Via RSS feed.May 24th, 2008
No Funding This Year, Homeschooling in Alberta
Quick note: Are you a homeschooler in Canada? If so, you should visit the Canadian Home Educators Blog Carnival! Their blog features a weekly visit through Canadian homeschooling blogs. This week the deadline for submissions is May 26th, so head on over :).
On to the post!
Here in the province of Alberta we are blessed to receive funding from the provincial government for our children’s education if we choose to home educate. In Canada education is governed provincially, and the regulations are different from province to province. I think this is similar to the U.S. where the individual States get to make decisions regarding education.
In Alberta we are required by law to register our children with a school board, whether or not they attend a physical school. So, willing non-resident school boards have been established specifically for homeschoolers to register their children with. A facilitator from the school board normally meets with your family twice a year to monitor progress. This meeting can be in your home, or at their office, depending upon your board. Funding levels also vary from board to board and option to option.
In Alberta you can register your children as ‘fully provided’, meaning that you are striving to meet the provincial educational standards and guidelines in your homeschool. Legally, this is the same as if your children were attending school, and you were their teacher. You are required to help them meet the Alberta standards. You can register as ‘blended’, similar to fully, but more flexible, you do not need to meet the Alberta standards in every subject area. Or you can register as ‘traditional’ - this means that you are not necessarily trying to meet the standards of the province, but rather are home educating your children as you see fit. Legally this is the true, classical idea of homeschooling, and your rights can be defended as a homeschooler legally by an association such as HSLDA (Canada). As you can imagine, registering as ‘traditional’ allows you the greatest freedom in your homeschool, facilitator evaluations will be much more flexible and casual etc.
Now, all this being said, we aren’t yet registered with a school board. Our oldest daughter, K, was 5 in April, but in order to receive funding for her, she would have needed to be 5 at the end of February. Sorry K - you’ll have to wait until next year for those funds! For some reason I was under the impression (last year) that we could qualify for funding this year. Sadly, I was wrong! What can I say, I am gung-ho to buy neat resources for my daughter! Of course we still spend money on educational materials for our children regardless of funding! We do have a board I’m keeping in mind for next year though - Education Unlimited. They support parental choices and sovereignty in their child’s education, I’m all for that. In case you are wondering, this year funding is around $700/eligible child that is registered as ‘traditional’. ‘Fully provided’ students can receive $900/eligible child with some boards. However, that $200 isn’t worth the compromise of my own plans (and Christ’s!) in my children’s education.
Likely more than you ever wanted to know about Alberta homeschooling regulations, but there you go!
Stephanie
May 24th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
hey Jennifer!
my dh works in public ed, and wanted to keep up with public schooled kids in LA and Math anyway, so we went blended - at 75% (our facilitator bumped us from 50% bcz she could give us credit for what we were already doing in art, music and pe) - my children get 1350$ each… at 50% blended they get 1100$…
We do nothing differently or that we wouldn’t do normally - so you may want to check with your own facilitator when you start out and see if what you are already planning to do will make you eligible for more funding! Although as you pointed out, it does make you ineligible for HSLDA protection… weird situation…
Quiver Mamma
May 24th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
Hey Stephanie :), thanks for sharing. What board are you with? I know funding levels are different for the program you are registered with, as well as the board, seems like some boards keep more, some give more etc.
I feel so blessed that there IS funding available in Alberta, some provinces (like Ontario) don’t have funding for homeschooling! But they do have funding for midwifery ;).
Stephanie
May 25th, 2008 at 2:58 am
i’m with Okotoks (Christ the Redeemer Catholic school board in Okotoks) - i really like my facilitator, too :)…
- but i liked the dark room, the quiet atmosphere, the midwife (Noreen) was very laid back and easy going - and there was only one other nurse there, and she was kind of in the corners/background, not intrusive at all… i hope one day there will be full coverage for however you want to birth. I’d actually like to have my babies in that kind of atmosphere, but the last two were homebirths, and they were really nice, too… just me and dh (and with #6, my mom!)
