25th IVR World Congress: Law, Science and Technology 25th IVR
World Congress Law and technology Frankfurt am Main 15–20 August
2011 Paper Series - homeschooling (3) (remove) - Compulsory
education - in schools only? : divergent developments in Germany
(2012) - Germany is the focus of this paper, owing to the fact
that since 1938 it has had the strictest laws on compulsory
schooling worldwide. As a result, homeschooling in Germany has
become virtually impossible. There are interesting divergences
between policy and practice in the German setting, both in the
country’s educational history and present educational problems.
The Länder (federal states) have the responsibility for
education, and they are taking a much stricter line against
homeschoolers than a decade ago, especially by depriving parents
of the custody of their homeschooled children at an early stage.
The laws relied upon, however, were never intended to deal with
such educational matters; they were designed to punish parents
who abuse or neglect th