
| Automatic lapse | If the child enrols at a school, enters an approved participation arrangement, or leaves WA |
| Parent qualifications | None required |
| Testing | None. NAPLAN is not required |
The 14 day rule, and how to not be caught by it
The deadline runs from the last day your child attended school, or from the day they would have enrolled for the first time. Not from when you decided, and not from when you told the school.
This produces a genuinely different order of operations from the eastern states, and families moving from Victoria or New South Wales get it wrong in both directions:
- In WA you withdraw and then register, inside a fortnight.
- In Victoria you register and then withdraw, and starting before approval is the breach.
Two practical moves make the fortnight comfortable rather than frantic. First, contact your Education Regional Office before you withdraw, so the form is in your hands on day one rather than day nine. The form is obtained from the regional office and lodged in person, which is a step that takes a day of its own if you have not planned for it.
Second, have a draft program written before the last day of school. Fourteen days is enough to lodge a program you have already thought about, and not enough to invent one from nothing while also managing a child who has just left school.
If you are already past 14 days, contact the regional office now. Being late and in touch is a different situation from being late and silent.
Only a parent may register
WA is unusually specific about this and it catches real families. Only a parent may register as a home educator, where parent means a person with legal responsibility for the child’s care and welfare.
Step-parents and grandparents cannot register unless they have legally adopted the child or obtained guardianship. That does not stop a grandparent doing much of the teaching. It means the registered home educator has to be the parent, and the paperwork has to be in that person’s name.
If your family arrangement is anything other than the straightforward case, sort this out before the 14 day clock starts rather than during it.
What the program has to show
Your educational program is evaluated for the extent to which it is consistent with the Western Australian Curriculum. Note the wording: consistent with, not identical to. You are not required to reproduce a school timetable, and the moderator is assessing alignment and progress rather than compliance with a scheme of work.
In practice, what makes an evaluation straightforward is being able to show the connection between what your child did and what the curriculum describes. Writing the relevant curriculum content descriptions next to your planned activities is the cheapest way to do that, and it takes an afternoon at the start rather than a scramble before a visit. Our guide to which curriculum your state uses covers how the WA curriculum relates to the national one.
The moderator, and what an evaluation involves
Home education moderators are the people who make WA’s system work, and understanding their role removes most of the anxiety about it.
A moderator evaluates whether your educational program aligns with the Western Australian Curriculum and assesses your child’s progress. They prepare an evaluation report based on evidence and observation, and that report goes to their supervisor for approval before it is released to you. So the report is a considered document rather than one person’s impression on the day.
During an evaluation a moderator may request to see tangible evidence and may meet with your child. Both are normal. Having work organised by learning area, with dates on it, converts an evaluation from an interrogation into a conversation, which is very much in your interest.
If progress is judged unsatisfactory
There is a defined path rather than an abrupt outcome, and it is worth knowing so that a concern does not feel like a catastrophe:
- The director issues written notice setting out the reasons for the concern, so you find out what specifically is at issue rather than being left to guess.
- An evaluation is scheduled, giving you a defined opportunity to address it.
- If concerns persist after re-evaluation, the director may recommend cancellation to the Director General or Deputy Director General.
The gap between step one and step three is where almost every case is resolved. Treat a written notice as a specification of what to fix, because that is what it is.
Deadlines, lapses and staying registered
WA has no annual filing date, and no renewal. Registration runs across the whole compulsory period. What it does have is automatic lapse, which is the thing to watch.
Your registration lapses automatically if your child:
- enrols at a school,
- enters an approved participation arrangement, or
- stops residing in Western Australia.
That third one matters for families who move interstate and intend to keep home educating. Your WA registration ends by operation of the rule, and the new state’s process starts from scratch with its own deadline, which in Victoria means applying before you begin and in New South Wales means allowing up to twelve weeks.
You must also notify the director of education of any change to the information in your application, or of a decision to enrol your child in a school. Address changes are the common one, and they matter more here than elsewhere because the system is organised by regional office.
