Written Summary–Feedback on Results of AQED’s Survey on Services Offered by SBs/SSCs
On August 22nd, the political action committee organized a meeting with the members in order to present the results of a survey about the services offered by the SBs/SSCs to homeschooling families.
We gave an overview of the Homeschooling Regulation which was created in 2018 and which requires that homeschooling families present a learning plan at the start of the year, a midterm report, and a completion report with either a portfolio, an evaluation by a SB/SSC or by the holder of a Quebec teaching license. The regulation was then modified unilaterally by the Minister of Education, Jean-François Roberge. Families who homeschool now must also have their children sit mandatory ministerial exams. In return, SBs/SSCs must provide support services to families. Specifically, they must make available:
- Manuals and teaching materials
- Facilities, such as gymnasiums, libraries, science and technical laboratories, and auditoriums
- Professionals, including psychologists, special education teachers, and orthopedagogues (education specialists).
The SB/SSCs receive approximately $1,800 per child registered with them for home-education (if the child has a permanent code). This represents $12 million given to the SBs/CSSs. However, we suspected that these services were not actually being provided.
We collected two sets of data. The first was from information requested from the SBs/SSCs of Quebec to find out how the money received for each child was spent. The second came from a survey of AQED members to find out their experience of the services received by their SB/SSC.
Gabriel Guimond Prévost gave us an overview of the data from the two sets. In the first, despite being given several reminders, only 40 of the 72 SB/SSCs responded to the request for information by sharing the amounts of subsidies received and only 18 of them itemized their expenses. In short, it was reported that each SB/SSC receives approximately $1,800 for each registered child and only spends approximately $400 per child. Only $1.7 million were actually spent on our children, and, unsurprisingly, the main service provided was evaluation (in the form of mandatory ministerial exams).
In the survey of our members (regarding services provided by SB/SSCs), approximately 200 families responded. By removing the mandatory examination “service,” which is not requested by families and that is not considered to be educationally relevant to homeschooling families, it was reported that 68% of service requests were refused. The requests were for access to educational materials, access to a gymnasium, access to a laboratory, access to support professionals and access to artistic materials (please refer to the attached PDF). A large proportion of families noted that they did not want to make a request for services because the administrative process seemed too complex. Others mentioned not needing these services in the first place.
In short, SBs/ SSCs receive funds for homeschooled children that they cannot prove they have spent on those children, and for homeschooling families, services (other than mandatory examinations) are difficult to obtain.
For the last 6 years, despite considerable effort on AQED’s part, there has been no established collaboration with the government to discuss the needs of home-educating families, and the multiple impacts of the new regulation. In addition, there has been no consultation on the implementation of the new regulation, how to, for example, make it useful and applicable for families by making ministerial evaluations optional.
On August 22, there was a brief publication on these issues by the Canadian Press. A future publication will also be released in Lanaudière.
In addition to this publication, AQED is also currently taking other actions to assert the needs and rights of educational families: approaching opposition parties so that they ask questions to the Minister of Education, meeting with the DEM, requesting regular meetings with the Minister, etc.
What each family can do to contribute and help move things forward:
- Write to your MNA to share your homeschooling situation, which services you have not received, your experience with mandatory exams and to question them about where the $1,800 per child per year, from which you do not benefit, goes. Outside of Quebec, in many jurisdictions, these funds are distributed directly to families. Now is the right time, the pre-back-to-school caucuses are underway. Copy [email protected] when you send your email and we can tally the messages. Templates are available via AQED’s website at: https://www.aqed.qc.ca/avisez-votre-depute-des-impacts-vecus/
- Make requests to your SB/SSC for services provided for by law. If you need one of the services listed in the survey, know that it is provided for in the Homeschooling Regulation and your child is entitled to it.
- Do not accept their refusal and file a complaint with the SB/SSC. If the response to the complaint is not satisfactory, you can appeal to the regional student ombudsman (RSO) who is independent of the SB/SSC. Complaints evaluated by the RSO are all also sent to the national student ombudsman so if issues come from several SBs/SSCs, the latter can raise them.
- If you are associated with the SSC Marie-Victorin, we need your testimonial, so please contact us. We learned that this SSC transferred more than a third of its home-education grant to schools. However, we have not found any families who have received services from the schools of this SSC. We would like to have a press release on this subject, and it would be ideal if it were made, or supported, by a family directly concerned.
- Don’t hesitate to contact AQED if you have questions about or need support with any of these actions. For example, we can provide you with local data from the two sets of data mentioned above.
- Make grouped requests to your SB/SSC with families in your sector (contact your RR to be put in contact with these other families).
[email protected] coordinator of the political and public action committee.
If you would like data from your SSC (on budgets or survey responses) write [email protected]
