Change to online learning registration policies
Just when you thought Ontario was making progress in the arena of student choice . . . a slight, administrative change to public school’s reporting procedures might spell big trouble for students wanting to register for high school credits through an online provider, such as AMDEC.
Here’s the basic nature of the changes:
(Note: Since it’s been a while since I’ve been involved in school administration, consider the following description as the “general gist” of things. If someone wants to correct or fine-tune my description of how things work, please email me and I’ll update accordingly.)
Previously, when a student registered with an public online school (which is often simply an online version of a public school or board) the child would be come a student of that school. (Makes sense, right? That’s where he or she is taking courses.)
According to a new instructions manual for reporting student enrollment released last week, however, changes in the way schools report their students has essentially prevented these online schools from claiming any students as their own. Instead, students may only be considered students of their local public school, and the e-learning provider simply bills the local school for the service of providing their online courses to that public school’s students. E-learning schools can now only receive funding for students who belong to other school boards, since it appears that they will receive money directly from the boards and not directly from the Ministry.
It’s perhaps not as bad as it could be, because (as I make a strong point of saying) registering for something like AMDEC is putting your child in the public system, making them subject to all the ministry rules and regulations. So, if you were going to register at AMDEC, then you might as well be registered at the local school — for all administrative intents and purposes it’s the same thing.
However, there’s one part of the equation no one is talking about yet: the local “home school” principal has always had total and absolute authority to allow or deny taking courses outside of the school. There’s no guarantee that, once registered at the local school, the local principal will allow you to transfer to AMDEC.
This would be less of a problem if AMDEC could have its own students; however, since the student must be a student of the local public school, now we’re falling into the territory of “taking classes outside the school” which has never, ever been a given. (Notice how AMDEC’s registration website says that the local school principal will be mailed a document explaining what’s going on? Half of that is going to be a “coaxing/begging” letter for permission, too, I’m sure.)
In the worst case, home schoolers will register with their local school boards only to find that permission to take online courses is not granted, and now they’re in the system at the mercy of that local principal. One would then be forced to file official notice of home schooling to get out of that arrangement, but would still be unable to take the online courses.
The good things is that AMDEC is really staffed by very nice people and it is in their best interest to make the situation work for home schoolers. So, families will definitely have an ally in AMDEC, but will they have a willing participant in their local principal? I can just imagine the potential for resentment to build up. (We have to register these kids that don’t even want to take courses anyway — we have to establish and maintain OSR’s but we don’t receive a cent of funding for them — we’re legally responsible for them, yet have no control over what they’re doing . . . ) Totally uncool, I think. If I were a principal, I wouldn’t be happy.
Some alternatives to this situation include:
- attempt to gain university admission in one of the many ways that does not require formal coursework (e.g. standardized tests, mature student, open university)
- register in a private online school (e.g. Ottawa Carleton E-School) that does not receive public funding. (Note: you will have to pay for these courses, but there is less bureaucracy and you don’t have to register with a local school first.)
- Enroll in the ILC (Independent Learning Centre) for correspondence high school credit courses. (Note: you will still have to approach your local school, but only to ask them to sign a form indicating that your child is not registered at the local school. Therefore, you are registered only with the ILC directly and not with a local school board. At the time of writing this post, the ILC homeschool policy had remained unchanged.)
Please share your enrollment experiences with me so that I can better advise and assist parents struggling with these new regulations!
UPDATE: From what I’ve been able to gather from those who have spoken to AMDEC, it looks like students who already thought they were registered should be able to begin classes normally, but will be mailed “additional paperwork” to take to the local school and have signed/returned. So, this change shouldn’t prevent anyone who had currently registered from the upcoming year from starting classes. It’s just that AMDEC won’t get the money from the gov’t until all the paperwork is in place. And, from what I remember, these enrollment forms aren’t due until October anyway, so there is time to deal with the paperwork. But, it still has to be dealt with, unfortunately . . .
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Comments
I do not see this as a really big change…when my daughter wanted to transfer from high school (grade 9) to online (grade 10), we had the small problem of not being able to register her with AMDEC because she was already registered with the school, and we could not derigister her from the school because she was under 16! So, to solve this problem, I simply informed them that she would be homeschooling once again (since we had homeschooled before, and that was true because she would be schooling at home) ..and then registered her with AMDEC. The school was very cooperative and we had no problems whatsoever from anyone. We all had a laugh at the ‘glitch’ we found.
