The myth of invisible children: why home educated children are being misrepresented
Home educated children are not “invisible”: why being out of school is not being at risk.
In recent years, a troubling phrase has crept into media headlines and government discussions about elective home education: “invisible children”. It’s used to describe children who are not in school, as though being outside the school system means they are unseen, unknown, or at risk. The implication is clear. If a child is not on a school register, something must be wrong. But this framing is deeply misleading, and it does real harm to families and children who are learning safely and successfully beyond the classroom.
When government reports or headlines talk about ‘missing children’, they often blur the line between absence from school and absence from safety. The phrase is often used to imply danger or neglect. But most of these children aren’t lost, they’re at home, known, loved, and learning in ways that schools couldn’t offer them. These children aren’t invisible. They’re just not on a school register. They’re in the woods, at libraries, in workshops and museums. They’re baking bread, building robots, drawing comics, caring for animals, exploring the world in their own time. They’re learning in ways that don’t show up on a spreadsheet.
Many of these children are thriving because they’re not in school. Because they were seen, understood, and supported by families who chose a different path. These aren’t lost children. They’re not at risk just because they’re not in a classroom. They are home, being educated by people who love them and know them best.
It’s time we stopped framing these children as missing, and started listening to their stories instead. If anything, the real ‘missing’ children are those separated from their families all day, stuck in crowded classrooms with little space to be truly known. Many in school spend each day unseen, misunderstood, and alone, lost in a system that doesn’t care less about who they really are.
