Australia’s Big Home Education Survey
We Need Your Voice to help Build a Picture of Home Education in Australia
Home education in Australia is evolving. As the numbers of home-educating families increase rapidly, the diverse ways families make it work are also growing and changing. To capture this shifting landscape, a team of university researchers—who are also experienced home educators themselves—have launched Australia’s BIG Home Education Survey.
Their goal is to build a comprehensive picture of home education across the country by understanding your unique approaches, experiences, and the supports or resources that you find most helpful.
We have received an update from the research team, and while the response has been fantastic with over 200 surveys already completed, the data is currently showing some gaps that need filling to ensure the results genuinely reflect the entire Australian community.
Who Do We Need to Hear From?
The research team wants to hear from as many people as possible to get a true representation of the community.
You are invited to complete the survey if you fit any of the following categories:
- Current Home Educators: Anyone currently home educating, whether you are registered or unregistered. The team is explicitly seeking the experiences of those who have home educated but have never been registered in addition to registered families.
- Past Home Educators: Anyone who has finished home educating within the last ten years. Currently, less than 5% of respondents are people who have finished home educating. If you stopped home educating in the last ten years, your retrospective insights are also incredibly valuable.
- Prospective/Aspiring Home Educators: Anyone who wanted to home educate but has been unable to do so.
*The team is also specifically looking to boost responses from these under-represented groups of unregistered home educators, past home educators and prospective home educators.
Why Participate?
This is a chance to document the diverse ways families make home education work and what resources are actually helpful.
While the researchers want to hear from everyone, early results show that 70% of respondents live in NSW. To get a national perspective, we urgently need more participants from outside New South Wales.
About the Survey
The survey is completely anonymous, and online.
The survey will remain open until 11:59 pm on Tuesday, 31st March 2026, but we encourage you to jump in now.
Because the researchers want to gather deep insights, it is quite detailed and may take up to 60 minutes to complete, but on average, people are spending 40 minutes completing it. However, the team notes that it is “worth the effort” to contribute to this important data. To make it easier for busy families, the survey platform allows you to complete it in multiple sessions, saving your progress as you go.
Additionally, the survey platform is flexible. You can complete it in multiple sessions, saving your progress as you go, and very few questions are compulsory, meaning you can focus on the areas most relevant to your experience.
How to Get Involved
Please click here to participate:Â
Please Share Widely!Â
Because the current data is heavily skewed toward NSW, please pass this on to your networks in other states and territories.
Ethics Approval:
The project has been approved by the University of Newcastle Human Research Ethics Team (approval number H-2025-0267).
If you need further information, you can contact the lead researchers:
- Dr. Chris Krogh: chris.krogh@newcastle.edu.au
- Dr. Rebecca English: r.english@qut.edu.au
Please complete the survey and pass this information on to anyone you know who fits the criteria.Â
The more voices heard, the better the understanding of home education in Australia will be.
