He homeschooling It’s news. And it is on account of a sentence issued by a court in Vigo that has decided to impose a fine of just over 2,000 euros (with severe reproach included) on parents who decided to educate their nine-year-old son at home, removing the little one from the school in which he was enrolled for the 2024-2025 academic year. The ruling is interesting not so much for its consequences (the penalty is not high: 1,080 euros per parent) as for its arguments and because it differs from other rulings on the same topic that yes they were acquittal.
One moment,homeschooling? The term may seem strange, but it is not new. In fact, it connects with a movement that started in the US in the 70s. He homeschooling It is neither more nor less than an educational option that advocates educating children at home, far from conventional classrooms and schools.
Often focusing educational responsibility on parents and those who practice it stand out above all its ability to adapt to the needs of each child, its personalization and flexibility of schedules, content and spaces.
How many people practice it? Hard to know. In Spain it is estimated that there are between 2,000 and 4,000 families unschoolers. If we talk about the United States, there are calculations that indicate that 3% of students between five and 17 years old receive training at home. The variety of data is explained by the lack of censuses (case of Spain) and above all because the practice does not have the same lace in all countries.
To better understand the regulatory differences, it is good to take a look at the web of Homeschooling. There are nations that clearly prohibit it, others that protect it and then there are cases like Spain, where there are those who consider that home education moves in “a legal ‘gray area'”. Swampy terrain. That is why sentences like the one just handed down by a judge in Galicia arouse so much interest, especially because not all cases end in the same way.
What have they judged in Vigo? What the Criminal Court number 1 of Vigo has ruled on is a very specific case: some parents from Gondomar (in Pontevedra) who decided to take their nine-year-old son out of the public school in which he was enrolled last year to educate him at home.
The ruling recalls that, despite the Educational Inspection’s resolution denying deschooling and the warning from the Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office, the parents continued with their plans, betting on homeschooling and a personal itinerary. The boy attended an academy for two hours a week, but the bulk of his education depended on the program decided by his parents.
And what does the sentence say? The fundamental and key of the sentence, as precise Vigo Lighthouseis the educational bet chosen by parents. The ruling speaks of “flagrant deficiencies”, an educational project that “does not meet the minimum requirements” and “irresponsible unschooling” that compromises the child’s “academic progress” and, ultimately, will condition his life.
“In this case, the education provided directly and almost exclusively by the parents, basically based on their own personal criteria and ideas, without an alternative educational method to the minimally solvent official one and without some evaluative objectivity, represents irresponsible unschooling,” the judge warns in his sentence, disclosed by Lighthouse and with a resounding tone. “There is negligence in education and failures in basic care duties.”
Why is it important? Where you put the focus. The sentence focuses mainly on these shortcomings and the “irresponsibility” of the child’s family. In fact the ruling insists in which the parents did not even resort to an “alternative external educational system to the official one” and selected the subjects based on “their own criteria”, without any other reference. In practice this translated into training that, in the judge’s opinion“does not meet the minimum requirements established in the regulatory framework of compulsory education.”
The minor participated in activities such as bicycle outings, excursions to the forest, sailing with a jet ski, collecting chestnuts or cooking, but he received “basic” skills in fields such as mathematics or language. For example, his parents did not teach him geometry. The expert who was in charge of examining the case in fact noted a “confusion” between the family routine and the school routine and also pointed out the “privatization of socialization” of the child.
Does it explain anything else? Yes. The ruling conveys an interesting message. He explains that “home education may not be criminally reprehensible,” but it must meet a series of requirements, guaranteeing that the child will receive “sufficient” training thanks to an educational system that must be “responsible and competent.”
In fact, this is not the first ruling issued by the Vigo court on the subject: at the beginning of 2024 spoke about another case involving parents who educated their son at home throughout the 2021-22 academic year. The Prosecutor’s Office found a crime of “family abandonment” (the same one that has been tried now) and requested five months in prison for the parents and six months of disqualification for parental authority. What was the result? On that occasion the judge acquitted them.
Although he homeschooling was underlying in both cases, the judge noted clear differences in both cases. In the 2021-2022 report, it concluded that the parents did not show “carelessness” or “carelessness” and carried out “responsible unschooling.” The little boy continued to be educated with official books, he attended various extracurricular activities and the homeschooling It only really lasted one course. In fact, a year later the minor was already attending another center again, where he continued training “with absolute regularity” and obtained good grades.
Is it legal or not legal? Europa Press assures that the ruling of the Court of Vigo warns that the homeschooling It is not a legal option in our country and it is “unquestionable” that parents who do not send their children to school violate an obligation contained in the law. A quick Google search shows that the topic, at the very least, generates debate. In an article In this regard, ARAG, a legal services company, in fact speaks of a “legal ‘gray zone’.”
There are several rules at play. The main one, the obligatory nature of education between 6 and 16 years, a guideline settled in the Constitution itself, which speaks both of the “compulsory” nature of education and of its “freedom.” Another key norm is the Organic Law of Education, which in its article 4 provides some extra touches:
“Basic education includes ten years of schooling and is developed, on a regular basis, between the ages of 6 and 16. However, students will have the right to remain in the ordinary regime, studying basic education until they are 18 years of age, turned in the year in which the course ends.”
What does it mean in practice? If continued school absenteeism is detected can derive in proceedings for child neglect or family abandonment. “In the case of Spain, education is a right and an obligation and must be carried out in the normalized educational environment, that is, in school,” explained in 2020 to Newtral Javier Urra, the first Ombudsman for minors in Madrid.
“The Prosecutor’s Office could interpret that the child’s right is impeded or that the child is put at risk, and end up removing guardianship from the parents,” he warns. This complex scenario does not escape the unschoolersas admits to The Country Laura, a lawyer and practitioner herself homeschooling: “We are in a very complex situation at a legal level, but there is great administrative tolerance. If your children are well cared for you do not have to have any problem with the Administration.”
Images | Jessica Lewis 🦋 thepaintedsquare (Unsplash) and Vitaly Gariev (Unsplash)
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