Homeschooling in Brazil and the integral protection of children and adolescents

Abstract

This article deals with homeschooling in Brazil. Its aim is to analyse this model of education from the perspective of the paradigm of comprehensive protection for children and adolescents, which underpins the Brazilian legal system and recognises this category as subjects of fundamental rights, to be guaranteed through tripartite co-responsibility between the family, society and the state. The study uses a literature review, legislative documents and case law precedents. The article discusses the principles that inform this paradigm; it presents historical aspects of education and definitions of school and home schooling; it points out the framework of rules on education in the 1988 Federal Constitution, the Statute of the Child and Adolescent and the National Education Guidelines and Bases Law. It addresses points from the Supreme Court's judgement on homeschooling in Extraordinary Appeal 888.815. It discusses District Law 6.759/2020, which establishes homeschooling in the Federal District, as well as Federal Bills 3.179/2012 and 1.338/2022. It concludes that this model of education does not conflict with the principles of comprehensive protection, but recognises that there is a need for a federal law to regulate the issue, the rules of which will have to observe the protection of children and adolescents, both in terms of the effectiveness of the right to education and in terms of protection from abuse and other violations that can occur in the family environment. Conclusions that indicate the achievement of the proposed objective, which is to reflect on the issue from the perspective of this paradigm.