Homeschooling in Tasmania: The Complete 2026 Guide to Registering and Staying Compliant

Home education is legal in Tasmania, and it has the most distinctive framework in the country: instead of a curriculum, you write to 10 named Standards. You apply to the Office of the Education Registrar, get provisional approval, host a registration visit a few weeks later, and renew every year. This guide walks through every step in plain English, with links to the official sources.

For the one-page checklist version, see our Tasmania quick-steps guide. This article is the full explainer.

Is homeschooling legal in Tasmania?

Yes — home education is legal in Tasmania, registered through the Office of the Education Registrar (OER), an independent statutory office. The governing law is the Education Act 2016 (Tas), with the detail set out in the Education Regulations 2017 (Tas) — specifically Schedule 1, which contains the 10 home-education Standards. The OER also uses Ministerial Instruction 13 for interpretive guidance.

You do not need a teaching qualification, and you do not have to follow any particular curriculum. What Tasmania asks is that your program addresses all 10 Standards, and that you keep your child enrolled at school until the OER provisionally approves your application — at which point you can begin.

Who can register, and when can you apply?

Home education registration covers school-aged children, and Tasmania is flexible about timing: you can apply at any time of year, and from October for a child turning 5 on 1 January the following year. Your child remains enrolled at their school until provisional approval comes through.

A couple of practical points:

• Don’t withdraw your child from school before you have provisional approval — the OER is explicit that enrolment continues until then.
• You prepare a separate Home Education Program for each child.

Not sure how to structure a program around the 10 Standards? The free Cordia Start Wizard helps you get started in a couple of minutes.

How registration works: provisional approval, then a visit

Tasmania’s process has a clear rhythm. When you apply, the Registrar aims to make a provisional-approval decision within 14 days (unless more information is needed). Provisional approval is what lets you start home educating.

Then comes the distinctive part: after provisional approval, a registration officer conducts a registration visit — usually in your home, about 6 to 8 weeks later — and writes a report. On the advice of the Tasmanian Home Education Advisory Council (THEAC), the Registrar then decides to:

1. approve registration for 12 months;
2. approve for 12 months with a follow-up support visit or call;
3. approve with conditions;
4. continue provisional registration with conditions (requiring a second visit); or
5. refuse.

Once granted, full registration runs for 12 months, renewed annually with a new program and a further annual visit.

What you need to apply

Your application has several parts, and Tasmania is specific about identity. You’ll need:

• A completed, signed application form.
• A separate Home Education Program (HEP) for each child (at renewal, this becomes a HESP — a Home Education Summary and Program — which adds a summary of the previous year’s learning).
• Certified identification proving the child’s name, date of birth and the parent’s name — for example, a certified copy of the birth certificate, or a birth-certificate extract plus a Medicare card, or a passport plus a Medicare card.
• A copy of any applicable Family Court Orders.
• If your child previously attended school with more than 20 days’ unexplained absence in the last 12 months, a copy of the school attendance record with an explanation.

The centrepiece is the HEP — and it has one firm rule you can’t skip.

Do you have to follow a curriculum? The 10 Standards

No — Tasmania does not mandate any curriculum. The OER’s “Understanding the Standards” page is explicit: “There is no requirement to follow the Australian Curriculum or any particular curriculum.” Instead, your Home Education Program must address 10 regulatory Standards, and it must address each one individually, using the Standard titles as headings. The OER states plainly: “We will not accept a HEP that does not address each individual Standard.”

The 10 Standards are:

1. Diverse Learning Needs (if relevant)
2. Research
3. Pedagogy
4. Literacy
5. Numeracy
6. Range of Learning Areas
7. Wellbeing
8. Interpersonal Skills
9. Future Directions (for children 13 and over)
10. Evaluation

This is outcomes-and-process based — comparable in flexibility to Victoria and Queensland — but organised around a more detailed, named framework. The practical tip: write your HEP with those exact ten headings, and under each, describe what you’ll do. It’s a clear structure once you know it, and it’s the single biggest thing that gets applications accepted first time.

A structured plan makes writing to the 10 Standards far easier — it gives you real content to describe under Range of Learning Areas, Literacy, Numeracy and Evaluation without starting from a blank page. That’s exactly what Cordia is built to generate; see how it fits on our pricing and founding-families page.

Record-keeping and the annual visit

At your registration visit, you must be able to show evidence that your program is being implemented, reflecting the activities in your HEP (or any changes since). So keeping evidence through the year is essential — it’s what the visit is built around.

Acceptable evidence includes work samples, photos and videos, and “parent dashboard records from online programs.” Each Standard is assessed — based on your HEP plus the discussion and evidence at the visit — as “Meeting Standard,” “Working towards Standard,” or “Not Meeting Standard.” Where a Standard is “working towards” or “not meeting”, the OER may recommend a support visit or phone call, usually three to six months later.

A face-to-face visit is the standard method and an annual event (and a legislative requirement in most cases), though a video-conference visit may be arranged in some circumstances. After your child completes the equivalent of Year 10 (the year they turn 16), you must tell the Registrar whether you intend to keep home educating or move to an approved learning program.

How to write your HEP to the 10 Standards

The single most useful habit in Tasmania is to build your Home Education Program with the ten Standard titles as your literal headings, then write a short, honest paragraph under each. The OER won’t accept a program that skips a Standard, so this structure is your safeguard against a rejection.

You don’t need long essays. Under Research, note how you plan and find resources; under Pedagogy, how you teach and why it suits your child; under Literacy and Numeracy, what you’ll do and how you’ll gauge progress; under Range of Learning Areas, the breadth you’ll cover; under Wellbeing and Interpersonal Skills, how you support your child’s health and relationships; under Evaluation, how you’ll review whether it’s working. Include Diverse Learning Needs only if relevant, and Future Directions for children 13 and over.

At the registration visit, each Standard is assessed as “Meeting”, “Working towards” or “Not Meeting” — based on your written program plus the discussion and evidence you show. If a Standard is “working towards”, the OER may offer a support visit or call a few months later; it’s framed as help, not a penalty. Writing clearly to all ten from the start is what gets most families a clean 12-month approval.

A simple step-by-step to get registered

1. Keep your child enrolled at school until provisional approval.
2. Write a Home Education Program for each child, addressing all 10 Standards under their exact titles.
3. Gather certified ID (and any Family Court Orders / attendance records).
4. Apply to the OER — provisional approval usually within 14 days.
5. Host the registration visit (usually 6–8 weeks after provisional approval), with evidence ready.
6. Keep evidence through the year — work samples, photos, dashboard records.
7. Renew annually with a new HESP and an annual visit.

Tasmania rewards parents who write cleanly to the 10 Standards and keep evidence as they go. The framework looks unusual at first, but it’s clear once you use the headings.

Ready to build a program that addresses all 10 Standards for your child? Start with the free Cordia Wizard, compare frameworks with our Victoria guide, or browse more guides on the blog. Wherever you are, you can find your state’s official steps here.

Sources

This guide draws on Office of the Education Registrar primary sources, accessed July 2026. Always confirm the current detail on the official pages before you apply:

• OER — Home education (overview, provisional approval, registration visits).
• OER — Understanding the Standards (the 10 Standards, no-curriculum requirement, assessment outcomes).
• OER — How to apply for home education (application contents, certified ID, timelines).
• OER — Legislation, regulations and standards (the Education Act 2016 and Education Regulations 2017).
• OER — Guide for New Home Education Registrations (step-by-step registration guide).