Field guide · Sources last checked 19 Aug 2026
Homeschooling in Nunavut
Registration with a school, on or before the first instructional day of the school year, and before the home schooling program starts. Your District Education Authority must evaluate the program. The child must be at least 6 by December 31 of that school year. The full list is below.
Show progress, level 4 of 4
What Nunavut actually asks of a family teaching their own children. Written plainly, and honest where the answer is that nobody asks for anything.
You tell
A school in your education district
Your District Education Authority supervises the program. If you live outside an education district, register with a school in the closest one; if your district has more than one school, the Authority's policy decides which (Education Act s.30(2), (3) and (5)).
By
The first instructional day of the school year
On or before the first instructional day of the school year (Education Act s.30(6)). To be in a home schooling program, your child must be registered with a school, be at least 6 years of age on or before December 31 of the school year, and be under 18 on that day (s.21(3)).
Who reviews it
Your District Education Authority
which supervises home schooling programs and must evaluate them and provide support for them, in accordance with the regulations (Education Act s.21(1) and s.21(5)). A principal must assist the Authority in this work, following the regulations and the Authority's directions (s.21(6)).
If you skip it
Home schooling without registration can be an offence
To be in a home schooling program, your child must be registered with a school (Education Act s.21(3)). Providing education meant to replace one or more school grades other than through a school, a home schooling program, a registered private school or Nunavut Arctic College is an offence, with a fine of up to $5,000 (s.22). A child who must be registered has to attend school regularly even if not registered (s.34(1) and (2)), and your District Education Authority's registration and attendance policy must set out a procedure to deal with parents who have not registered their children (s.37(5)(a)). Tuition fees cannot be charged for a student in a home schooling program (s.200(6)).
Who is in charge
District Education Authority (DEA), which supervises the home schooling program, through the principal of the school with which the student is registered
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
No fixed dateYou file
Registration with a school / application to the DEA
On or before the first instructional day of the school year (Education Act s.30(6)). To be in a home schooling program, your child must be registered with a school, be at least 6 years of age on or before December 31 of the school year, and be under 18 on that day (s.21(3)).
How often: Before the program starts, and no later than the first instructional day of the school year
Goes to: A school in your education district. Your District Education Authority supervises the program. If you live outside an education district, register with a school in the closest one; if your district has more than one school, the Authority's policy decides which (Education Act s.30(2), (3) and (5)).
No fixed dateYou file
Evaluation of your home schooling program by your District Education Authority
Set by the regulations that govern home schooling programs (Education Act s.21(5) and s.21(7)). Ask the principal of your child's school or your District Education Authority when the evaluation happens.
How often: As set by the regulations that govern home schooling programs
Goes to: Your District Education Authority, with the help of a school principal
The Education Act says your District Education Authority must evaluate home schooling programs and provide support for them, in accordance with the regulations (s.21(5)), and that a principal must assist it (s.21(6)). The Act itself does not list what you provide for the evaluation or when, so ask the principal of your child's school.
No fixed dateYou file
Register at a school in your new education district after a move
Within seven days after the change in residence, if your child's residence changes after the first instructional day of the school year and your child should then be registered in a school in a different education district (Education Act s.30(7)).
How often: Each time a move after the first instructional day of the school year means your child should be registered in a different education district
Goes to: A school in your new education district
To be in a home schooling program, a student must be registered with a school (Education Act s.21(3)).
The words a reviewer uses
Nunavut curriculum. Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit remains a Nunavut education-system concept; it is NOT in s.21 as currently consolidated.
Learning 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 Nunavut, which today are English (287 of 383), Mathematics (489 of 574), Science (538 of 604), Social Studies (154 of 1631), Physical Education (106 of 106) and Arts (107 of 115). Those figures count the topics we carry for ages 5 to 12 that cite one of Nunavut's published standards. Then it builds the record you can hand over the day someone asks. See how it works.
Sources
- Checked 19 Aug 2026
- Checked 11 Aug 2026
Sources last checked on 2026-08-19: Education Act, S.Nu. 2008, c.15, gov.nu.ca consolidation PDF, current to 2021-02-27, s.21 read 2026-08-19. That is the date we checked, not the date the rule last changed.
The law itself: Education Act, S.Nu. 2008, c.15, s.21 (Home schooling programs), s.22 (Unauthorized schooling), s.30 (Registration, ages 6 to 18), s.34 (Attendance, including the exemption in s.34(3)(f) for a home schooling program), s.37(5)(a) (registration and attendance policy) and s.200(6) (no tuition fees for home schooling); s.21(2) REPEALED, S.Nu. 2020, c.14, s.5, do not cite IQ under s.21(2); s.21(3) registration; s.21(4) reimbursement; s.21(5) DEA evaluation and support; s.21(6) duty of principal; s.21(7) regulation-making power. We hold no direct link to the authority's page for this jurisdiction.
Guidance, not legal advice. Rules change and districts vary: confirm with the authority named above before you file.