School at home: seventy-five appeals were examined at the Toulouse administrative court
Despite a relative boom in family education since the pandemic, the Toulouse academy authorized this year 3,217 families to homeschool out of 3,731 requests. Out of seventy-five appeals lodged by parents at the administrative court, 58 were rejected.
The home education boom (IEF)? While the phenomenon is relatively marginal out of the total number of students at the Toulouse academy – more than 3,700 requests for 508,744 students – it has increased significantly since the Covid-19 pandemic.
Without going into details, we assure the rectorate of Toulouse that the trend is significant. This year, according to the figures given during the back-to-school press conference of the rector of the academy Mostafa Fourar, the rectorate examined 3,731 requests for IEF, a “stable figure compared to last year”, assures- t-on, 3,217 requests were authorized, half of them in Haute-Garonne.
Four criteria in the law
The last two back-to-school periods marked by the health crisis and educational continuity (at home) have pushed more families towards this mode of education framed by law.
That of August 24, 2021 which “consolidates the principles of the Republic”, which does not only target attempts at “separatism or radicalism”, but allows instruction in the family “for reasons drawn from the situation of the child and limitingly defined by law”.
A confusing criterion
With an annual examination by the academic management of the national education services (Dasen). Namely, four criteria to be met for families: “the child’s state of health or disability; the practice of intensive sports or artistic activities; the homelessness of the family in France or the geographical distance from any public school; and finally, the existence of a situation specific to the child motivating the educational project”.
It is in particular on this last criterion that it gets stuck for seventy-five families of the academy, who have filed an appeal with the administrative court of Toulouse. Out of 314 requests for the 4th criterion, only 31 were accepted and 283 refused.
A call to demonstrate, Thursday, September 15
Of the 75 appeals, 58 were rejected by the courts and 17 are the subject of “suspension of the administration’s decision”, Mostafa Fourar indicated on Wednesday September 7. Which does not therefore prevent the seventeen families concerned from homeschooling.
“You really need a valid argument for the child to be educated with the family, recalled the rector. During the visit of the Minister of National Education Pap Ndiaye to Toulouse, we mentioned the case of the 4th criterion of the law which can lead to confusion. »
Finally, several “pro-IEF” local associations and collectives called to demonstrate, Thursday, September 15, in Toulouse.