Homeschooling in Quebec
What Quebec actually asks of a family teaching their own children. Written plainly, and honest where the answer is that nobody asks for anything.
CanadaFiling requiredWho is in charge
Direction de l'enseignement a la maison (DEM), Ministere de l'Education. Documents go to the Minister directly, not to a school board.
Who actually reviews your child
Direction de l'enseignement a la maison, with an assigned resource person who can add information to the child's file and help build the mid-term and status reports.
What you must file
Annual notice of intent
No later than JULY 1. If the child stopped attending school during the year: within 10 days of the last day attended.
Goes to: DEM, Ministere de l'Education (secure site)
Learning project
Submission AND start of implementation no later than SEPTEMBER 30. If the child stopped attending school mid-year: within 30 days of the last day attended.
Goes to: DEM (created directly in the child's file on the secure site)
Must cover at least all compulsory subjects (language of instruction, second language, Mathematics, Science and Technology, Social Sciences) and describe the learning to be acquired and the competencies of the Quebec Education Program to be developed, the chosen educational approach, the activities and projects planned, and the resources. Teaching must allow a progression of learning equivalent to that applied in school.
Status report
Between the THIRD and FIFTH month after implementation of the learning project. If the child stopped attending school between January 1 and March 31: no later than June 15. If after March 31: optional.
Goes to: DEM
Describes the implementation of the learning project: activities completed by subject, approximate time allocated, and any change made to the learning project.
Mid-term progress report
Between the THIRD and FIFTH month after implementation of the learning project. Optional if the child stopped attending school after December 31.
Goes to: DEM
Completion report
No later than JUNE 15.
Goes to: DEM
Evaluation of learning - conclusions
Portfolio method: submit to the DEM no later than JUNE 15. All other methods: carry out before JUNE 30 and send the conclusions to the DEM within two weeks of completion.
Goes to: DEM
Permitted methods: evaluation by the school service centre or school board, by a private institution, by a licensed teacher, ministerial examinations, or a portfolio submitted to the Minister. Note: a ministerial examination can serve as the evaluation method, but the ministerial examinations set for the child's grade are compulsory in their own right (next item).
Monitoring meeting
Participation during the year, by the parent and the child. The meeting may be used to build the status report and the mid-term report.
Goes to: Resource person assigned by the DEM
Ministerial examinations
Quebec's own homeschooling page: 'In Québec, all students and homeschooled children take examinations set by the Minister.' Register through your school service centre or school board; they hold the dates. This is separate from, and in addition to, the yearly evaluation of learning above.
How often: in the grades and subjects the Minister sets
Goes to: Registration through the school service centre or school board; the examinations are set by the Minister
Read at the source on 2026-09-12: quebec.ca, Homeschooling, process and steps, under 'Ministerial examinations'. HSLDA Canada's October 2025 summary says the same ('homeschooled children are also required to write Quebec's Ministerial examinations for certain subjects in certain grades'). Before today this page named ministerial examinations only as one permitted method of the parent's own evaluation, which read as optional.
The words a reviewer uses
Quebec Education Program (QEP) plus the Progressions of Learning (POLs) - both prescriptive
competency · subject-specific competency · progression of learning · end-of-cycle outcomes · evaluation criteria · cycle
The part the paperwork does not cover
Filing on time is the easy half. The harder half is the year in between: showing what your child actually learned, in words the reviewer recognises, without turning your home into a school.
That is what this tool is for. You say what your child did, in a sentence. It maps that to the published standards we hold for Quebec, which today are English (288 of 288), Mathematics (496 of 496), Science (523 of 535), Social Studies (107 of 193) and Physical Education (63 of 95). Those figures count the topics we carry for ages 5 to 12 that cite one of Quebec's published standards. Then it builds the record you can hand over the day someone asks. See how it works.
Other places in Canada
Read at the source on 2026-08-28: Quebec's own Homeschooling process and steps page at quebec.ca. Its words: 'The notice must be submitted each year no later than July 1, or within 10 days of the last day on which your child last attended school', and 'You must submit the required information about your child's learning project to the Direction de l'enseignement a la maison of the Ministere de l'Education and start implementing this project no later than September 30 of each year'; for a mid-year withdrawal, within 30 days of the last day attended. The status, mid-term and completion report dates are set out in the Ministry's homeschooling schedule PDF and were not re-read line by line today.
Check it yourself: the authority's own page.