The deregistration procedure in England and Wales is very simple.
In England and Wales deregistration is not at the discretion of the LEA or the Head Teacher. With two exceptions there are no grounds in law for them to refuse to deregister your child.
If your child attends a normal state school (by that I mean not a special needs school see below) to deregister your child you must send a letter to the Head Teacher of the school. Your child should then be deregistered. The Head Teacher must immediately inform the Local Education Authority. The LEA will probably make contact to ensure that you are providing an education for your child see the guidelines or FAQ.
If your child is attending a private school then you deregister in the usual way. The head teacher should inform your LEA that the child is no longer attending the school but many do not do so.
Under no circumstances need parents contact the LEA themselves. This should (in law) be done by the school and there is no requirement in law for the parents to do this themselves. If the school fails to inform the LEA it is a problem for the LEA and the school, it should not have any implications for the parents or child. Similarly there is no advantage to be gained by informing the LEA of your child's deregistration. My advice, therefore, is not to inform the LEA yourselves but rather to wait for the LEA to contact you. If they do not do so then leave the matter as it stands. LEAs have little if anything to offer you.
If your child is attending a designated Special Needs school arranged by the LEA then you need consent to deregister (Education (Pupil Registration) Regulation 8(2) 2006). This includes any state special needs school and any independent special needs school arranged by the LEA.
Parents do not require permission to deregister a child from an independent special needs school where the place was arranged by the parents. A special unit at a "normal" school is not within the legal definition of a "special needs school" so again permission is not required for deregistration.
A decision by the LEA should be prompt. refusals must be properly considered and with very good reason which should be given to the parents. Refusals are challengeable in court. In the unlikely circumstances of a parent being refused permission to home educate I strongly suggest you see a lawyer competent in dealing with home education issues. It should be noted that refusals are exceedingly rare. In most cases of my experience requests for deregistration are gratefully received as it removes the bourdon of providing expensive education from the LEA.
The LEA and health authority may not refuse to provide other health related care on the grounds that it is only provided at a special school. however this claim is common. It may be necessary for you to fight for the alternative provision to which your child in entitled.
A child having a statement of special educational needs is not of itself reason to require permission to deregister and is not a valid reason for refusal to deregister. So a refusal to deregister cannot be that the child has a statement of special educational needs but must include valid well argued reasons. For specialist information in this case look at here he-special-UK.
However you should note that the law says that you must provide an education appropriate to your child's special needs. Thus you would be wise to examine what any SEN statement actually says so that you can deal with issues as they arise There have been some recent changes regarding SEN statements but these should not effect you, however LEA's may misunderstand these changes. You do not need to meet your child's needs in the way they are met in part 4 of the statement, a statement of special needs cannot in any way obligate a parent to do anything in particular but the parents will non the less need to meet their child's needs somehow.
NB - A Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) is not a special school (despite what some LEA's might tell you s19(2) of the 1996 Education Act clearly states:
"any school ... maintained by an LEA which (a) is specially organized to provide education for [children of csa who by reason of illness or exclusion from school or other similar reason] and (b) is NOT a county school or A SPECIAL SCHOOL, shall be known as a "PRU"
Thus a PRU cannot be a special school as the 1996 act gives them exclusive definitions and therefore you do not require consent to deregister your child from a PRU. Sometimes attendance at a PRU is the result of a Statutory Attendance Order which must be considered when deregistering.
It was almost certainly the intention of the legislators that deregistration should be not possible for children with an SAO in force and it is the view of the DCFS that permission is required. However, it is thought by some that following the letter of the law an SAO is not grounds for requiring consent to deregister. However the situation surrounding SAO's is complex and this idea has never been tested in law and extreme caution should be exercised in taking this view. You are best advised to take legal advice before you attempt to deregister a child with an SAO. If you want help finding someone with experience contact me here.
It is important that you obtain written confirmation that your child has been deregistered from the school as it is a criminal offence to keep your child from a school to which the child is a registered attendee. Similarly it is worth sending the deregistration letter by recorded delivery so that you have evidence of having sent the letter to the school.
The situation in Scotland and Northern Ireland are different. For more information see:
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Below is a Deregistration Letter. Copy the following letter, filling in and altering the personal details in italics particular to your circumstances.
Head teacher's Name
School name
Schools address
The Date
Re: Full name of child d.o.b. Date of birth
Dear Head's name
I am writing to inform you that my son/daughter Child(rens) Name(s) is receiving an education at home, otherwise than at school in accordance with Section 7 of the 1996 Education Act.
Therefore, I would be grateful if you would remove his/her/their name(s) from the school register as from the date you wish to leave in accordance with the Education (Pupil Registration) Regulation 8(1)(d) 2006 for mainstream schools
Please confirm in writing that my child(ren) has/have been removed from the school register.
Yours sincerely
sign here
Your name
