Field guide · Read at the government's own source
Homeschooling in Manitoba
Student Notification Form (includes the Program Outline), by September 1. The full list, with the deadline for starting partway through the year, is below.
Show progress, level 4 of 4
What Manitoba actually asks of a family teaching their own children. Written plainly, and honest where the answer is that nobody asks for anything.
You tell
Homeschooling Office, Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning
By
September 1
SEPTEMBER 1 each year. New families: within 30 days of beginning to home school.
Who reviews it
The provincial Homeschooling Office
It processes each Student Notification Form and, once it is processed, sends you a letter of Confirmation of Notification. Homeschooling Liaisons, assigned by area, may contact you to clarify information on your forms, or about your program outline or your child's progress.
If you skip it
It can be an offence carrying a fine
Under The Public Schools Act a parent must ensure that a child of compulsory school age attends school, and not doing so is an offence (section 260) unless an exemption in section 262 applies. For a child taught at home, that exemption is a field representative of the department certifying that the child is receiving a standard of education at home equivalent to that provided in a public school. Where the Act sets no other penalty, an offence carries a fine of $10 to $200 and, if the fine is not paid immediately, imprisonment of up to six months (section 237). Refusing or neglecting to give information the Act requires, or wilfully giving false information, carries a fine of up to $100 (section 238). A school attendance officer, or a field representative, may serve a written notice on a parent whose child is found to be unlawfully absent from school, and not complying with that notice carries a fine of up to $500 or another penalty the court considers proper (sections 265 and 268). Manitoba Education's own pages do not set out a penalty for a late or missing form, but they say the Homeschooling Office processes a returning family's Student Notification Form only when all required forms from the previous school year have been submitted, and a paper form missing required information is returned.
Who is in charge
Homeschooling Office, Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning (1577 Dublin Avenue, Winnipeg MB R3E 3J5; phone 204-945-8138, toll free in Manitoba 1-800-282-8069 ext. 8138; homeschooling@gov.mb.ca)
Who reviews your child is set out at the top of this page, in the authority's own terms.
The year
What you must file
September 1You file
Student Notification Form (includes the Program Outline)
SEPTEMBER 1 each year. New families: within 30 days of beginning to home school.
Goes to: Homeschooling Office, Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning
The Program Outline must cover the four required subjects, Language Arts, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies, giving the learning goals for each child, the topics to be covered and the learning resources. Optional subjects may be added. The Public Schools Act also requires each child's name and birth date, the name of the school or school division the child would otherwise attend, and the child's grade level. One form is required for each child. Online, the declaration section must be completed; on a paper form, all applicable parents must sign in ink, and a paper form missing required information is returned. Under The Public Schools Act a child is of compulsory school age from the fall term of the year they turn 6 until they turn 18. A child may be notified as early as September of the calendar year they turn 5, and must be notified by September of the calendar year they turn 6. Notification is no longer required once the child enrols in a public or independent school, reaches 18, or earns the Manitoba High School Diploma.
January 31You file
January Progress Report
JANUARY 31.
How often: twice yearly (1 of 2)
Goes to: Homeschooling Office
Should document what the child is doing well, what they are struggling with, what needs improvement, and the next steps in programming.
June 30You file
June Progress Report
JUNE 30.
How often: twice yearly (2 of 2)
Goes to: Homeschooling Office
Same content standard as the January report.
No fixed dateYou file
A copy of your Confirmation of Notification letter, when your school division or school asks
When your school division or school asks for it
How often: on request
Goes to: Your school division or school
The Homeschooling Office sends this letter once it has processed your Student Notification Form. Manitoba Education says all parents must give the school division or school a copy when asked. If your child is attending a school and you are withdrawing them to homeschool, the department also says you should tell your local school division or school. The department encourages families to keep these letters each year as proof of education for anyone who asks, such as the Canada Revenue Agency or immigration officials.
No fixed dateYou file
Tell the Homeschooling Office before travelling outside Manitoba for an extended period
Before leaving Manitoba for an extended period
How often: when it happens
Goes to: Homeschooling Office, Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning
The Student Notification Form for each child, with a program outline for language arts, mathematics, science and social studies, and the January and June Progress Reports are still required while you travel. If other arrangements are needed, contact the Homeschooling Office.
No fixed dateYou file
Tell the Homeschooling Office if your child starts attending school full time during the school year
When your child moves from homeschooling to full-time attendance at a school partway through the school year
How often: when it happens
Goes to: Homeschooling Office, Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning
Manitoba Education asks for this so that accurate records can be kept. To enrol, contact the school principal, who may ask for evidence of your child's homeschooling program and decides the grade placement.
No fixed dateYou file
Written permission from your Education Authority (First Nations families living on reserve)
Before the Student Notification Form can be processed, for First Nations families living on reserve
How often: when it applies
Goes to: Homeschooling Office, Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning
The local Education Authority is responsible for the educational programming of First Nations students. A First Nations family living on reserve must get written permission from its Education Authority and give it to the Homeschooling Office; the Office does not process the Student Notification Form until it has it.
No fixed dateYou file
Agreement of every parent or guardian with legal authority over the child's education, and a copy of the custody agreement if separated or divorced
With every homeschooling form you submit
How often: with each form
Goes to: Homeschooling Office, Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning
All parents or legal guardians with legal authority to make educational decisions for the child, except under a sole legal custody agreement, must agree to homeschooling and be listed in the parent and guardian section of every form. This includes parents with a court order for shared custody or educational decision-making, parents with no court order, and a Child and Family Services social worker. Where parents are separated or divorced, Manitoba Education asks you to send a copy of the custody agreement to the Homeschooling Office, and every applicable parent must sign a paper Student Notification Form in ink.
No fixed dateYou file
Information a school attendance officer asks for
Right away when a school attendance officer asks, unless you have a reasonable excuse
How often: on request
Goes to: The school attendance officer or department field representative who asks
The Public Schools Act (section 270) requires anyone asked by a school attendance officer for information the officer needs to carry out the Act's school attendance rules to provide it right away, unless they have a reasonable excuse. School boards appoint school attendance officers (section 264), and a field representative of the department has the same powers (section 265).
The words a reviewer uses
Manitoba curriculum frameworks
Learning OutcomeGeneral Learning OutcomeSpecific Learning OutcomeKnowledgeSkill
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 Manitoba, which today are English (284 of 383), Mathematics (436 of 574), Science (501 of 604), Social Studies (173 of 1631), Physical Education (102 of 106) and Arts (112 of 115). Those figures count the topics we carry for ages 5 to 12 that cite one of Manitoba's published standards. Then it builds the record you can hand over the day someone asks. See how it works.
Sources
- Read 11 Aug 2026
- Read 11 Aug 2026
- Read 11 Aug 2026
- Read 7 Oct 2026
- Read 7 Oct 2026
- Read 7 Oct 2026
Last read at the source on 2026-10-07: The Public Schools Act, C.C.S.M. c. P250 (Manitoba Laws). That is the date we read it, not the date the rule last changed.
Check it yourself: the authority's own page.
Guidance, not legal advice. Rules change and districts vary: confirm with the authority named above before you file.