Records and evidence, in practice
WA does not prescribe a record format, and the moderator works from evidence and observation. Four habits carry an evaluation:
- Organise by learning area, not chronologically. A moderator is checking coverage and progress against the curriculum, so a folder arranged the way the curriculum is arranged answers the question directly.
- Date everything. Progress is a comparison over time, and undated work cannot demonstrate it.
- Keep pairs. An early sample and a later sample of comparable work is the single most persuasive evidence of progress, and it costs nothing but a habit.
- Photograph the things that leave no paper. Practical work, physical education, the arts, projects. Dated photographs are evidence.
Our guide to what goes in an Australian home education portfolio covers the records side across all five states, and our Australian homeschooling tips cover the day-to-day side.
The honest summary
The whole of Western Australia’s difficulty is in the first fortnight. Fourteen days from the last day of attendance, a form you collect from and lodge at your regional office in person, and a program drafted before you need it. Get the form early and write the program before the last day of school and this is a manageable process.
After that WA is one of the lighter regimes: no annual filing, no renewal, no testing, no parent qualifications, and registration that runs the length of the compulsory period. The ongoing relationship is with a moderator who evaluates against the Western Australian Curriculum, may ask for tangible evidence, and may meet your child.
Two WA-specific traps worth repeating. Only a parent may register, so a grandparent or step-parent doing the teaching still needs the parent on the paperwork. And registration lapses automatically if your child enrols at a school or you leave the state, so an interstate move means starting again under a completely different set of rules.
For the other states, see homeschooling requirements in Australia, and for the practical first steps, how to start homeschooling in Australia.
Sprout Lessons builds curriculum-aligned lessons with the code on the lesson, which is exactly the tangible evidence a moderator asks to see. Start free.
Checked against the WA Department of Education’s Home Education Policy and Home Education Procedures as at 30 August 2026. Home education in Western Australia is governed by the School Education Act 1999. This is general information, not legal advice: confirm current requirements, forms and timeframes with your Education Regional Office before you rely on them, and contact them early given the 14 day deadline.
FAQ
How long do I have to register for home education in WA?
Fourteen days from the last day your child attended school, or from the day they would have enrolled at school for the first time. It is the shortest deadline in Australian home education. The clock does not run from when you decided or from when you notified the school, and the form has to be collected from and lodged at your local Education Regional Office in person, so contact the office before you withdraw rather than after.
Do I register before or after taking my child out of school in WA?
After, and this is the opposite of Victoria. In WA you withdraw and then register within a fortnight. In Victoria you must be approved before you begin and your child must stay enrolled while the application is assessed. Families moving between the two states get this wrong in both directions, so check the order for the state you are actually in rather than the one you came from.
Can a grandparent or step-parent register as the home educator in WA?
No, not unless they have legally adopted the child or obtained guardianship. Western Australia is specific that only a parent may register, meaning a person with legal responsibility for the child’s care and welfare. This does not prevent a grandparent doing most of the teaching. It means the registered home educator has to be the parent and the paperwork has to be in that person’s name, which is worth sorting out before the 14 day clock starts.
What does the home education moderator actually do?
They evaluate whether your educational program is consistent with the Western Australian Curriculum and assess your child’s progress, based on evidence and observation. Their report goes to a supervisor for approval before it is released to you, so it is a considered document rather than one person’s impression on the day. During an evaluation a moderator may request to see tangible evidence and may meet with your child. Both are normal.
What happens if the moderator is not satisfied with progress?
There is a defined path rather than a sudden outcome. The director issues written notice setting out the reasons for the concern, so you learn what is specifically at issue. An evaluation is then scheduled, giving you a defined opportunity to address it. Only if concerns persist after re-evaluation may the director recommend cancellation to the Director General or Deputy Director General. Almost every case resolves between the first and last of those steps.
Does WA home education registration need renewing each year?
No. There is no annual filing and no renewal. Registration runs across the compulsory period, which begins the year your child turns 5 years 6 months and ends at 17 years 6 months, at 18, or on completing secondary graduation requirements, whichever comes first. What you do have to watch is automatic lapse: registration ends by itself if your child enrols at a school, enters an approved participation arrangement, or stops residing in Western Australia.