Perhaps this change is to help AVOID a repeat of this scenario?
I had no idea this blog existed…lol I’m glad you sent this link to oftpchat so I could read up on what was going on! I’m going to link you to my blog and then read everything you have…lol I’m suppose to be signing up my eldest for ILC this year but I’m waiting to see what the specialist says about his hands (his hands are hyperextensive and it’s really difficult for him) and see if ILC can accomodate such a thing. I am not happy about the changes of AMDEC. I can see why they are doing it but I’m still not pleased. Some local principals are just not approachable for such things. I believe going through your local school board with a letter of intent is often much more feasible. That’s how ILC does it and that seems easier to me. If I had my eldest in school, then had pulled him out to hs, there would be tension between me and the local principal. Then I have to go to her/him and ask permission for him to attend elearning…..I’m waiting for that issue to come up! Please continue to write about this and keep us posted on new issues. I am anxious to hear how this will all pan out.
Thank you for all your effort too!!
Hi Sarah,
I attempted to get my form signed at my local public high school. I
was flatly denied since all of the principals at the York Region Public
School Board received an email telling to NOT authorize anyone to
take courses at AMDEC. The principal was actually quite friendly, but
explained her predicament. She gave me the number for the
superintendent. My friend was also denied. She went to a different
school within the York Region Public School Board. She also went to the Catholic school board. The principal was rude and said he would get back to her.
Cynthia Lacroix
After a week of waiting we are registered and the letter signed for AMDEC here in Ottawa. The Board based on a letter from the Ministry to all Boards dated August 28,2007 directed them to do so. The principal is pro-on-line learning and thinks that it is the future. He also has been friendly and helpful. He wanted to do it right. If you are having problems contact Ron St. Louis at the Ministry he is in charge of this mess. Also, AMDEC will go to bat for you. This is new and the schools were not given any direction and do not have procedures in place.
We have no experience with AMDEC but do have experience with ILC. I know that they require a letter from the principle of the local school for registering a student. I think our local high school would have been more than willing to accommodate us, but on the principle of not wanting to get the public school involved if we did not have to, we had our local home school support group leader sign a letter that indicated that our student was not attending a high school. It has ou worked for 3 students so far, with the last one being after the regulations changed slightly at about the same time as PPM 131 was issued.
For those that are trying to get credits that Universities will accept, I know at least one University that will accept Tree of Life Credits issued on their transcript. Since there is no government oversight on these courses, I figure that is pretty good. There is a fee obviously but it is reasonable.
@Cynthia: Thanks for reporting your experiences with the York Board. Do you have a source for or copy of that letter? Has anyone let AMDEC know about this?
@Linda: Glad you had a better experience in Ottawa. (Why is that always the case?) And, thanks for putting a name to the policy. Do you know how to get in touch with him? Is he a Ministry staff member? Is he in Ottawa? Toronto?
@Jake: Yes, we’re not sure how/whether all this affects ILC, since technically, ILC courses are not e-Learning courses. (They’re pen and paper-based correspondence courses, so I suspect they are exempt from these new regulations.)
And, I just want to remind everyone re: University Admissions — it’s *probably* (you’d have to tell me which specific university you’re talking about) not technically correct to say that a university will ACCEPT Tree of Life credits, using those exact words. Before anyone gets all huffy, what I mean by that is something very specific: the ONLY credits that are ACCEPTED at face value by public Ontario universities are Ontario credits from accredited institutions. I’m splitting hairs but it’s important to so that people are aware of exactly how the process works. Now, it’s true that some universities (like Ottawa, for example) have been known to take non-accredited credits into account when making admissions decisions, but this is not the same as accepting those credits. To use the word “accept” would imply that you could simply swap out an Ontario Calculus credit, for example, with someone else’s non-accredited calculus credit, which is not the case at any of the public universities.
My point is to be aware that just because Person A did “X” and got into university B, this is not the same as saying that Person A got into university B BECAUSE they did “X” nor is this the same as saying if Person C does “X” they will also get into university B. It is good information, but it’s potentially misleading to think that doing “X” will for sure get you into university. When Ontario credits are not involved, admissions are still very much on a case-by-case basis. 
