Interest in homeschooling decreases, but the agenda should advance in the Senate in 2024

The legal difficulties encountered by educating families and the return to life outside the home after the pandemic affected the growth of home education. Although there is no official data in Brazil on the practice, this is a perception of part of the community of parents who educate at home. Meanwhile, the Federal Senate must work to ensure that the bill regulating home education moves forward. Senator Professor Dorinha Seabra (União-TO), rapporteur of the text, informed the People’s Gazette which intends to present an opinion and take it to a vote in the Education Committee in the first half of this year.

A series of public hearings have taken place in the Federal Senate since PL 1338/2022 arrived at the House in May 2022. “Now, resuming work, I intend to present a text proposal to be evaluated directly by the Education Commission. The forecast is to take it to a vote by this first semester”, says the senator. The parliamentarian even informs that she held a meeting with the Ministry of Education, which is contrary to the topic.

Dorinha is already familiar with the subject, as in 2014, when she was still a federal deputy, she was also rapporteur for the same bill. In the Chamber, she even presented an opinion to the Education Committee in favor of home teaching, which creates good expectations for teaching families.

After passing through the Education Committee of the Federal Senate, the text must still be considered by the plenary of the House. If there are changes, the text returns to the Chamber of Deputies. If approved, it must be sanctioned by President Lula, who can veto the proposal. If this happens, Congress can override the veto.

The Lula government is officially against homeschooling. Recently, vice-president Geraldo Alckmin classified home education as a “racist proposal”, a statement refuted by teaching families.

Growth of educator families declines after the pandemic

“I think that educating families have returned to being the families they always were. Near me, I saw several families who switched to home education due to the pandemic, but later came to the conclusion that it was better to send their children to school”, says Rafael Vidal, founder of the Association of Educating Families of the Federal District. According to him, the entity itself lost many families, whether due to the post-pandemic context or the legislative changes that took place in the Federal District.

The DF was the federative unit in which the practice was considered constitutional for the longest time due to a law approved in the Legislative Chamber of the Federal District, which attracted families from all over Brazil. However, at the request of the DF Teachers Union (Sinpro/DF), in July 2023, the Federal District Court of Justice (TJ-DF) considered the district law that allowed homeschooling in the region unconstitutional. In this way, the Public Ministry of the Federal District began to prosecute educational families.

“Even in a scenario of legal challenges, there is still great and growing interest, perhaps not at as high a pace as before”, counters Carlos Vinícius Brito Reis, president of the National Home Education Association (Aned). He said that 50% of Aned’s services are to clarify doubts about how to start homeschooling. “In some regions it may have affected the speed of growth, but it has not reduced the number of families doing homeschooling. On the contrary, it continues to increase”, he reinforces.

Parliamentary Front in Defense of Homeschooling was not reinstalled in the Chamber of Deputies

During the Bolsonaro government, conservative federal deputies established the Parliamentary Front in Defense of Homeschooling. But, in this legislature, so far, the front has not been made official. According to the advice of Deputy Dr Jaziel (PL-CE), president of the Front from 2019 to 2022, the number of parliamentarians’ signatures required for the installation has already been reached and, despite the delay, it should soon be reinstalled.

For Rafael Vidal, the Parliamentary Front in Defense of Homeschooling is no longer necessary, as it was more associated with the project to regulate homeschooling that is now in the Federal Senate. “There are even other projects that are of interest to home education, but I don’t know if they are so numerous as to justify the work of a Front”, comments Vidal.

Another point is that, normally, parliamentary fronts have financial resources to maintain a good structure, especially professionals who can study the topic and influence deputies and senators. “In home education, the movement is a minority, and most families do not have much political organization, that is, they cannot afford this type of structure”, he adds.

“Regulation is important to separate the wheat from the chaff”

In October 2023, a bill creating the active school search policy was approved in the Chamber of Deputies and also went to the Federal Senate. Conservative parliamentarians tried to reject the project, since for them the active search, in addition to being coercive, should increase the chances of educating families being prosecuted – which puts parents in the hands of judges who would define whether or not there is intellectual abandonment of the children.

“The law already exists, but we need to get out of legal limbo”, reinforces Brito Reis. “We are already in the 21st century, with all the technological advances and all the mechanisms for monitoring, inspection and evaluation. Regulation is necessary precisely to separate the wheat from the chaff”, he adds.

According to Brito Reis, today there are approximately 100 thousand students and 50 thousand families who have adopted homeschooling. But, without a law that regulates it, it is not possible to have official numbers and concrete records, which harms families, students and the entire educational system in the country. “The regulations would bring legal security to all actors: guardianship counselors, Public Ministries, educational institutions that support home education, in addition to the families themselves”, he highlights.

“Even though we don’t have this regulation, and even if we don’t have it for the next 15, 20, 30 years or more, the reality is that homeschooling is unstoppable and families will not stop choosing this modality”, concludes the president of Aned.