It is very clear that many people in BC don’t understand section 12/13 Home Education in BC. One of our initiatives over the month of August has been to address some misconceptions via our Facebook page.
One understandable concern has been around the statement on the Ministry’s Homeschooling information page, “Homeschoolers are not eligible to receive a British Columbia Dogwood Graduation Certificate”.
Is it true?
Technically, yes. In practice, rarely.
Technically, if a child stays registered as a homeschooler from the year they turn 5 to the year they turn 19 and that’s all they do, they will not end up with a BC Dogwood diploma.
However, being registered as a homeschooler does not mean one can NEVER get a BC Dogwood diploma.
In BC, students have the right to switch to a different educational option at any point in their school career – even at any point within a school year. That means that a child can be a registered homeschooler until they decide to enrol in a school and then they will be placed with their same age cohort.
So, a child can register as a homeschooler from age 5 to age 15 and then enrol in school for grade 10, either at a physical school or through a Distributed Learning/Online school. At that point, they can take all the courses they need to get a Dogwood (80 credits). They are as eligible as the student in the next desk who was enrolled in a school, physical or DL, up to that point.
But that is only one path to high school graduation.
Registered homeschoolers are eligible to participate in the BC Adult Graduation Diploma Program, which requires the completion of five specific courses, three of which must be completed after the student turns 18. By law, a student may remain registered as a homeschooler and also take DL classes in Grades 10 through 12.
And there are other paths to entering post-secondary institutions, if that is the student’s goal.