OFTP initiatives
- OFTP submitted an official complaint to the Ombudsman of Ontario
(February 1998) concerning the broken relations between government agencies
and home learners in Ontario.
- In 1998 and 1999 OFTP and other homeschooling groups had several meetings
with the Provincial School Attendance Counsellor and several school
board attendance counsellors regarding establishing better relations between
the Ministry of Education, School Boards and homeschoolers. One of the end
results of these meetings was a draft document entitled "Home Schooling:
Successful Practices".
- In December 1999 the Ministry of Health announced that school
health support services (i.e. occupational therapy, speech-language
pathology, nursing, physiotherapy, dietetic services) would be extended
to independent schools as well as home educated school aged children in
Ontario commencing in the summer of 2000.
- In April 2000 OFTP prepared an information package on homeschooling
that was distributed to Directors of Education, attendance counsellors
and school board chairs. The desired result was to have school board
officials and others be better educated about homeschooling and to appreciate
parents' rights to educate their children without interference and harassment.
- OFTP representatives have attended children's conferences which
also included representatives from the Children's Aid Societies, various
youth services, attendance and counselling services, community living association
and mental health association. The OFTP representatives handed out homeschooling
packages to the attendees in order to create positive awareness about OFTP
and homeschooling.
- Largely as a result of OFTP lobbying, in May 2000 the Toronto Transit
Commission passed a resolution allowing home educated students in the
Toronto area to apply for a photo pass to use the TTC at student rates.
- OFTP collected the various homeschooling policies of Ontario school boards
in order to better serve our members in their dealings with these boards.
- CAS Initiative - OFTP continues recording any incidents of harassment
by the Children's Aid Societies of homeschooling families.
- OFTP launched a Post-Secondary Admissions Project in January 2001.
This committee researched admission policies of colleges and universities
of homeschooled students in Canada and the U.S. which resulted in a 49-page
document that can be viewed on the OFTP website. The committee is continuing
to work with these institutions to educate them about homeschooling and
encourage the preparation of admission policies for homeschoolers.
- OFTP will continue to attend various professional conferences
such as Children's Aid Services, Attendance Counsellors, University/College
conferences, Parenting Conferences, etc. in order to educate as many bureaucrats,
professionals and others across the province about OFTP and the benefits
of home-based education.
- OFTP had several meetings with the Ministry of Education starting in 1997 in an effort to create better relations between homeschooling families and school boards. This culminated in the release in June 2002 of Policy/Program Memorandum (PPM) No. 131 which illustrates the government's commitment to remove institutional bias and provide access to standardized tests and learning tools. The purpose of PPM No. 131 is to provide direction to parents and school boards concerning policies relating to homeschooling.
A brief history of the Ontario Federation of Teaching Parents
OFTP was formed in 1987 by a small group of individuals who were not actually homeschooling. The original founders were all involved in private schools with dispersed classrooms.
Back in the late '70s and early '80s, the Ministry of Education thought it would be a good idea to have homeschooling families join together to form private schools. This way, the Ministry believed, these families could be readily monitored and tracked. In many instances, regional school inspectors helped set up these schools.
In the middle '80s, the Ministry changed their way of thinking and attempted to close down a number of these schools. At one time there were at least 25 private schools with dispersed classrooms and today there are about 15 remaining. Because of this, OFTP was formed.
The original purpose was to combat the adversarial activities of the Ministry and school boards who attempted to disrupt the activities of individual families that were members of these private schools. At that time, there were no support groups who had any experience in dealing with school boards and the Ministry. OFTP membership consisted of families who were members or owners of these private schools.
Over time, OFTP took on true homeschooling families as well and today the membership is virtually all home schooling families.
