Homeschooling in Nova Scotia: Requirements, Paperwork, and How to Start

Yes. Section 83 of the Education Act provides for a home education program, administered centrally by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. You register with the Minister for each school year rather than with a local board.

No. Nova Scotia imposes no parent qualification requirements at all — no teaching certificate, no educational credential, no background check. Any parent may provide home education.

Not that we can find. No Nova Scotia government page describes a home-education funding program, so families should plan on paying for materials and resources themselves. Because the absence is evidenced by silence rather than by a published policy, confirm with EECD before you budget on it.

Two things a year. Registration with the Minister by September 20 — including proof of age if your child has not previously been registered in a Nova Scotia public school or home education program. Then one annual progress report at the end of June.

No. There is no prescribed curriculum — you choose the materials and the approach. The regulations describe a portfolio as a representative, multi-curricula selection of your child's work, which tells you the sort of evidence the June report is expected to rest on.

There is no explicit statutory retention period beyond what you need to produce the annual progress report. A portfolio built through the year is the practical answer: it makes the June report straightforward and it is what an independent assessor would look at in the rare case one is appointed.

Moving within Nova Scotia: registration is provincial rather than board-based, so it follows you — update your address with the department. Leaving Nova Scotia: your registration ends and your new province's or country's rules apply from that point.