A huge rise in the number of children being home-educated across Staffordshire has rung alarm bells at the county education authority.
Their concerns come after the Uttoxeter Advertiser's sister paper, The Sentinel, reported parents' claims they were being pressured into home-educating by head teachers trying to get rid of pupils with poor attendance, low grades or behaviour issues.
The allegations were recorded in a joint review on Elective Home Education from a Staffordshire County Council task-force, which has investigated the spike in home-schooling.
At a meeting of the council's "safe and strong communities select committee", Councillor Paul Snape, who chaired the inquiry, spoke about the varied quality of home education.
He said: "Ofsted said too many children were being home-educated to the detriment of their education.
"The quality of home education the children have been receiving was from where it was incredible to where we didn't know what was going on."
He told the select committee that across Staffordshire, 887 children were being home-educated in the 2016-17 academic year.
This figure is an increase from 258 in 2006.
The report stated that this academic year, 39 Year 11 students across the county left school just months before they were due to sit their GCSEs.
Councillor Snape said: "There is a worry that schools are using home education to get a better Ofsted.
"If you take children out and you want them to take exams you pay for it yourself."
The report stated the taskforce was "not aware" of any unregistered schools in Staffordshire.
But Mr Snape warned that these establishments may be operating under the radar.
He said: "Are we looking hard enough? I don't believe we don't have any in the county."
Councillor John Francis replied: "I agree with you, we don't have a clue."
He also raised concerns that some children outside of the education system could face challenging circumstances at home.
Mr Francis continued: "We don't know what's happening with that child.
"We don't know if they have got domestic abuse problems. We know for a fact someone will take a child out of school and sit them in front of the television."
Mr Snape said: "The cabinet member for children's services should recommend to government that all children are registered.
"I know that is going to upset some people that do home educate. We're going to have to put something in place."
The report stressed many parents were showing "extraordinary" commitment to educating their children at home and the taskforce had the "greatest admiration" for their efforts.
This was echoed by council officer Helen Philips, who said: "There's a lot of committed people out there who collaborated with the county council.
"I want to pay tribute to all those parents who gave up their time and shared with members even when it was quite uncomfortable for them to do that and we greatly appreciate it."
