Q.  When can I withdraw my children? Must I wait till June?

Families may withdraw their children to home educate at any time of the year.

Q. Do I have to submit a Letter of Intent to Homeschool and fill out all the forms they ask me to?

You do NOT have to submit a Letter of Intent or fill out any of the forms from Appendix D of PPM131.

Nowhere in the Education Act is there any legal requirement to inform the school board of your intentions to home educate, whether or not your child has ever been enrolled in the Ontario school system. 

Please see our steps to getting started with homeschooling for details on how to withdraw your child. Step #3.

• Sample letter of withdrawal pdf version, print it, and fill it out by hand and email or drop off at the school.

If you choose to provide a written notification of your intent to homeschool, the OFTP has made a form template available for your use, based on the the sample letter provided in Appendix B of the government’s Policy/Program Memorandum No.131 (PPM131): Sample Letter Indicating Notification of Intent to Provide Home Schooling.

You do NOT have to fill out any of the forms from Appendix D of PPM131. Those are to be used by the school board in the event of an investigation.

Should you choose to notify the school/board that you are choosing to homeschool you can access the OFTP form template of a written notification of intent to homeschool (not required) here:

• • download the pdf version, print it, and fill it out by hand

• • download the doc version directly, fill it out by editing it in your word processor

You may also use the form provided by your school board. Be aware, some school boards request more information than is strictly necessary on their intent to homeschool forms.

You do NOT have to provide any more information than your child’s name, date of birth, gender, and your name and contact info.

If the form provided by your school board asks for more information than necessary, we recommend using the OFTP form instead, if you choose to provide any notification of your intent to homeschool at all. You may also use this sample letter instead.

For your convenience, we have compiled a list of school board contact information and where to send your written notification of your intent to homeschool for each board. We have also noted which school boards have problematic, missing, misleading or incorrect information on their homeschooling documents, when we have been able to access them.

School Board Contact Info

PPM131 directs school boards to reply to these written notifications of intent to homeschool with a letter of acknowledgement, based on Appendix C.

Not all school boards will do this automatically, so if you would like a written response, you may wish to request one specifically. Should they delay or refuse, or ask for more information you can file a complaint with the ombudsman Here are the details.

These letters of acknowledgement can be useful for:

1. 1. accessing accredited high school courses through the Independent Learning Centre (ILC)
   2. As proof of homeschooling for legal purposes (ie. in the instance of a custody dispute, etc.)
   3.  Accessing school health support services (SHSS) for children requiring school-based therapies (i.e., OT, speech, etc.)
   4. As proof of care of children, for purposes of tax audits by the CRA
   5. As proof of care of children for social service income supports (though no longer required)
   6. Accessing CAEC (through ILC) if your child is under age 19 (formerly known as the GED)

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