I am the Past-Chair of AMDEC’s Parent Council (2006-2007). My son was one of the two first full-time AMDEC graduates (June 2007) and, as a parent and now just a taxpayer, am very supportive of AMDEC, its staff and its teachers. I am currently involved with parents in the Ottawa Carleton District School Board who are attempting to have their sheets signed so that their students may attend AMDEC full time. As mentioned above, Linda has had success at her daughter’s ‘home school’ but I know another parent whoes sheet was signed and submitted only to be phoned days later and informed that her daughter may take only one AMDEC course and that all others must be taken at her ‘home school’. Again, these major decisions and interpretations of the new policy have been left in the hands of individual principals and this has resulted in different reactions to individual requests. Infront of me I have a copy of the original policy memo that started this problem and it appears to be the first line of it that is causing principals some confusion … “I am writing to inform you of new enrolment reporting requirements for e-learning courses provided as part of the regular Day School Program.”. It would appear that many principals are standing firm on the phrase ‘….as part of the regular Day School Program.” They do not appreciate the fact that full time AMDEC students attend AMDEC full time. Full time AMDECians are not part of the regular Day School Program at any school in any other school board other than the Avon Maitland District School Board. I am working to ensure that AMDEC is allowed to hold the OSRs of all self-declared full time AMDECians. I cannot think of any other way we can make certain that AMDECians are not ‘held hostage’ by local principals every September. I would appreciate knowing what others think.
Hi Sarah:
I have been led to believe that AMDEC is still within its rights to hold OSRs because AMDEC is a fully accredited Ontario high school. Prior to this new funding policy however, AMDEC was deemed to be a department of the Avon Maitland Board and as such, none of our students received the funding that they would have qualified for had they attended a ‘bricks and mortar’ school. It is the fact that AMDEC is a legally accredited Ontario high school that I want to use with the Ministry to ask that AMDEC be allowed to hold our students’ OSRs. This however, may cause problems due to boundary issues.
As we all know, the Ministry expects students to attend schools operated by school boards within their city/town. Most full-time AMDECians do not live within the Avon Maitland catchment area. During my son’s grade 9 year, we were asked to sign a form requesting a variance. My husband and I then had a short 5 minute phone call from a Avon Maitland School Board Superintendant and AMDEC Principal who then agreed to allow our son to attend AMDEC. Our son’s paperwork was then sent to the Ministry informing them of the granting of the variance. We did not have to inform our local school board of this because he never registered at a local high school. We signed again in grade 10 with a follow-up call from the Superintendant but in grade 11 and 12, this process had been stopped.
My hope is to convince the Ministry that allowing AMDECians to do what amounts to ‘boundary jumping’ shgould be allowed. The building and sustainment of school loyalty is very important during the high school years. Feeling that they belong to a community is what makes AMDEC unique. I am concerned that AMDEC students who have attended AMDEC exclusively, worked on ‘The Virtual Voice” (the school newspaper), joined the debating club, spent countless hours gossiping in the cafeteria, appeared in the yearbook, ‘cried’ on the shoulder of the guidance teacher, worked out math problems with the math help teacher, discussed the finer points of Shakespeare with the english help teacher and attended the year end picnic wearing their AMDEC hoodie or tee-shirt (yes, AMDEC has its own school colours and clothes), will feel robbed of their chance to graduate from their high school because their OSR will be held by a ‘bricks and mortar’ institution and it will be with hundreds of strangers with whom the Ministry expects AMDECians to graduate.
Hi Everyone:
Ron Coleman, Ottawa Board Homeschooling Liaison Officier called me before lunch to make sure that I knew the Board is enrolling students and signing the AMDEC form. The schools have receiveded a memo telling them to register the student, sign the AMDEC form and that AMDEC (at this point in time) will be responsible to ensure that the student is in the right course and has the necessary pre-requisites. This memo was sent to the principals on Thursday or Friday. They cannot refuse AMDEC registrations. In fact the schools themselves stand to gain by higher staffing levels, the Board will get financial funding etc. Not a bad deal for the Boards for only spending 15 minutes or less per student. Merivale HS has since Laura’s registration on Friday have registered another student (total time spent 15 minutes) and are registering more on Tuesday morning.
