Serving as Government Liaison & Advocating for Home Education Community
I spend many hours each week working on things to benefit all home educators as well as individual families in some instances. This is nearly all unpaid work; some is within my voluntary role as Government Liaison for the National Council of Home Educators of NZ (NCHENZ) but much of it goes well beyond that. The work I do includes:
Would you like to support this work? There is so much more I would like to accomplish, but I can't do it without the support of people like you!
You can make a donation directly to my bank account: 020704-0003699-007 (or -07) (please put Donation in the reference field), or click the button below to donate via debit or credit card - you can choose the amount, and make a one-off donation or choose to make monthly donations.
- Reading/researching/reviewing laws, policies and regulations that affect home education as well as and the access of our students to various resources and programs, and discussing these with relevant parties such as the Ministry of Education, tertiary providers, other program providers, ITOs etc as well as making the home educating community aware of any matters or of opportunities to make submissions etc
- Providing information and advice to home educators on a huge range of matters including exemptions, dealing with government departments, immigration and home education, family court situations, special education needs and rights, foster situations, guardianship rights and requirements, access to programs, and so on and so forth
- Writing articles and books/manuals to make important information accessible to home educators
- Answering questions from the public sector related to home education matters
- Liaising with ERO around reviews etc
- Supporting families who are going through the complaints or review process
- Responding to media enquiries
- etc
Would you like to support this work? There is so much more I would like to accomplish, but I can't do it without the support of people like you!
You can make a donation directly to my bank account: 020704-0003699-007 (or -07) (please put Donation in the reference field), or click the button below to donate via debit or credit card - you can choose the amount, and make a one-off donation or choose to make monthly donations.
Here are some of the things I would like to work on in the future, in addition to continuing the above, as time and resources permit:
- Work on re-writing the questions ERO use to interview home educators (they invited me to do so)
- Create resources for use by home educators to self-reflect upon or self-review their home education
- Putting together a complete reference manual for home educators with information on all those laws, policies, procedures and other bits and pieces we all need to know at some point.
- Travel around the country and meet with Ministry of Education, ERO, Oranga Tamariki, Attendance Services and other relevant parties to build relationships, discuss policies, provide information etc (or conduct this in alternative ways if COVID makes face-to-face impossible for a time)
- Train/support home educators in each region so they can continue to develop relationships with their regional Ministry offices - local home educators regularly having contact with regional staff makes a HUGE difference!
- Work with the new Work Development Councils (replacing ITOs) to represent home educators and advocate for access to appropriate courses for high school students
- Create "quick start guides" to help new families get started and navigate their way through initial choices about programmes and resources etc
- Add more information to my web pages on relevant matters
- Create and run workshops or produce videos and other resources to help families
- And more!
