Advocacy

As WA’s peak body for home education, HEWA has always gone to bat for the rights of home educators. Many of the freedoms and rights that WA home educators enjoy today have come about due to the tireless advocacy of HEWA committee members and volunteers, both past and present.

Over the years, HEWA has been involved in advocacy for the community when policies have been reviewed or changed. When clarification has been needed to protect the community’s interests, HEWA has engaged the services of a lawyer to help put things into plain language for the benefit of home-educating families across WA.

At the height of the Covid upheaval in 2020, the pervading opinion was that home educating families were not being adversely affected. We conducted an extensive survey to assess and evidence the impact of Covid on our community. Unsurprisingly, the opposite was found to be the case. This information was made available to the Education Department, Commissioner, moderators and other key organisations.

HEWA meets regularly with senior staff from the Department of Education’s Operational Initiatives (OI) team, the management team responsible for overseeing home education across all regions of WA, to ensure that the needs of home-educating families are recognised.

You can view minutes from our Department of Education meetings here.

These and many other examples demonstrate HEWA’s ongoing commitment to the rights and welfare of the home educating community.