Rules of homeschooling in Taiwan

I am applying for an employment gold card because of the potential for working with a start-up in the coming months. Timing is nebulous for now, but I will need to move fast if and when things work out.

Anyway, we had planned on putting our 16-year-old in an international school, but I don’t think the timing will work out. At least for this year. So I was thinking homeschooling, but would like to get started before we move out there. So the question is, if we are in Taiwan on an ARC and homeschooling, do we have to go through the Taiwan homeschooling process, or can we stay with a US-based program? Apologies if this has been asked–I looked but have not found a clear answer yet.

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foreign kids with ARC can enroll in Taiwanese schools, but it is not mandatory. So, the latter.

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@tando Perfect. Thanks for the fast answer!

My son is foreign, but also has dual/Taiwanese citizenship. We were told it’s mandatory for him to enroll in school.

If he has Taiwan citizenship then he isn’t a foreigner.

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I should have said dual citizen.

Also the Taiwanese school enrolled him as a foreign student. Not sure why???

Our kid has just US citizenship. Mom is native Chinese speaker but not from Taiwan, so we should be good on that front. I wonder how they do lab classes with homeschooling… Fortunately, my neighbor works for a homeschooling agency, so I can stop pestering the fine folks at Forumosa with questions for a while :slight_smile:

Because “dual citizen” evokes a level of nuance well beyond the stunted capabilities of the Dept. of Education?

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Depends on how exactly you plan on homeschooling. There are benefits to registering with the government (you can go to local school for gym classes and other things), but it is quite the involved process.

TAS has a great after-school program with sports, music, etc., that anyone can join (in English). It is mostly focused on younger kids, but there are activities for older kids too. And if you can navigate it (it will take patience and/or Chinese skills) there are some really great facilities at local community centers for sports, arts, etc… It really depends on what part of town you are going to live in.

There is also a really great Facebook group Learn@Home in Taiwan, where many parents discuss homeschooling in Taiwan.

We are planning to homeschool our 8 year old, who will be 12 when we move, so feel free to ask away.

As well, as long as you are both foreigners, you are exempt from having to register, and you can do whatever you want with educating your son. You mentioned your wife is Chinese speaking though, so if she happens to be from Mainland China, I would double check, just to be sure - it may alter your child’s situation. The Facebook group is a good place for such questions; one of the mods is on the actual government board for homeschooling, and she knows her stuff.

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Thanks @Noel for the great information. Wife is at least a generation removed from China, so should be good there. We are most familiar with Daan and Xinyi districts, but that familiarity dated and it would probably make sense to be in Beitou or Tianmu. Could really be anywhere in Taipei with decent MRT access. One additional wrinkle is that she would be starting the IB program if we stayed here, and I don’t think she would be able to fully distance learn that. Not sure how she could do lab classes. Just starting to look into it. My older son is convinced IB wasn’t worth the additional effort beyond AP in terms of college credits, but daughter seems very interested.
I will look into the Facebook group. I have gone through some posts there over the past few days, and it seems to be a good group.