School Attendance Orders - 5
The family can accept or challenge the authority's view
The family may accept or may challenge the authority's view. If the family decides to comply with the authority's requests, there should be sufficient time for the family to address the authority's concerns, either by changing the delivery of home education in some way or by providing additional information about the home education programme.
In our page about Educational Philosophies we set out some ways in which the family may choose to provide additional information.
What if the family does not comply with the requests preceding the SAO?
If the family chooses to challenge the authority's view, there may be a period of dialogue between the family and the authority, the outcome of which might be conclusive, i.e., one side or the other backs down.
On the other hand, the process may well be inconclusive, in that the local authority might give short term conditional approval with the proviso that someone will return to assess the home education in a few months.
"Threats work"
Local authorities have told Education Otherwise that "threats work". In other words, the threat to issue a School Attendance Order usually achieves the desired effect of causing the family to comply with requests/demands made by the authority.