Homeschooling in Ontario: what to know before you start
· 3 min read
Who you tell, when, and what Ontario's policy memo says about notice, curriculum and reports.
The HeyScholr team
Notes from the people who build HeyScholr.
In Ontario, a family that homeschools deals with its local school board, not with the Ministry of Education directly. The Ministry explains how in Policy/Program Memorandum 131, which is guidance written for school boards. This post summarises what it says. It is not legal advice, so read the memo itself before you act.
Tell your school board in writing
The memo says parents who choose to home school should notify the school board in writing. The notice should include each child's name, gender and date of birth, plus the home's address and telephone number, and be signed by the parent. The memo includes a sample letter.
After the first year, the memo says parents should send written notice each year before September 1 to the board where the child last attended school. If your home address changes, tell the board.
What the board does with it
Once it has your written notice, the board treats your child as excused from attendance under the Education Act. It accepts your notice each year as evidence that you are providing satisfactory instruction at home, and sends you a letter acknowledging it.
The memo says a board should not investigate as a routine step. It may look into a family if it has reasonable grounds to suspect the instruction is not satisfactory. The examples it lists include a parent refusing to give notice, a credible concern from a third party, and a child's history of absenteeism before notice was given.
Curriculum and reports
The memo says home schooling methods may differ from a school's, and that parents may not follow the Ontario curriculum. If a board does look into a family, it describes the focus as your plan for educating your child, your plans for literacy and numeracy at developmentally appropriate levels, and your plans for assessing achievement. We did not find a requirement in the memo for regular progress reports.
Optional provincial assessments
The memo mentions optional provincial assessments from the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO), for Grades 3, 6 and 9. If you want your child to take part, it says to contact your board by September 30, or another date the board sets.
Where HeyScholr fits
HeyScholr plans lessons from Ontario's published curriculum for Grades 1 to 6, and can produce a portfolio PDF of what your child has done. It does not send a notice to your board. You do that yourself.
This is general information, not legal advice. Rules change, so check your region's official requirements before you act on it.