Ukrainian Families and Home Education in Ireland: Temporary Protection and School Options

Tens of thousands of Ukrainian children arrived in Ireland following the 2022 invasion, and many of their families are navigating education in a country they did not plan to be in, for a duration that remains uncertain. Irish schools absorbed significant numbers of Ukrainian children, but the situation is uneven. Some families have children well-settled in Irish schools and do not need to consider alternatives. Others face a different picture: children who have struggled with the language barrier, schools that are at capacity and cannot enrol additional pupils, families whose return timeline makes full Irish curriculum integration feel futile, or parents who want to preserve their children's connection to the Ukrainian educational system.

For these families, home education under Irish law is available and legally accessible.

Legal Status: Temporary Protection and Home Education

Ukrainian nationals who arrived in Ireland after 24 February 2022 and who hold or are entitled to hold Temporary Protection status under the EU Temporary Protection Directive have a legal right to reside in Ireland. This residency right, for education purposes, is treated equivalently to a standard right of residence: families under Temporary Protection can home educate in Ireland using the same legal framework as Irish citizens or EU residents.

Section 14 of the Education (Welfare) Act 2000 is the legal basis for home education in Ireland. It applies to all children of compulsory school age (6–16) who are resident in Ireland, regardless of nationality or immigration status.

Using Ukrainian Curriculum and Online Schools

One of the most practically important aspects of Irish home education law for Ukrainian families is this: you do not have to use the Irish national curriculum. AEARS assessors evaluate whether your programme provides a "suitable education" — covering literacy, numeracy, history and culture, science, the arts, physical education, and social development — but they do not require that you use Irish curriculum materials to do it.

Ukrainian families can, and do, home educate using Ukrainian curriculum materials, including through online Ukrainian state education programmes. Ukraine has maintained an online distance education system throughout the war, and Ukrainian children in Ireland can enrol in Ukrainian online schools that provide instruction in Ukrainian according to the Ukrainian national curriculum.

The R1 application form — the AEARS assessment application — explicitly accommodates online state education from abroad as part of a child's educational programme. An AEARS assessor can assess a programme that includes Ukrainian online school attendance as part of its provision.

In practice, the most common arrangement is a hybrid: Ukrainian online school for core academic subjects in Ukrainian, supplemented by English language instruction and social activities in Ireland. This satisfies both the AEARS requirement for a suitable education and the Ukrainian educational requirement for curriculum continuity.

The Tusla Process

If your child is enrolled in an Irish school and you are withdrawing them:

1. Write formally to the school principal notifying them that you are withdrawing your child to educate at home under Section 14. This is a notification. You do not need the principal's agreement.

2. Notify Tusla directly of your intention to home educate.

3. An AEARS assessor will be assigned to review your programme.

4. The assessment evaluates your programme across four domains: moral development, intellectual development, physical development, and social development.

5. If assessed as providing a suitable education, your child is placed on the Section 14 register.

If your child has never been enrolled in an Irish school:

You notify Tusla directly without a prior school withdrawal. The rest of the process is the same.

Language. AEARS assessments are conducted in English. If your English is limited, you may bring a family member or friend who speaks English to assist with communication. Assessors are generally aware that many Ukrainian families are in Ireland under exceptional circumstances.

Irish Language

The Irish language question is the curriculum element that generates most anxiety for non-Irish families. For Ukrainian families under Temporary Protection, this is even less of a concern than it might appear. AEARS assessors are not expecting Ukrainian children to receive formal Gaeilge instruction. An acknowledgement of Irish cultural context — some awareness of the country your child is living in — is sufficient. The Irish language requirement that applies in Irish schools does not apply in the same form to home education assessments.

What Happens to Ukrainian Online School Attendance

Ukrainian online schools operating for children abroad typically provide attendance records, progress reports, and end-of-year certificates. This documentation is useful for your AEARS assessment: it demonstrates structured educational provision in a recognised curriculum framework. Bring whatever records the Ukrainian school provides to your AEARS assessment.

It is also useful for demonstrating intellectual development — one of the four assessment domains. An assessor who can see that your child is progressing through the Ukrainian national curriculum in core subjects has evidence of educational engagement that is straightforward to assess.

Community and Support

Irish home education community Facebook groups — particularly in Dublin and the commuter counties where most Ukrainian families are resident — include Ukrainian families. Searching for your county's home education Facebook group and introducing yourself is a direct route to finding other families in a similar situation.

HEN Ireland (hen.ie) has fielded questions from Ukrainian families and can provide signposting to relevant local contacts. The organisation is nationality-neutral and does not require that families use Irish curriculum approaches.

Practical Documentation Guidance

For Ukrainian families, documenting your educational programme for AEARS assessment requires translating what you are already doing into the framework that Irish assessors use. The four domains — moral, intellectual, physical, social — need to be addressed, but this does not mean redesigning your programme. Ukrainian online school covers intellectual development. Moral development can be addressed through family values and Ukrainian cultural and ethical education. Physical development through sports and activity. Social development through contact with other children.

The Ireland Legal Withdrawal Blueprint covers the Section 14 process and AEARS documentation in detail, including how programmes that use non-Irish curriculum frameworks are presented to assessors. Getting this first step right — clear notification and clear documentation — determines whether the assessment process is straightforward or unnecessarily complicated.

If you are planning to return to Ukraine when conditions allow, home education using Ukrainian curriculum materials through an Irish legal framework is the arrangement that preserves both your children's educational continuity and your legal compliance in Ireland for however long you remain here.

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