Summer has come!!!!
Brett at Sylvan Lake
SUMMER OFFICE HOURS

Your hard-working "central office" staff members will be working through the summer to provide service and support to you.  While we will be keeping the lights on during the summer, we will have adjusted office hours, and we will be taking our holidays at staggered times during the summer.  We do reserve the right to be spontaneous with our office hours and work days during the summer months, so please call our office before you plan a visit just to ensure that we will be here.

Below are our "normal" summer work hours and days starting July 4th:
Monday-Thursday: 9 AM - 3 PM; Lunch: 12-1 PM
Friday: 9 AM -12 PM

PROGRAM PLANS FOR 2016-17

Reminder: According to the rule set by Alberta Education, you must have completed your "Education Program Plan" (i.e. Program Plan) and have sent it to THEE's office no later than September 30th of the current school year in order to be officially registered for home schooling.

If you have not already completed your Program Plan, please remember that I have provided several templates for you to choose from for making your Program Plan.  You will find these templates at THEE's website at
Your choices for a template include
1. web-based form with drop-down menus (option #4)
2. PDF form with drop-down menus (option #3)
3. Word document with drop-down menus (option #2)
4. Word document with no drop-down menus (option #1)

ELIGIBLE RESOURCES FOR REIMBURSEMENT

You have likely heard of or personally experienced "issues" with knowing which learning resources are eligible for reimbursement via your home education funding, and please let me say that we in THEE's office "feel your pain"!!!  The target of knowing which resources are eligible is a moving target and an inconsistent target. 

In your "Confirmation Package" of information that you will receive from us for the 2016-17 school year, I have placed a copy of our Reimbursement Policy which also contains an updated list of eligible and ineligible learning resources. I will be the first to say that I do not necessarily agree with all of the items in the "ineligible" list, but I have determined these items based on actual Alberta Education audit reports which my faithful and fellow home education program leaders have shared with me.

The ineligible list typically contains learning resources that are for non-core-subjects/topics.  Core subjects are those related to English, literature, science, math, history, geography, and social studies.  If possible and if you have a choice in which receipts to submit to our office, please choose those receipts which are for core-subject/topic-related resources.

I want to take this opportunity to officially thank AISCA (Association of Independent Schools and Colleges in Alberta) and its president, Mr. John Jagersma, for working with us home education program leaders and for supporting the home education programs of private schools by trying to propose a solution to Alberta Education finances branch to the many problems associated with matters related to this topic of reimbursements. 
 

POLICY REGARDING DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTING RECEIPTS and HOW THAT POLICY AFFECTS TEXTBOOK REFUNDS FROM THE ADLC

The deadline for sending to THEE your receipts for reimbursement was May 20th for this school year.  Schools in Alberta, to include the home education programs of schools, close their respective financial year at the end of the school year, so we must "close our books" by the end of June.  The May 20th deadline gives us time to process all of the late-arriving applications for reimbursement, to process the payments and cheques, to get the cheques double-signed by school board members, to get the signed cheques back to us at THEE, and for us to mail them out to you by the end of June.

Our reimbursement policy also does not provide for the carry-over of unspent home ed funds for a student from one school year to the next.

This combination of the May 20th due date and the non-carry-over of home ed funding does cause the situation for students who are still enrolled in ADLC courses to not be able to receive a refund adjustment to their respective home ed funding upon the student's returning the ADLC textbook to the ADLC in late June or in July.  

I do acknowledge the fact that students who return the ADLC textbook(s) after our THEE deadline do not get to spend the refunded amount on home ed materials for the ending school year.

I also recognize the fact that students who are enrolled in ADLC courses during the second semester and who will not complete the ADLC course until mid to late June do need to keep their textbook for that ADLC course well past our due-date of May 20 for submitting reimbursement receipts.

But my need to finalize, reconcile, and close the financial and educational operations of THEE by the end of June necessitates the non-crediting of returned ADLC textbooks to the student's home ed funding account in July or even August.  I know that I may sound "harsh" in stating and enforcing this policy; however, home education students, in general, buy textbooks and other learning resources with the home ed funding that they receive from Alberta Ed. Such textbooks include Alberta Ed and non-Alberta Ed textbooks, and home ed students and parents can choose to keep or sell the home ed textbooks that they have purchased with their own home ed funding.  Home Ed students or parents who have bought non-Alberta Ed texts and who wish to sell such textbooks take the initiative to find a buyer of the textbook(s).  In the situation of a home ed student who bought an Alberta Ed textbook from the ADLC for an ADLC course, the parent or student can also take the initiative to find a buyer of the textbook, or that parent can choose to return the textbook to the ADLC for a partial refund of the original purchase price...if  done so by THEE's deadline for reimbursement.