If anyone knows of an English-speaking homeschooling support group in the Sherbrooke area, could you please let me know? I have looked around a bit but haven’t been able to locate such a group.

You can post info here as a comment, or email me (freehold2 AT yahoo DOT ca). Thanks for the help!

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Most folks are aware that in the province of Quebec children must attend school beginning at the age of six. If you have a child whose birthday is in the fall, you are probably also aware that the cut-off for eligibility to attend kindergarten is 30 September (the same as the provincial census day for schools.) Children born after this date have to wait almost a whole extra year to begin public school.

When it comes to determining compulsory school attendance ages, though, many folks are unclear about what the law actually says. AQED’s Pierre Compagna says this group may include school board staff, who will presumably tell you that if your child is 6 by 1 October he must be enrolled in school. This informative article (French only) will help you to determine whether your child must be in school by law (whether public or private, or homeschooled.)

Here are some of the highlights from the article (summarized in English):

1. Children must begin to attend school in the school year following their 6th birthday;
2. The school year begins 1 July each calendar year;
3. Options for school attendance:
   • If your child turns 5 before 1 October he is eligible for kindergarten, but is not required to attend (my note: in areas where there is a pre-kindergarten program eligibility begins at age 4)
   • If your child turns 6 between 1 July - 30 September you may choose to begin schooling (first grade) or to delay by one more year
   • If your child turns 6 before 1 July he must fulfill the obligatory attendance criteria (public or private school, or home-based education) by fall
4. All children must fulfill obligatory attendance until they obtain their high school leaving (end of Secondary V or grade 11) or until the end of the school year in which they turn 16, which ever comes first

This work was created by Ruby of Freehold 2, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.