Ron St. Louis is the Ministry guy who sent the initial letters out. He can be reached at Ron.St.Louis@ontario.ca He needs to hear from Amdec parents about the problems. I believe that my talking to him and e-mailing him may have helped here in Ottawa. Also, Ron Coleman with our Board has been a great help.
There is a new Yahoo group being set up for AMDEC parents. You can join at http://ca.groups.yahoo.com/group/amdecparents/
This group will allow all parents and interested AMDEC parties to have a central spot to share and compare information.
It is a private group and you need the above address to find it.
Hi Sarah:
The group would be open to interested AMDEC families I think. They would need to state their reason for wanting to join. I am certain Ruth would be very open to them, since her reason for starting the group is to help old and new families.
The letter I am talking about was from the Ottawa Board to their principals based on the Ministry’s letter of August 28th to the Finance officers of every Board regarding the registration and payment for on line students. The Ottawa Board complied.
Linda
As of this afternoon the Virtual Learning Centre,VLC, is also requiring students have a form signed by their neighbourhood school. They had thought they were excluded. The VLC is part of that board’s Continuing Education group. Their form is a little different than AMDEC and does not put the pre-requisite on the school but the student and the VLC. That is making the assumption that the VLC will keep the OSRs. I think that they are being pro-active and trying to keep control of their students.
The new form is on the VLC web site.
I delayed my input to this blog. I wanted to see how events would play out between the school boards and the infamous letter from the Ministry of Education to parents of students at AMDEC.
We have been acknowledged as the first successful AMDEC registration approved under the new policy. We were relieved to get the form signed and forwarded to AMDEC on 31 Aug 2007. However, on the 5th of September we received at telephone call from the Vice Principal of the so-called ‘home school.’ She informed us that our daughter must drop three of her AMDEC courses and take the same courses at the local board. We were also instructed to set up an appointment with the Guidance office so that a teacher could check our daughter’s prerequisites and advise her on future courses. This did not make sense to us so we contacted an Educational Officer at the Ministry of Education and pleaded our case so that all of our daughter’s courses could be taken through AMDEC. After corresponding between AMDEC and the Ministry of Education our daughter was finally enrolled at AMDEC on September 6, 2007. We expect to have to plead our case again next September although our daughter should graduate form AMDEC in 2009.
Although we know that other parents are experiencing similar opposition and delays, we believe that AMDEC is worth the effort and our daughter has grown to appreciate a good education. Good luck to all of you. Don’t be discouraged. Sometimes change is hard to initiate. Improvements to the educational system will only occur with thoughtful input and perserverance.
Our local group of home educators has found it sufficient to have, on letterhead,from one of the leaders of the group, a brief comment indicating that our son or daughter is not attending the high school. ILC has always accepted these letters.
UPDATES: so far positive, I’m glad to say!
1. At least one parent has reported a positive experience with TDSB school staff. This school reported being delighted to have a student to add to their total count, but who wouldn’t be taking up a physical classroom space. Let’s hope everyone sees it this way! Worth noting that the principal was not yet aware of this whole situation, so do be prepared to explain it when you go in. And, be sure to mention. . .
2. I have heard (third-hand and unofficially) that there will in fact still be *some* funding going towards the local school for the purposes of OSR maintenance etc. In addition, the per-student funding for online students has increased. So, everyone seems to be a winner in this arrangement. (If you see a total overall increase in student funding as winning; some do and some don’t.)
My Updated Perspective:
If the local schools are happy to participate in this arrangement and see it as a little influx of free money, then this system might work out fine. But, we still have the issue of “permission” from the local principal to deal with in situations where:
~ A Home schooling parent whose child is technically “in grade 8″ wants to apply for some Gr. 9 courses through an online provider. First question, does the parent approach the local high school or elementary school? (My gut reaction says since the Gr. 8 designation is arbitrary, go to the school that offers the level of courses you wish to take. Other thoughts?)
~ Students needing permission to take courses without the official pre-requisites (e.g. a home schooler applying in Gr. 12 to take their “top six” with no other formal coursework). Online providers are perhaps more accustomed to this arrangement than the local public school. Which principal gets to make the call? Whose assessment procedure is used?
~ A “regular” student wishes to take some courses online, realizing that others are able to do so. Especially problematic if the school already has a policy in place (like some TDSB public high schools do) that students may not take courses outside the school to prevent “credit shopping.”
If anyone has any experience with these issues, please share! Emails or comments here are welcome.