Field guide · Sources last checked 7 Oct 2026
Homeschooling in New Brunswick
Annual home schooling application form, by September 25. Also kept, and shown only if asked: records of your child's progress and instruction.
Register, level 3 of 4
What New Brunswick actually asks of a family teaching their own children. Written plainly, and honest where the answer is that nobody asks for anything.
You tell
The parent's school district
which reviews it and forwards it to the Minister for approval
By
September 25
Must be repeated each school year. The Department's annual home schooling application form sets the deadline for submitting it to the school district office as September 25. The Education Act section on the exemption names no date, so use the current year's form and confirm the date with your school district.
Who reviews it
School district
(review) then the Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development (approval).
If you skip it
Without an exemption, the child must attend school
The Minister grants the exemption where satisfied that the child is under effective instruction elsewhere, and the school district recommends approval, approval with reservation or denial. If a child of compulsory school age is not attending school and is not excused, the parent can be given written notice of the non-compliance and must then immediately cause the child to attend school; a parent who does not commits a category C offence under the Provincial Offences Procedure Act (the offence does not apply once the child is 16). Where a parent neglects or refuses to ensure the child attends school as the Act requires and the superintendent believes the child's well-being may be in danger, the superintendent must refer the matter to the Minister of Social Development. While an exemption is requested or in force, the Minister may appoint a person to investigate the effectiveness of the instruction, and that person must on request be given access to relevant records. Separately, students who complete their entire education through home schooling are not eligible for a New Brunswick High School Diploma.
Who is in charge
The school district reviews; the MINISTER approves. Home schooling in New Brunswick requires approval, not merely notification.
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 25You file
Annual home schooling application form
Must be repeated each school year. The Department's annual home schooling application form sets the deadline for submitting it to the school district office as September 25. The Education Act section on the exemption names no date, so use the current year's form and confirm the date with your school district.
Goes to: The parent's school district, which reviews it and forwards it to the Minister for approval
The program must meet the 'effective instruction' standard and cover the core areas taught in New Brunswick schools, including language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, health and physical education, French, technology, art and music, and career development. All areas of the form need to be completed each year. For each child you give the name, date of birth, gender, grade, the school the child is zoned for and the last school attended; you name the instructor if it is someone other than the parent; and you choose one primary reason for home schooling. You sign a declaration that you accept full responsibility for your child's effective instruction and that it will include the components the form lists, among them a plan with sufficient time to cover the curriculum and effective testing, which may include standardized tests, a portfolio of your child's work or other formal testing. You also sign an indemnity recognizing that home schooled children are not eligible for a New Brunswick High School Diploma and that it is your responsibility to note the entrance requirements of any post-secondary institution your child might wish to attend, and you declare that the information you submit is accurate.
No fixed dateYou keep
Records of your child's progress and instruction
No date. The Department says parents are expected to keep regular records of progress. If the Minister appoints a person to investigate the effectiveness of the instruction while an exemption is requested or in force, that person must on request be given access to any relevant records, books of account or other documents, and may examine and copy them.
Goes to: Kept by the parent; a person the Minister appoints to investigate must be given access on request
Not required
Often assumed. None of it is asked of a family homeschooling in New Brunswick.
Progress reports, portfolio, test scoresNot required.
The words a reviewer uses
New Brunswick curriculum (grade-level learning outcomes published on the NB curriculum website)
Big IdeaGlobal CompetencyContextlearning outcome
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 New Brunswick, which today are English (288 of 383), Mathematics (215 of 574), Science (487 of 604), Social Studies (120 of 1631), Physical Education (47 of 106) and Arts (3 of 115). Those figures count the topics we carry for ages 5 to 12 that cite one of New Brunswick's published standards. Then it builds the record you can hand over the day someone asks. See how it works.
Sources
- Checked 11 Aug 2026
- Checked 7 Oct 2026
- Checked 7 Oct 2026
Sources last checked on 2026-10-07: Education Act, chapter E-1.12. That is the date we checked, not the date the rule last changed.
Check it yourself: the source we used.
Guidance, not legal advice. Rules change and districts vary: confirm with the authority named above before you file.