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Here is the official Thai government handbook for homeschool for any families searching this thread in the future: https://skm.go.th/portal/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/คุ่มือ-ครอบครัว.pdf According to Thai homeschool activists in Chiang Mai told us they legally challenged the changwat officials who were making it difficult for getting approved by referring to section 2.3 They told us this section is your legal basis for getting approved without crazy inspections or other bull---- that the changwat might come up with to make it difficult (cuz they want money from Bangkok for your child "studying" in their schools instead of giving that money to your family)

Because they won't tell us what type of house is acceptable, first told us we had to own one locally. Then said renting is okay, then said apartment is okay, but everything depends on the inspection which they said is around 10 different government employees who will come and do various inspections across 3-4 months. If we failed the inspection, it's not like you can try again and again with different apartments and houses, they will just reject your homeschool application until next year. However the national laws don't mention housing requirements. And the local officials have no paperwork stating what type of housing they require. Square meters, how many rooms, what type of rental contract, etc. It changes every time we ask. And we travel a lot, many times outside of Thailand. I don't want to sign our name on 1-2 year rental contract (most rented houses or large condos in the city require this) if the government can't even confirm it would be acceptable. Then I'm paying for a house that I don't want and don't need for a long time, not even living there.

We decided to send a lawyer down to the Education office to ask for clarification on the housing requirements, since the national laws about homeschool do not mention this... And now the story has changed again, they told our lawyer you can use an apartment but there needs to be a separate space for the children to be studying every day for homeschool and they will come to inspect it. Pretty much they dared us to apply using an apartment insinuating to our lawyer that we would be rejected from homeschool if we tried it. They still didn't provide any specifics about what housing is sufficient, told our lawyer we can rent house in the city... no specifics on size or anything else. I'm sure we could sue them in court for violating the national laws, but it would take a lot of time and money to do that... I'm sure as hell not going to be sending bribes to these <deleted> for 15 years of homeschool. It's pretty clear its just an ego game, if you look like you're rich and hiso they probably approve you but if you look average they screw with you

I'm finding that every changwat is different. It's rather a <deleted>show, they don't seem to follow the national laws about homeschooling. You can check my topic about housing reqs

Hello, been trying to figure this out with much difficulty due to Thai people always telling us conflicting things, including government officials. The local changwat education department in our current changwat told us we can't homeschool our kid because we have an apartment, and it's only for high-school educated parents (or better) who own their own house locally in the same changwat as their house book. Then the story changed, that we could do it in any changwat but you need to have at least a rented house that can pass the "inspection" from their officials... having a separate studying room for the kid, and things like that. But later, one of the homeschool "leaders" in Chiang Mai cited a law to us from the national Thai government and he said the law never mentions the housing requirement and that is some <deleted> that some changwats play trying to discourage you. Okay, great... so legally anyone can homeschool apparently, but if government officials aren't following the law, what is the point? Where do we begin? I'd love to find a lawyer who specializes in education locally (or anywhere in Thailand!) who could help, but not many results on Google. Posting in Facebook groups didn't get us far... most families own their house. I'm traveling a lot and don't want to buy a house or condo yet, esp. not just to please some local government officials who said it's required when it's not. Pretty much I'm trying to figure out which changwat is the most homeschool friendly, it seems probably like Chiang Mai. But even then we can't find anyone who is living in an apartment or somewhat nomadic lifestyle who has successfully done homeschool there (let alone anywhere else). Any stories or advice? Is this when I'm expected to bribe the education officials?