Homeschooling in BC
TERMINOLOGY:
Homeschooler: A child who is school aged but is registered as opting out of the BC school system.
Home Educator: A parent or guardian who is responsible for the homeschooler’s educational programme
Home Education: This is the official terminology of the BC government when describing homeschooling.
Educational Programme: “An organised set of learning activities that is designed to enable learners to become literate, to develop their individual potential, and to acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to contribute to a healthy, democratic and pluralistic society and a prosperous and sustainable economy” – BC School Act, defintions
Home Educuation
The right to homeschool has been enshrined in the BC School Act since 1989 thanks to the work of BC homeschooling parents including Vickie Livingstone, founder of the then newly formed BC Home Educators’ Association (formerly CHEA).
To homeschool in BC is to opt out of the BC education system and maintain full autonomy and responsibility over the learning programme offered to the child. Homeschooling in BC is most often defined by what it is not.
-
It is not supervised by any outside authority and you don’t report your learning to anyone.
-
You don’t travel through grade levels or complete mandatory testing.
-
You are not required to follow any curriculum including the BC Curriculum
-
It is not funded by the government
Rights and Responsibilities
Public schools in BC are required by law to register your intent to homeschool and they are also required to offer the load of learning material and evaluation and assessment services.
Independent schools who chose to register a homeschooler are required to offer evaluation and assessment services free of charge.
-
Must register your intent to opt out of the school system by Sept 30th of the year the child turns 6 until the day the child is 16
-
Must renew your intent to homeschool each year by September 30th
-
Must provide an educational programme as defined in the BC School Act
Choosing a School
Because you will have no significant contact with your registering school, there isn’t much to consider when choosing one. You might consider whether you want to support a faith-based school or if a public school’s offering are something you would like. Some Independent schools offer subscriptions or other small additions.
The BC Home Educators’ Association has a list of schools that are known for being “homeschooler friendly” meaning they know the process well and are welcoming.
Registering as Homeschooler
The right to homeschool in BC is laid out in Section 12 and 13 of the BC School Act. The process for registering as a homeschooler is a very simple one. You are essentially raising your hand and saying “count me out”. In order to do this, let a school know and they will record your intent in their files and pass the information on the the Ministry.
By law, the principal of any public school is required to register your intent to homeschool, but you may find that they don’t always know the procedure. In that case, you can direct them to the Homeschooling Procedures and Guidelines Manual.
Two options:
- Chose any public school in BC, regardless of its location in BC and contact the principal of the school asking them to register your child as a homeschooler.
- Chose an independent school, regardless of its location in BC and use their process of registering as a homeschooler.
Ask the school of your choice to register your child as a homeschooler as per Section 12 and 13 of the BC School Act. You will be required to submit proof of residency.
Homeschooling and the school system
Cross-enrolling
The school system is funded in order to provide an educational programme to its student population. In grades 10 -12 schools are funded per course, so this allows grade-eligible homeschoolers to enrol in individual graduation programme courses through Online Learning Schools while keeping their homeschooler status. This is one way to attain credits toward a graduation diploma or pre-requistists for post secondary programmes. When enrolling in a course be clear that you are not enrolling in the school and wish to retain your homescher status.
Auditing
Homeschoolers who are eligible for K-12 enrolment may chose to audit (attend) online or in-person educational programming offered by the board or Authority subject to conditions while keeping their homeschooling status. Credit is not given for audited graduation programme courses (grades 10-12)
Challenging
Homeschoolers who are eligible for enrollment in the highschool graduation programme may chose to challenge courses for credit based on undocumented prior learning while keeping their homeschooling status. More information on this and other options for earning credit can be found the Graduation Program Handbook of Procedures, chapter 3.
Assessments
Homeschoolers are eligible to sit for the Foundation Skills Assessment and the Graduation Assessments. You can arrange this through your registering school.
Entering the school system
A homeschooler my enrol and enter the school system at any time. The child will be placed in the grade level appropriate for their age. There are no required assessments or placement testing. The classroom teacher may administer testing as they do with other students in order to assess the children and deliver their programme most effectively.
There are no pre-requisites to enter grade ten, but you may need to provide evidence of prior learning to earn credit for pre-requisites to higher level courses.
Entering Post Secondary
Contrary to beliefs, a high school diploma is not a necessity when applying to post secondary institutions in Canada. There are many roads to post secondary including: cross-enrolling to earn specific credit for your programme of choice, earning and Adult Diploma, applying as a mature student, taking university transfer courses at a local college, or any combination of these.
A popular method of planning ahead for this journey is to work backwards. Talk to the programme advisor (not general admissions) and ask what courses or experience they would like an applicant to have and work toward that. Check with the institution about what they will accept from a homeschooler in terms of proof of learning and proof of readiness. These tend to be things like portfolios of work, reading lists, essays, letters of recommendation describing your readiness to be in a classroom setting. Then decide how to obtain what they want. Take a look at our post on Homeschoolers and Post Secondary to get more information and join our facebook group to hear about the numerous homeschoolers succeeding in their chosen studies.