Homeschooling while travelling

[Astrid]

My son is turning 5 this fall and we have enrolled him as a homeschooler at a private school that takes registration from all of BC (we are not in the same city as the school) We travel a lot with my husband for his work so we will be spending most of the "school year" out of province. Our main home would always be in BC but we would be renting houses in different provinces while he was working. So, my question is would I have to re-register him in the different provinces that we were temporarily living in or would he be okay being registered in our home province even though we are not going to be there very much...

I hope someone manage to get through that paragraph without feeling

[Kylix]

I'm sorry you haven't gotten any responses yet. I really don't know anything about the legal issues of homeschooling. It's different in each state and province I'm sure. Maybe go to FYT and ask someone in the British Columbia, Canada section about it. I'm sure there are homeschoolers in that area. I know I've seen some around here.

Kylix

[bestjob]

Homeschooling is perfectly legal in all provinces in Canada. There are a number of homeschool groups in Canada, all of which can give you good information. If you do a search using Google and specifying Canadian sources, you will still have an wealth of information.

As for "registering" with the province in which you are living, the most you would be expected to do is to write a letter to the local board of education telling them that you'd like to use their resources. In Ontario, for example, the public schools are mandated to provide services for homeschooling families, like language, phys ed, and music classes at a grade-appropriate level. You can also use facilities like the library and computers at Ontario public schools.

[moominmamma]

Hi Astrid. I'm in BC. There's likely no clear policy about this, certainly none that I'm aware of, despite years of homeschooling and communicating with other homeschoolers in this province. Obviously if your child was enrolled in school and was travelling out of province for more than 30 or 60 days or whatever, there would be concerns about mastery of the school curriculum and suggestions that he be registered in the other province so he wouldn't miss too much. But that wouldn't apply to homeschooling. Your school of registration will be happy for the funding your son garners for them, and you should just be honest that "we travel frequently, but our permanent home address is _____ ," and don't be any more specific about it than that. In Alberta or Ontario or wherever you're travelling to, if you're questioned, you should just say "he's enrolled in an electronically mediated independent school for distance learning, based in BC, our place of permanent residence". Kindergarten isn't even compulsory in any province except, I believe, NB, so you wouldn't even need that exaplanation next year.

I know sevearal families who have moved from province to province whilst homeschooling, and they have all waited until the following fall to change their registration/notification over to the new province. This sort of falls along the same lines.

Homeschooling is regulated in a pretty trusting way in most provinces. Although some provinces are a little more intrusive than others in their regulation, no Ministries of Education north of the 49th really seem to perceive homeschooling as a threat that needs watchdog control. Reasonable approaches generally prevail. I wouldn't sweat it. Just imagine you're taking frequent weeklong trips... week after week.

Miranda

in the Kootenays, where it's currently raining both rain and ash from forest fires

[Astrid]

Thanks for the replys!

I have searched a couple of home school web pages and found no info... I did find out that it isn't necessary to even register until the child is 6 so I wont have to worry about it this year and hopefully I stumble across the answer before next year. It's great that homeschooling is becoming so "normal" here and I really don't feel I have to fear being questioned. Next year I will question the school we register at too. I would like to know, esp if we leave Canada for more than a couple of months...

T Moominmamma - I love the beautiful Kootenays, were were camping near Nakusp last month and I am really happy to hear you are getting some much needed rain!

[barbara]

I don't know about the laws in Canada, but it is likely that you are covered if you have enrolled him as a homeschooler at a private school that takes registration from all of BC. In the US one can enroll in what is commonlly called an umbrella school, and travel where ever.