$650 Homeschool Funding Grant for High School Home Education Students

A Home Education student, who is in grade 10, 11, or 12, (i.e. a high school student who is homeschooling in Alberta) may receive an additional homeschool funding grant of $650.00 for the express purpose of purchasing an enrollment into a high school course from an online learning or distance education program within Alberta.

Each online school in Alberta can determine their own rules and policies regarding (1) which courses will be available for this $650.00 grant program and (2) how the school may determine the cost for each course, course credit, and/or CTS module. You’ll need to contact the online learning school or distance education provider of your choice to ask specific questions.

NOTE: A home education student may not use the $650.00 of funding to enroll into an online learning or distance education course which is from the same school authority through which the home education student is registered. For us here at THEE, that rule means that a home education student who is homeschooling with THEE can’t choose to use the funding to enrol into an online course from SILC Online.

THEE recommends the online learning program of
Hope Christian School

NOTE: A student can use the $650 only one time during the entire school year and at only one school.

NOTE: If you, the parent, choose to contact an online learning provider directly and use the $650 to enroll your son or daughter at that online learning program, please tell me, Brett Bowers ([email protected]), so that I can record this for our records and for our ability to accurately provide any future academic advising to you.

Procedures for Using the $650 Homeschool Funding Grant to Enrol into the Course

Below is the formal, “Sequence of Events” for a THEE homeschooling student who wants to use the $650.00 funding/grant to purchase an enrollment into an online learning or distance education course which is from a school authority outside of EICS.

  1. The parent will contact the registrar or admin office of the online learning or distance education provider to ascertain the applicable information, such as course offerings, course timetables, etc. THEE does not get involved with this process nor with the communications between the parent and the other school authority. The parent needs to be sure to tell the school authority that he/she wants to use the $650.00 for the enrollment and that the parent is not enrolling the home education student into that school authority’s online learning program. Inform Mr. Brett Bowers ([email protected]) at THEE’s office that you have used the $650 grant, and tell him at which school so that all of us here at THEE’s office will know. We all need to know such details for a high school student who is earning high school credits so that we all can (1) accurately provide academic advising to our high school students and (2) respond quickly to any problems related to registration or enrollment at the other high school.
  2. The other school authority will enroll the student into the requested online or distance education course, assuming that the student has previously earned the pre-requisite course credits.
  3.  The other school authority will make arrangements with the parent regarding all details and requirements for the enrollment, details such as providing the needed textbook, workbook, login information, shipping fees, etc.
  4. The parent does not need to pay the $650.00 cost out-of-pocket; Alberta Education will send the $650.00 of funding directly to the online learning or distance education provider based on the fact that the provider will enroll the home education student as a Code 622 or Code 623 non-primary student at that school authority. The Home Education student will be registered at THEE as a Code 600 student while the student will be registered as a Code 622 or Code 623 student at the other school authority.

Enrollment Deadlines

Deadlines for enrolling into the high school online learning or distance education course:

  1. Fall semester: September 29th
  2. Spring semester: February 28th

One course per school year is available for this $650.00 grant, but the student can choose an online course from either semester.

Enrollment into the online learning course via this $650 grant option is NOT “open” year-round; enrollment has these two specific deadlines per semester.

Additional Information

Note 1:  Additional funding grant of $650.00 is in addition to the standard Home Education grant of $850.00 per child for the Code 600 Home Education student; the $650.00 grant does not take the place of the standard $901.00 of Home Education funding that the high school homeschooling student will also receive.

Note 2:  The online learning or distance education course must be from an accredited and funded public, separate, or independent high school program within Alberta.

Note 3:  THEE recommends to Home Education students, who want to earn the high school diploma, to consider using this $650.00 grant to purchase enrollment into courses such as, Work Experience (15-25-35), and, Special Projects (10-20-30), because a Home Education student can’t earn credits for these courses via the course challenge opportunity.