Home education (IEF) refers to the fact that parents take on the responsibility of educating their child who is subject to compulsory education, without going through a school. Since the law of August 24, 2021, this method has become exceptional: it requires prior authorization from the DASEN, granted based on a detailed educational project. This requirement has created a concrete need for training for families who choose this path.
Administrative and digital skills: the first training focus in IEF
The articles dedicated to home education rarely detail a crucial aspect: mastery of administrative procedures. Starting from the 2025 school year, the authorization request must be submitted online via the “Démarches simplifiées” platform, within a narrow window between March 1 and May 31.
This constrained timeline requires families to prepare their file several months in advance. The educational project, the central piece of the application, must demonstrate that the child will receive an education covering the common core of knowledge. Writing this document implies structuring a coherent educational program, justifying choices, and formalizing them in a format acceptable to the administration.
Organizations today offer training with Home Educ that specifically covers these aspects: assembling the authorization file, writing the educational project, anticipating the points of vigilance raised by academic inspectors. This type of support meets a need that the mere reading of official texts does not fulfill.
Educational project IEF: what academic inspections really expect
The quality of the educational project conditions the granting of authorization. The four acceptable reasons (health or disability, intensive sports or artistic activities, itinerancy, child-specific situation) are not sufficient on their own: the file must prove the parents’ ability to educate according to the expectations of the common core.
Specialized training teaches families how to articulate their project around several requirements:
- The correspondence between the areas of the common core (languages, mathematics, humanistic culture, sciences) and the daily planned activities
- The description of the chosen pedagogical methods, whether it involves structured teaching, alternative pedagogies, or partial recourse to an organization like CNED
- The planning of a tentative schedule showing the regularity of instruction
- The evaluation tools considered to measure the child’s progress
An educational project that is too vague or too theoretical is the main reason for refusal. Training helps transition from an educational intention to a structured document, with precise formulations and concrete examples of scheduled activities.
The reason “child-specific situation”
This fourth reason is the most frequently invoked and also the most difficult to validate. It requires demonstrating how the child’s individual situation (school phobia, bullying, special educational needs) justifies education outside of a school setting. The training teaches how to document this situation with factual elements: medical certificates, psychological assessments, detailed school history.
Academic control of IEF: preparing for inspection without improvisation
Once authorization is obtained, the family is subject to an annual pedagogical inspection conducted by the academic inspectorate. This inspection verifies that the child is progressing in accordance with the expectations of the common core for their age.
Preparation for this inspection represents a complete training component. The inspector evaluates the child’s progress, not the chosen method: a family practicing informal learning must be able to show that the child has acquired the expected skills, even if the path to achieve this differs from a traditional school curriculum.
Dedicated training covers the creation of a portfolio of work, maintaining a pedagogical logbook, and how to present the child’s achievements during the meeting with the inspector. Some offer inspection simulations to familiarize parents with the concrete process of this evaluation.
Teaching resources and choice of materials
The choice of teaching resources is free, but families often find themselves faced with an overwhelming array of options. Regulated correspondence courses (like those from CNED), traditional school textbooks, Montessori materials, online programs: each option has implications for how the inspection unfolds.
Teaching backed by a regulated organization simplifies justification to the inspection, as the program is already aligned with the common core. Conversely, a more flexible approach requires more rigorous documentation work from parents.
Profile of IEF training: formats, durations, and target audiences
Training aimed at families practicing home education comes in various formats. Most are available online, which corresponds to the geographically dispersed reality of the families involved.
- Short modules (a few hours) focused on a specific aspect: writing the educational project, preparing for inspection, introducing a specific pedagogy
- Longer courses (several weeks) covering the entire cycle, from the authorization request to annual follow-up
- Thematic workshops on teaching a subject (mathematics, reading, sciences) adapted to the home setting
The audience is not limited to beginner parents. Families already engaged in IEF take training to diversify their pedagogical approaches or better meet the requirements of an academic inspection that has identified areas for improvement.
The training offer has been structured in direct response to the tightening of regulations. Where IEF previously relied on a simple declaration, the current authorization regime pushes families to professionalize their educational approach, including those who have been educating their children for several years.