Government and Advocacy Updates

Home Education Kindergarten is Now Funded!

A pilot project this year that the UCP government put into place is Funded Home Education Kindergarten for the first time ever. Parents will receive 1/2 the Grade 1-12 funding amount of $901.00 to the total of $450.00 for Kindergarten resources.

This is good news. If Kindergarten in school is considered important and valid, then Home Education Kindergarten should also be valued and resources provided and funded.

Since funding is a barrier to growth, no child should suffer and the parents made to go without, regardless of the education format and delivery method.

If you have a Kindergarten child this year, be sure to notify for supported/supervised home education with a homeschooling board and lets use this program. Use it or lose it!

See Funding Manual below:

Home Education High School Course Challenge Credits are Now Funded!

Previously, both public and independent schools who offered home education students credits and marks through Section 6 of the home education regulations had to absorb the facilitator/teacher/principal time and costs associated with having a subject matter expert review the portfolio of submitted course work and mark the homeschooling board given exam. The boards only received their half of the home education funding amount, which didn't cover extra costs associated with credit granting of high school courses.

Now, for the first time, the government has allocated funding to the homeschooling boards to offset these costs. Now that homeschooling board administration costs will be covered, let's hope that more homeschooling boards will offer Section 6 Portfolio Review for marks and credits to home education students, and reduce their tendency to shuffle students on to their more lucrative, school taught, online, paper-based, and teacher-directed offerings.

This is good news for the growth of parent-led home education at high school level.

See Funding Manual below:

Section 6 Funding for School Authorities

Home Education Supports for Children With Special Needs

Alberta Homeschooling Association has been asking the Alberta Government for funding and supports for children with special needs since our inception in 2018. This year, the government listened and is providing supports for children regardless of how they are educated. These supports are being coordinated by AISCA for all home education children whether they are notified with public, Catholic, independent or just with the Notification only government option.

AISCA is providing a subcontractor to deliver services:

Khan Communications provides assessments and resources

Learn More From AISCA

See Guide to Education below:

Public School Boards Association of Alberta (PSBAA) is calling for unreasonable increased regulation of Home Education

Please find attached the Alberta Homeschooling Association's critique of the report produced by Dr. Curtis Riep for the Public School Boards Association of Alberta. We could not believe the many errors and omissions contained in his report, in that he only contacted a few sources and did not do a very good job verifying facts with either the Alberta Government, the ATA, or the largest home education advocacy group in the Province, the Alberta Homeschooling Association. An academic should know better than to repeatedly quote a study based on a meager 12 children (Martin-Chang, 2011) to validify his argument. In addition, he calls for increased regulation of Home Education in areas that are not necessary nor evidence-based.

The Public School Board Association of Alberta - PSBAA Report on Increasing Regulation in Home Education

AHA - Alberta Homeschooling Association - Critique and Response of Curtis Riep's PSBAA Report

School divisions, even resident ones, no longer have to accept Home Education notifications

It was quietly changed in the December 2019 Education Act, by the Alberta Government, that resident school boards do not have to accept a parent's notification for home education, whether submitted either before the Count date of September 30th or after that date during the year. If parents want to home educate and their resident board does not accept their notification, (and many don't because of biased philosophical objections) parent must either find a non-resident willing homeschooling board that will accept their child OR send in a no-funding, no support notification form directly to the government.

AHA protested this change in that parents should be able to choose home education with their resident board that they pay taxes to, or be able to move their child in and out of classroom to home education with the resident board or the division that received their funding during the year, and parents should not be forced to home educate with no funding or support, for choosing a "learning/online-learning-guides/everyone/online-learning-guides/ delivery" change between classroom or home education. After all, students move to Alberta from other provinces and are accepted for classroom enrollment all the time. This is discrimination against home education. There was no movement from the Minister's office on this issue.

Access to funded and supported home education now rests with the availability of a small group of willing home education boards that may impose caps on acceptance.

This is death of home education by a thousand cuts to our rights to home educate.

It seems the NONF Notification Only - No Funding option, that was promoted by certain homeschooling groups, is now the government's way to get out of funding and supporting home education rights in Alberta. The problem is that not everyone can afford to home educate out of pocket and many new home educators need the support of a friendly homeschooling board, who in turn, also needs the funding to provide the support.

AHA can only do so much. Please join our free membership to increase our numbers and voices. Write letters to the Ministers office and also your MLA if you disagree with the above changes.

AHA Protest Letter

AB ED Response

School Boards may now refuse to accept home education notifications for high school students even though they state they offer home education support/supervision.

Many boards are refusing to accept high school aged home education students. Some boards are pushing students to their more lucrative online programs and refusing home education. Some boards do not beleive that home education students can get a good enough education from home during high school. Again, AHA protested to the government that this is age descrimination. There was no movement from the Minister's office on this issue when this change was protested.

AHA can only do so much. Please join our free membership to increase our numbers and voices. Write letters to the Ministers office and also your MLA if you disagree with the above changes.

Home Education High School students are now allowed to access 1 non-primary registration school course per year

Alberta Homeschooling Association along with several independent home education boards have lobbied the government to allow access to school taught high school courses just as school children can do. New for 2021- 2022, this is now possible.

The government is providing up to $650 in funding to a school who provides 1 high school course to a home education child, in addition to the $850 in funding provided to the home education program. Be sure to ask your homeschooling board for more details.

Alberta Education Bill 15 Leglislation Changes

Bill 15 passed third reading and received Royal Assent on June 26! It will be implemented on Sept 1, 2020

Bill 15 adds the following to the Preamble of the Education Act:

WHEREAS parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that may be provided to their children;

WHEREAS the Government of Alberta recognizes public schools, separate schools, Francophone schools, private schools, charter schools, early childhood services programs and home education programs as being valued and integral in providing choice in education to students and parents;

Bill 15 removes the legal requirement for a home education program to be "under the supervision of a board or the person responsible for the operation of a private school accredited under section 29(2)". This means that the home education program will not be supervised, or funded, and the family will not receive any school board support or help with home education either.

Bill 15 will give parents and caregivers another option (in addition to the present option of home education notification, supervision from a school authority, filing a home education plan, and $850 funding per child) of providing yearly notification directly to a feild services director of the government, who has the power to terminate the home education program as he/she sees fit as well as the power to determine if the child is receiving an education that meets the basic goals of education. This new program is called NONF - Notification Only, No Funding.

Rest assured that families that want funding, supervision and support, will still have that option to be under the supervision of a school authority.

Bill 15 - Passed Home Education Regulation Amended Changes and Details

Bill 15 Summary of Changes

Bill 15 Survey Respondant Highlights

Bill 15 - The Actual Bill