Here is some info from another group I am on… just some basic info – this wasn’t from a CM homeschooler
In Alberta
Registry is required with your choice of boards. Some are home school
only, some are with public schools. We are with Wisdom, and have been
really happy with them. They are an Alberta wide board.
[There are a couple of Homeschooling choices from what I understand – “Traditional” and “Blended” (and I think you can also register to use the AB curriculum fully. Blended is a combination of homeschooling and doing school. ]
The lowest amount of funding is for those who register as Traditional. With Traditional, it’s all in the hands of the
parents, unless they specifically ask their board for help/resources.
The highest funding is for Blended, but there are issues with that right now. Blended is *supposed* to have 50% attendance with classes, but what some boards were doing was telling families they could register as Blended, but have the freedom of Traditional while getting more money. What was really happening was that, while the parents were going from about $700+ per child to about $900+, the boards’ funding jumped from under $1500 to over $4000, without being expected to put out any more work. Some families found out about this and complained, and
the gov. is now keeping a closer eye on the Blended programs and actually requiring the school boards to provide the services they’re being funded for. Several public school boards decided they couldn’t
afford to have hs’ers anymore, so they stopped accepting them.
Wisdom got a LOT of new families last year, and again this year, because of this. (Wisdom, by the way, does not do Blended at all, as it goes against their phylosophy that the parents are the best qualified to
determine how their children should be educated.)
Registering is just a matter of filling out a form with the board with basic information.
Every year, a general education plan for each child is submitted to the board by the parents.
There are two facilitator visits required per year, the first at the start of the school year, the second near the end. The facilitators typically come to the home (though most will meet elsewhere, if that’s
what the family prefers) and spend about an hour per child going over the form. The form itself is just a page long, and could probably be filled out in under 5 minutes, but they’re supposed to spend some time
talking with the families about where each child is at.
The second visit is different only in that we’re supposed to decided if our kids’ progress was acceptable for the school year or not. The form is almost identical. We can do portofolios, if we wish.
I have heard that AB people doing CM style have qualified for funding. It sounds like the “Wisdom” school board, which is just homeschoolers, would probably be the best to work with.
Sorry I’m in a different province – it would have been great to meet!
