Sara Sharif's murder shouldn't lead to a home-school crackdown

Hard cases make bad laws. There can be no harder case than that of Sara Sharif, whose torture and eventual murder by her father and stepmother moved the presiding judge to tears – and horrified us all. But this tragedy should not launch a witch hunt. The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, fast-tracked by the Department for Education and unveiled on Tuesday, risks turning all home-schooling parents into suspects and their children into victims.

Home schooling should be seen as part of the education ecosystem

Home schooling is a symptom of schools failing families. That failure can be administrative, such as a dearth of school places in your local area; or more fundamental – such as the inability of your SEND child’s schools to meet their needs. To call all home schooling an example of parent power misses the point: in too many cases, this is parent despair.

That despair is growing: 153,300 children were home-schooled at some point during the last academic year, in comparison to 126,100 the year before.