Home-education funding in Canada: no ESA, some provincial help

Canada has no education savings accounts. Alberta shares home-education funding with parents, up to $901 a year. Other provinces mostly leave the fees to families.

Alberta: the exception

Parents who file a home-education notification with an associate board or associate independent school by September 29 can receive 50 per cent of the home-education funding for instructional materials. For 2025-26 the parental share tops out at $901 for grades 1 to 12 and $450.50 for early childhood. Parents have up to two years to use it.

Boards cannot reimburse more than the cap. Some families transfer part of the share back to the school authority for supports. File early, keep material receipts, and confirm the board's own claim forms.

British Columbia and the rest

BC funds distributed-learning schools, which are public schools with employed teachers, not parent-directed home education. Enrolling in one is free but it is school at home, not home education, with set courses and teachers.

Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces fund public schools only. Home education is legal everywhere with registration rules that differ by province, but no money follows the child. Private school fees come from families in full.

Keep records that satisfy a board

Alberta boards ask for work samples tied to the funded materials. Log what each receipt bought and which child used it. Shared-responsibility families split records by setting: school-directed work stays with the school file, parent-directed work with the home file.

Outside Alberta, records still matter for registration reviews and for re-entry to school. A dated portfolio per child beats a shoebox of worksheets.

What this directory lists in Canada

Our Canadian rows come from Ontario's open private-school list: names, levels, places and delivery modes. Program fields stay empty because no program reimburses these fees. Check each school's own site for its fees and admission rules.