Registered or enrolled? What BC asks of you, and when.

Those two words do almost all the work in BC's system, and most of the confusion comes from using them loosely. Here is what each one actually means.

Registered means the education is yours

A registered home learner is a child whose parent provides the educational program. You choose what your child learns, how, in what order, and how you know it worked.

Registering is not an application. You are not asking permission. You notify a school of your choice that you intend to educate your child at home, and a public school principal must register your child if you ask. The school records it and tells the Ministry of Education and Child Care.

What registered home learning is not, in the Ministry's own terms: it is not supervised by a BC-certified teacher, not required to follow the provincial curriculum, and not inspected by the Ministry. The school you register with has no authority to approve or oversee what you do in your home education program.

Two obligations come with it. You must provide your child with an educational program, which the law defines broadly as a set of learning activities designed to make a child literate, develop their potential, and give them the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to contribute to society and the economy. In your child's case, you decide how that definition is met. You must also provide a healthy and supportive environment for learning.

Enrolled means the education is the school's

An enrolled student is a child in an educational program provided by a school district or an independent school authority. That covers a neighbourhood school, an independent school, and online learning. In all three, the school plans the program, selects the materials, facilitates the learning, documents it, and evaluates your child.

Families whose children learn at home through an online learning school often describe themselves as homeschoolers. A child taking a full online school program is an enrolled student. The distinction is not about where the learning happens. It is about who is responsible for it. There is an exception in Grades 10–12: a registered home learner may take online courses while keeping their registered status.

What a school must do while it carries that responsibility depends on what kind of school it is. Public schools, including public online learning schools, follow provincial curriculum and reporting requirements.

Independent schools are certified in four groups, and the group decides. Group 1, Group 2 and Group 4 schools operate under provincial requirements for teaching credentials, curriculum and progress reports. Their students can qualify for the BC Certificate of Graduation. A Group 3 school is certified and inspected too, and a child there is an enrolled student like any other. But it is not required to hire certified teachers or teach the provincial curriculum, its students cannot earn the Certificate there, and it receives no provincial operating grant. Ask an independent school which group it is certified in before you decide.

The difference at a glance

The right column covers public schools and Group 1, 2 and 4 independent schools, including their online programs. It excludes Group 3 independent schools, which operate under different requirements.

When you have to do something, and by when

BC uses a December 31 age cutoff. A child may start kindergarten in September if they will turn five by December 31 that year. A parent may defer entry by one school year.

By September of the calendar year your child turns six, you must choose a pathway. Homeschooling parents must register by September 30 each year. For public school enrolment, the School Act sets the first school day as the starting point. Application windows may open months earlier, so check with the school rather than waiting until September.

The requirement to participate continues until your child's sixteenth birthday. Failing to register a child you are educating at home is an offence under the School Act.

Registration is annual. It does not roll over. A family that registers in September 2026 registers again in September 2027.

How to register a home learner

1. Choose a registering school.

   You may register with a public school, an independent school, a francophone school, or an online learning school. A public school principal must register your child, whether or not you live in that catchment. An independent school decides for itself whether it registers home learners, and it may charge a fee to do so.

2. Notify the school.

   Tell them you intend to educate your child at home. Ask what their process is; districts and schools each run their own.

3. Provide the basics.

   The school reports your child to the Ministry on a standard data form, and it needs five things: your child's Personal Education Number, legal name, date of birth, gender, and BC residential postal code. If your child does not have a Personal Education Number, the school requests one.

4. Do it by September 30.

   If you are leaving the school system partway through a year, register at the point you leave rather than waiting for the next September.

Ask the school what it offers before you pick one. Every registering school must offer you evaluation and assessment services free of charge. Public schools must also lend educational resource materials, on a similar basis to what enrolled students get. Independent schools must offer the assessment services they normally give their own students, and may lend materials. Either kind may ask for a deposit on borrowed materials. You are free to accept or reject any of it.

The province pays the registering school a grant for each registered home learner, currently $250 to a public school and $175 to a qualifying independent school authority. The grant covers the school's administrative cost of registering you and offering those services. This registration grant is not paid to parents.

How to enrol

Contact the school district or independent school for its application process. The Vancouver kindergarten example below will not cover every child's situation.

The Vancouver School Board calls its kindergarten application process “registration.” It leads to school enrolment, not registered homeschooling. Its published priority window is November 1 to January 31 for the following September. Check the VSB kindergarten registration page for the year your child will start.

Apply online, then verify your documents at an appointment. VSB directs families to either their catchment school or the Newcomer Welcome Centre, depending on their circumstances. Applying earlier within the priority window does not itself give higher priority. Sibling priority and draws apply when places are limited. Late applications are processed after on-time catchment applications. Choice programs such as French Immersion need a separate application, in a separate window, after catchment registration.

For online learning, you contact a school that offers it. Provincial online learning schools take students from anywhere in BC; district online learning schools take students living in their district. One rule matters for young children: a student in Kindergarten to Grade 7 must take a full program at a single online learning school. Splitting courses between schools starts at Grade 8.

Why families enrol instead

These are reasons a family might choose school enrolment. They describe the same schools as the table above.

• The school carries the program. Planning, resources, assessment, and documentation are the school's responsibility.
• Report cards and a record. The school evaluates progress and provides regular written reports.
• The graduation credential. A registered home learner cannot earn a BC Certificate of Graduation through home learning alone. There are routes back, including enrolling later, and from Grade 10 a registered home learner may take online learning courses for credit while staying registered. But the credential does not come from the registered pathway by itself.
• Support for disabilities and diverse abilities. Enrolled students may be entitled to supports funded by the province. Registered home learners are not eligible for inclusive education supports or help developing their program through their registering school. Parents must arrange that support, but some children may qualify for services through other ministries. Costs depend on the services and eligibility.

With registered homeschooling, the program is yours to plan and carry. Whether that trade is right depends on your child and on the support available to your family.

Changing your mind

The pathway is not a one-way door. Registered home learners may move in and out of the school system as their needs change. Schools should accept a home-learning registration at any time of year, not only in September, and a family that withdraws a child from school partway through a year should register at that point. To go the other way, contact a school district or an independent school to discuss admission and placement.

The September 30 date is when registration is due, not the only day it can happen.