I know what you mean about funding for midwifery - i had baby #5 (Anaia) at the only place in AB that has free midwifery - a pilot program in Stony Plain in the hospital - we had a 45 min drive to the hospital, 15 min in the birth pool once we got there, and she was out
Bobbie-Jo
May 25th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
I just stepped over from the HOW blog to say Hi. We homeshcool (not in the legal sense - it’s actually distributed learning) in BC. BC’s regs sound somewhat similar to the regs in AB. I have a friend who homeschools in AB with the Wisdom schoolboard, and she is very happy there.
I’m going to browse around here…nice to meet you!
Bobbie-Jo
Bobbie-Jos last blog post..
Quiver Mamma
May 26th, 2008 at 2:30 am
Thanks for coming by Bobbie-Jo! It’s always so good to hear from other Canadian homeschooling Christians with larger families! Beautiful family!
Tony
May 26th, 2008 at 5:14 am
Interesting that Alberta provides some funds for homeschooling. No such luck in Texas. It is great to hear\read about homeschooling families from our neighbors way up north.
Tony
Tonys last blog post..Meet Moses
Jacqueline
May 27th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Thanks for joining the Canadian Home Educators Blog Carnival. Your post was very informative.
Jacquelines last blog post..Little One Makes Her First Letter…
molytail
May 30th, 2008 at 8:30 am
Thanks for sharing about how your province handles it - I’d heard there was funding there, but I wasn’t sure how it all came together…. I bet it’s sure helpful - stuff gets expensive!! There’s nothing of the sort here (Prince Edward Island) ….but then, there’s also no meeting with facilitators or anything either, which I prefer….I’d definitely be “traditional” if we lived out there.
>^..^<
Kim from Canada
May 31st, 2008 at 7:00 am
Informative post, Stephanie. Coming from Ontario, I must say that I have NOOOO trouble with the absence of funding. This province is very liberal and I know that accepting funding (if the option were available) would be inviting the government into my personal business. You know, we as Christians must realize that if we accept money from ‘Caesar’, than ‘Caesar’ can tell us what to do with it. So, no thank you!
Alberta sounds as if it has a different view on homeschooling - lots of options.
Thanks for the post.
Kim from Canadas last blog post..Heaven Abound
Quiver Mamma
June 1st, 2008 at 1:11 am
I’m so glad that this post is proving to be informative :). I know that I always wonder how homeschooling works out in different provinces, and states, so I thought I’d share a bit about how things are here in Alberta.
Kim - it is definitely always wise to be wary of how much influence we let outward standards affect our homeschooling. Our eyes must always be on Jesus, and not on the standards set by the province!
Rosina
June 2nd, 2008 at 6:13 am
How interesting that is
Here in BC we have similar funding as well but as a traditional HS’er doing your own thing without having to report quarterly to the education system like you would with a distance learning enrollment etc. you don’t get any funding at all. That is really great that you get $700! We have been with a distance learner program through a private christian school in the interior and even though we are ‘allowed’ to use christian based curricula I still hate having to jump through certain hoops with the reporting 4 times a year and having to follow along with the BC education outcomes strictly when like you said there are certain plans (Christ’s) that we have in mind instead 
It was nice to meet you and hope to do some more reading.
Rosinas last blog post..Do You Know What A ‘Brood Patch’ Is?
kelly
July 16th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
I found this site and had to chime in. We are in a dilemma (well not really, since I just had to clear my mind and focus on WHY we are homeschooling).
We lived in Drumheller for 3 years and Blackfalds and Lacombe before that. IN DRumheller, we were blended in the OKotoks program (Christ the Redeemer) and received $1100 a year. Alberta is amazing when it comes to funding. Now we are in BC and to receive $1000 a year you have to follow all of the Learning Outcomes stated by the school board. If you choose to just “register” and not be accountable in any way, you received $150 for the year (which doesnt even cover a math program)
Times like these, I miss schooling in Alberta….
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