Schooling in BC

I am so upset with the public education system, they teach everything one way. You are stuck waiting for the rest of the class. Everything has to be done a specific way. If you have a creative child this system don't work. If you want to home school, for your child to have the credits needed to be given a grade 12 diploma they have to challenge and get minimum 80% but they can get the credit if they can handle the public school system for a mere 50%. The system seems to be designed to force a person who is not determined to deal with the public school. Distributed learning is not any better with its now instance that everything be done online with no allowances for if you have no computer or no Internet connection. If you are trying to find out about how to home school you child or register for it, no one knows anything practically and you must navigate reams of Internet pages to figure out just how to do that.  Fortunately today through hard Internet searching I managed to discover the following:

Challenge and External CreditsIn both graduation programs students may earn credits toward graduation in a variety of ways. In addition to earning credits by successfully completing courses delivered by a BC public or independent school, students will be awarded credits by using the policies that follow. For specific information, check with your local school and also the Ministry of Education website: http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/policy/policies/earning_credit_through.htm

Equivalency (Documented Prior Learning)
Secondary schools may award credit to students who have successfully completed an equivalent Grade 10, 11 or 12 course from an educational jurisdiction or institution outside the BC school system. To be deemed equivalent, there should be a match of approximately 80% or more of the learning outcomes to either a Ministry-developed or board authorised course. In order to receive credits through Equivalency, students must provide the appropriate documentation as proof of successful completion of the course.

Challenge (Undocumented Demonstrated Prior Learning)
Secondary schools may award credit to students who can demonstrate prior learning. Students are entitled to undertake a Challenge process to assess their prior learning for any Ministry-authorised graduation program course offered by any school board in the Province that school year, as well as any Board Authorised (BAA) course taught in the enrolling district that school year, provided the student has not already completed the course through previous enrolment. Students should be able to demonstrate their readiness to Challenge a course based on factors such as a recommendation from a previous teacher, or from evidence that relevant learning has been acquired outside the regular classroom setting. Examples of assessment strategies that could be used in a Challenge process include such things as hands-on demonstrations, oral performances, interviews, written examinations, or presentations of a collection of work.

External Credentials (Ministry-approved Documented Prior Learning)
Students can earn credit towards graduation through certain
external credentials approved by the Ministry. In order to earn credit for an approved credential, students must provide the appropriate documentation proving successful completion of the external assessment, course, or program.

Before 1989, homeschooling in BC was not permissible. Homeschooling parents were put at risk of having their children fall into the hands of the Ministry of Social Services for teaching them home. The laws were changed in 1989 to include homeschooling as a legal education option that parents could choose for their children. Homeschooling was placed under the Ministry of Education. Click here for BC School Act. The child must be registered at either the local public school, a Distance Education school, a Distributed Learning Program or an Independent school located anywhere in the Province, it does not have to be in the local district. When registering as a home school student, you will provide the school with only the child's name, address, phone, and birth date. Every student in BC must be either registered as a home school student or enrolled in a school program by September 30th.

A child can begin homeschooling on a given day of the school year and may return back to school at any time.

The parent is responsible to provide "a set of learning" to their child. The learning program can be whatever the parent has chosen for the child. There is no obligation to follow BC learning outcomes or use BC approved resources. The parent is completely in charge of the program and is not accountable to a school authority. No testing is required and the school has no obligation to provide any resources to the parent/child unless they so choose, with the exception of testing if requested. The public school receives $250.00 per year and Independent schools receive $175.00 per year as an administration fee. There are no funds designated from the Ministry of Education for registered home school students. There are however some Independent schools in BC that offer some funds towards learning materials for home schoolers. Click here for a list of home school supportive schools.

Because the school authority does not oversee the learning program the student receives no official report card. Home school students can enter school on any day of the year and can be taken out to home school on any day of the year. Not having a report card does not hinder the child from going back to school. They will likely not be tested and parents do not have to submit their child to testing. The child will be placed into the grade that is age appropriate. The graduation years of grade 10-12 may be a little more complicated since students must have evidence of required courses, credits and graduation exams for each of these grades. There is however a challenge and equivalency process in place that can be 

considered.

DISTANCE EDUCATION

There are regional Distance Education Centres in BC that provide the BC Provincial Curriculum FREE of charge to BC residents. The program is delivered either in paper based modules, mailed to the student to complete and return for grading or a computer based program with the students working online. Students have one or more teachers involved in their learning and will receive a report card.

So there you go a quick and dirty on homeschooling. Yes it is possible, and Yes it is possible to attend a post secondary institution after the fact. It is just harder to do. Hopefully I can figure out how to make the distance education thing work and bypass the distributed learning computer stuff which just winds up with your child neglecting their school work and playing computer games unless you watch them like a hawk all the time. Me I want to be able to deny computer access till the school work for the day is done. I don't want to be forced into the homeschooling but I might not be the given any choice if I can't get the distance education thing worked out. So there you go my fellow parents if your kid don't fit in the public school mode don't fret its not the end of the world and you do have alternatives it just requires more work from you then getting them out the door and to the school. For the record my son has now offically opted for http://selfdesign.org/ and I have never seen him so excited about learning "I wish I could start right away" is what he said to me. I am now a very happy mom.