EOTAS stands for Education Otherwise Than At School. It's a legal arrangement where a child keeps their EHC Plan but is educated through a tailored package outside a school building, funded by the local authority.
1What is EOTAS — and how is it different from home education?▸
EOTAS is not the same as elective home education. With elective home education, you choose to take responsibility for your child's learning and generally fund it yourself. With EOTAS, the local authority agrees that a mainstream or special school building would be inappropriate — often because of severe medical needs, significant school-related trauma, or profound sensory overwhelm — and it must arrange and fund an alternative package.
2How does it work in the EHC Plan?▸
Under an EOTAS package, the child keeps their EHC Plan, but no school is named in Section I — instead Section I states "EOTAS". The support the child needs is set out in Section F, and the local authority must arrange and fund it.
3What can an EOTAS package pay for?▸
Because the whole package is built around the individual child, it can be very flexible. Examples include:
- Private, professional tutors delivering learning at home or in the community.
- Specialist online schooling platforms.
- Therapies such as Occupational Therapy, Speech & Language Therapy, or animal-assisted / therapeutic-riding sessions (see Chapter 10).
- Memberships to sports centres or clubs to build social interaction and confidence.
4How is it funded and delivered?▸
The local authority can pay providers directly from its central SEN budget, or transfer funds to you through a Section J personal budget / direct payment so you can arrange and book the support yourself (see Chapter 3, Section J, and Chapter 8).
5Animal-assisted therapy as a "low-demand bridge"▸
For a child with severe school trauma, very high anxiety or burnout, sitting with a home tutor straight away is often impossible. Gentle, child-led animal-assisted sessions can act as a low-demand bridge — a way to re-learn how to engage, follow simple routines and regulate the nervous system before more formal learning restarts.
This kind of provision — for example at Pets on the Green in Warlingham — can be built into an EOTAS package or funded via a Section J personal budget. Chapter 10 explains how to word it so it counts as educational provision.