As a parent my primary concern is my children's happiness, health and safety. If they are being bullied in school then I must be able to protect them in whichever way seems best, including withdrawing them to home educate them, if that is the path I choose. There is plenty of evidence that home education works, and that increased regulation of home schooling has no correlation with better outcomes.

I am concerned that the government's proposed legislation concerning home education would leave parents unable to protect their child from continuing bullying by withdrawing them from school: the child would have to stay in school until permission were granted to home educate. And as pointed out above, if the parents kept their child home for even a day's respite, they could be fined for truancy.

Governments and school boards have not been able to find a solution to or suitable prevention of bullying in schools for over 100 years. The likelyhood of them finding the answer now is slim to nil when, as some have commented, the solution lies not in the schools but with the parents. Those of us who home educate our children already know that and endeavour to lead our children by example. No one but ourselves have responsibility for our childrens behaviour and that is the way that we like it. On many occasions I have had complete strangers comment on my childrens manners and behaviour in public and I solely accredit this to the fact that they are home schooled. Now it seems that the State Government thinks it has the right to tell me the best way to make sure my children are conforming to 'their' minimum standards when in many ways they are failing miserably. If they would like to know how many of us are out here then fine, but keep your 'minimum standards' to yourself. Our children are bright, well mannered, considerate of others, talented and learning. They WILL be good citizens in their society and WE as parents are responsible for that.

In Queensland, Justice Roslyn Atkinson (2002) states that phenomena such as bullying in schools, herald a litigous future for Education Queensland. Brennan (2002) is a secondary school principal who has listed other factors contributing to similar concerns about dangers in schools. These concerns include: student violence, substance abuse, uncertainty as to values, student absenteeism, teacher absenteeism, and trespassing.

Such uncertainties have partially contributed to the growth of the home school movement across Australia.

Home education, however, is far more than an escape from some of the personal and social threats found in schooling. My research (Harding, 1997, 2003) indicates that parents have chosen home education for many positive reasons which include: the positive "real life" experiences home education provides; the positive learning environment home education provides, the positive social development gained through home education. Home educators do not want to risk their child's literacy and numeracy development; social development and values education to a system which can not guarantee good results.

Research globally indicates that home educated children around the world enjoy academic and social development "as good as, if not better than their traditionally schooled counterparts".

It is ironic to now see Victoria’s educational bureaucracy using bullying tactics upon the home educational community.

These bullying tactics reflect the following:
1. A complete lack of understanding of home education,
2. No reference to the global research into home education,
3. A predetermined agenda to extend the control of the State over the private family home,
4. A government agenda to control a form of pedagogy which is totally foreign to it,
5. A non-democratic contempt towards the home education community,
6. A plan to bulldoze the State's educational legislative process through to completion, as quickly as possible, whilst attracting the least possible public attention and
7. A plan to quash the most parent-honouring and freedom-loving Education Act in Australia.

I ask the Minister, to leave the Education Act unchanged, with respect to home education. It is an exemplar to all other state Education Acts. The Minister should be proud of it and protect it as it is.

I agree with Terry - and ask the minister to leave the education act alone. If Terry in Queensland can see its a good thing, why can't the Victorian Government see it. The governments of Australia haven't got it right yet and it seems like they have been practising with us for a long time. To the minister - For Once do the right thing, Don't make things worse.

The system is never going to find a solution to bullying whilst they have this "no blame" Policy in place. The purpose of this policy is to protect those employed by the system!! If a bully is not going to be blamed for his actions then by lack of action the actions of the bully are being supported. In essence the system supports the bullies and turns their backs on the victims and that is why so many people side with the bullies.

I have 2 children attending high school at present and two primary children being educated at home. I have educated 3 of my 4 children at home for different periods because of bullying - mainly by the teachers and the system. I would say that there are some parents out there, and I suffer from this problem, who do struggle to home school their children because of lack of confidence in their own abilities and lack of higher education. It’s not always a solution for everybody and it is not always as easy as it sounds. Some children love the independence of attending school and would rather not be home schooled but cannot cope with the torment and neglect they are exposed to at school. We shouldn't need to have to keep our children home in order for them to feel safe. The solution is simple - deal with bullies and bullying behaviour regardless of who they are or what position they hold!!

I wrote about my families issues on this site http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/?q=node/858

I also have a blog called "Education Keeping them Honest" http://jolandachallita.typepad.com/education/ that deals with issues in the system. Before the system is able to deal with bullying in schools, they have to address the bullying within their ranks

I agree with Jolanda. Abuse often goes neglected within schools, because of the no-blame policy. A child I know well was severely and repeatedly sexually assaulted by students at her primary school and this was never apparently picked up by the teachers, despite going on under their noses. Her Mother, noticing changes in her behavior, even repeatedly enquired with the teachers as to whether there might be an issue, but they just blamed it on her temperament and ignored it. The young girl eventually told her mother; medical and psychological investigation confirmed the assaults. She is still recovering from the trauma and the boys involved are in the public system without any precautions taken to prevent recurrence, as this would impinge on the boys’ liberty. Many parents remove their children from school because of the lack of care and attention given by teachers, leaving bullying unchecked and letting many children with all sorts of issues just ‘fall through the cracks’. It is impractical to expect that the teacher to child ratio of 24:1 is sufficient to protect children and meet all their individual learning needs, despite the genuine efforts of most teachers.

I have heard much debate over the past few months about the need to regulate home education to prevent abuse occurring in homes, and there are laws in place to do just that. Many children are removed from abusive homes - why does the government want to impair our ability to remove our children from abusive or inappropriate school environments? There are no laws to adequately protect them there!