Notice of Concern Homeschool WA: What It Means and What to Do

Receiving a Notice of Concern from the WA Department of Education is alarming, but it is not a cancellation of your registration. It is a formal notification that your moderator has identified concerns serious enough to require a follow-up evaluation — and the law gives you specific rights and a defined timeline to address those concerns before anything more serious can happen.

Understanding what the Notice of Concern actually triggers, how the process works, and what a substantive response looks like is the difference between resolving the issue efficiently and escalating it unnecessarily.

What Triggers a Notice of Concern

Under Section 52 of the School Education Act 1999 (WA), a Notice of Concern is issued when the Director of Education determines that a home educator's program or a child's educational progress is unsatisfactory. The moderator cannot issue the notice themselves — they submit an evaluation report with specific recorded concerns, which is then reviewed by the Director.

The most common triggers are:

Thin or absent evidence of learning. Arriving at an evaluation with few dated work samples, limited documentation, or evidence only from the weeks immediately before the visit signals that learning is not being recorded systematically. A moderator cannot assess progress without evidence of what happened across the full year.

An educational program that does not reference the WA Curriculum. Programs that are simply a list of activities without connection to WACAO learning outcomes — or programs that are clearly imported from another state's curriculum framework — do not demonstrate WA-specific curriculum alignment.

Evidence that progress is insufficient. If work samples across the year show no meaningful improvement in literacy, numeracy, or other learning areas, the moderator must record this as a concern. Progress does not need to be rapid or mirror a classroom pace, but it must be present and documentable.

Refusal to engage with the evaluation process. Section 53 explicitly allows cancellation if a parent refuses an evaluation or hinders the moderator's access. A Notice of Concern may precede this.

The Statutory Process After a Notice of Concern

The process set out in the Act is sequential and gives you real opportunities to resolve the situation:

Step 1 — The moderator records specific concerns. After the evaluation meeting, the moderator documents specific, not vague, concerns in their evaluation report. "The parent seemed disorganised" is not a valid specific concern. "No dated work samples were presented for the Mathematics learning area across the year" is.

Step 2 — The Director reviews and issues the notice. The report goes to the Director of Education, who decides whether the concerns warrant a formal Notice of Concern. If they do, you receive written notification specifying the concerns.

Step 3 — You receive at least 7 days' notice before re-evaluation. The re-evaluation is where you demonstrate that you have addressed the specific concerns raised. You must be given at least 7 days from receiving the Notice of Concern before the re-evaluation is scheduled. This is not a lot of time, which is why the response needs to be structured and targeted.

Step 4 — Re-evaluation. The same moderator, or a different one, assesses whether the specific concerns have been resolved. This is not a full repeat of the initial evaluation — it is focused on the gaps identified in the original report.

Step 5 — Cancellation (Section 53), if concerns are unresolved. If the Director of Education determines the concerns remain unaddressed, they may recommend cancellation to the Director General. Cancellation is the most serious outcome, but it is not instant.

Step 6 — Right of appeal. If a Notice of Cancellation is issued, it does not take effect immediately. You have 14 days to lodge a written application for review with the Minister for Education. The cancellation is stayed while the appeal is in progress.

What a Substantive Response Looks Like

The most effective response to a Notice of Concern is targeted and documented. Do not attempt to rebuild everything — focus on the specific concerns listed in the notice.

If the concern is insufficient evidence of learning in a particular learning area:

• Compile every relevant work sample, photo, project record, and online platform report from across the year for that area
• Add annotations to undated or unexplained items
• Create a brief summary of what the child has covered in that area, with references to specific dates and work samples

If the concern is that the educational program does not align with the WA Curriculum:

• Rewrite the program section that was found inadequate, explicitly referencing WACAO achievement standards or content descriptions
• Connect your actual learning activities to the relevant curriculum language

If the concern is insufficient progress:

• Document the starting point (what the child could do at the beginning of the year) and the current point (what they can do now)
• Show progression — dated early work versus dated recent work — across the area of concern
• Include any assessments, reading levels, or platform-generated reports that quantify progress

The re-evaluation is not the time to argue with the moderator's assessment. It is the time to present specific evidence that addresses specific concerns.

How to Avoid Reaching This Point

The Notice of Concern process exists because some families genuinely struggle with the documentation requirements, not because the Department is adversarial. The families most likely to receive one are those who:

• Began home educating suddenly (school withdrawal due to crisis) and did not have time to establish documentation systems from the start
• Take an unstructured or unschooling approach without maintaining records that translate natural learning into curriculum language
• Let documentation lapse mid-year and could not reconstruct it adequately before the evaluation

Consistent, year-round documentation is the most reliable protection. The 15-minute weekly habit — selecting a few work samples, dating them, adding a one-sentence note — takes minutes per week but produces months of organised evidence.

The WA Portfolio & Assessment Templates include the educational program template, weekly evidence logs, and work sample trackers that prevent documentation gaps from accumulating. If you are currently working through a Notice of Concern response, the templates also give you the framework to produce a structured, professional re-evaluation portfolio quickly.

If Your Moderator's Concerns Seem Unreasonable

Not every Notice of Concern is the result of genuine documentation failure. Moderators are human, regional expectations vary, and occasionally a moderator's assessment reflects personal expectations rather than the statutory standard.

If you believe the concerns listed in the Notice of Concern are inaccurate or exceed what the Act requires, you have options:

• Contact HEWA (Home Education WA) for advice on the specific concerns and your rights
• Request to have a different moderator assigned for the re-evaluation by contacting the regional line manager at the Department
• Document your position in writing before the re-evaluation so that your response is on record

The appeal process (Step 6 above) exists precisely for situations where the moderation process itself has not been carried out correctly. It is a last resort, but it is a real one.

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