Learning project
Your learning project must be submitted to the Direction de l’enseignement à la maison (DEM) by September 30th.
(If you should make your decision during the school year, please refer to the page Special cases for more information)
Learning projects are generally three pages long.
No need to get into too much detail. We suggest that you offer your children an educational experience a lot wider and richer than the minimum required by law.
Unless living with some particular issues (i.e. short term return to school, obtaining credits for high school diploma, services required from the school service centre, disagreements between parents on the type of education offered, active file at the Director of Youth Protection (DYP), etc.), it is not needed to document for the government more than requested by law.
You will find examples in the Member area, as well as tools to help you with drafting your documents.
Transmitting your learning project
- Directly onto the MEES's secure site (you can access it via the main portal, and click on the link under "document(s)").
- Via mail or email :
Direction de l’enseignement à la maisonMinistère de l’Éducation et de l’Enseignement supérieur
600, rue Fullum, 11e étage
Montréal (Québec) H2K 4L1
Email: dem [at] education.gouv.qc.ca
Information to include
According to Article 5 of the regulation, your learning project must include the following information:
1. Identification of the child
- First and last name, address and date of birth.
- Permanent code, if your child has attended a school, add this information. Otherwise, write “not applicable”. The permanent code should appear on report cards and some other documents received from the school service centre or the school. You could also call the school attended to know your child’s permanent code or communicate with the government. If your child has attended a school in the province of Quebec and you do not know the permanent code, you can simply leave a blank space.
2. A description of the education approach selected
- Describe your educational approach in two to three sentences.
- Make sure the description is coherent with the rest of your learning project.
- If you do not know yet which approach better suits your child or if you prefer an eclectic approach, you could write something like: “We will adapt our education approach throughout the year, based on the needs of our child and inspired by various pedagogies.”
- You could also list the approaches that you are interested in and mention that it is not a complete list.
- If your child has particular needs, please consult the page Special cases.
For further information on the different educational approaches and for more documents and examples, visit the Member area.
Even with the 2019 regulation, you do not have to change your educational approach. You are not required to use Quebec’s Progression of Learning, which is a complement to the Quebec Education Program. You do have to provide to your child “varied and stimulating activities that aim to acquire overall knowledge and competency”. “Content aiming to reach the objectives included in the program of each subject has to be taught to allow progress in learning equivalent to that applicable per cycle at school”. All this, while referring to the Quebec Education Program.
You are not obligated to use a Quebec curriculum or exercise books, the choice of method belongs to you. Many parents use material not labeled as following the Education Department’s Progression of learning (program from another country, free learning from daily occupations, etc.), adding discussions or outings to better answer the required competencies.
3. Evaluation methods
- Indicate the evaluation method(s) you have chosen among the 5 options proposed in article 15 of the regulations.
For more information, consult the page Annual evaluation.
4. Approximate plan of time to be allocated to the learning activities
To illustrate how the learning activities are planned in time, according to your method, you can:
- identify the calendar or the planification specifically by subject;
- explain the frequency of your activities;
- give an example of a typical day or week.
Your project must be implemented by September 30th at the latest. If you do a lot of activities during the summer, you could, for example, indicate that you started implementing your project in June or that your project covers the period from June to June. If you indicate starting your year before September 30th, the DEM accepts receiving the requested documents on the same schedule as if you started on September 30th.
5. Organization(s) (and contact details) that will contribute to the child’s learning (if applicable)
- Names and contact details of organizations contributing to the child’s learning as well as a description of the content they will be contributing.
- If many organizations contribute to your project, you could add this information by adding a column to the “Activities and Resources“ section of your project.
- If it is the case and you want to, you can mention that your family is an AQED member.
You do not have to include information about individuals that contribute to the child’s learning.
If an activity is not necessary for the minimum required by the law, you should not have to mention that organization (for example, part-time participation in a community centre.)
Most support groups are not legally considered organizations, so you do not need to mention them in this section.
6. Brief description of activities and educational resources that will be used:
For each mandatory learning subject:
- List competencies and targeted cycle in one or two lines.
- Briefly list activities and resources ( including manuals and exercise books, if relevant)
With the 2019 amendment to the regulation, the DEM considers that the Quebec Education Program competencies are the objective parents need to be targeting. So it is easier for many parents to indicate they are following the program’s competencies for a given cycle than to list all of them.
The mandatory learning subjects are:
- language of instruction and second language, one in French and the other in English, depending on the parents’ choice;
- a subject belonging to each of the following learning domains selected from the compulsory subjects that are taught during the cycle in which you located the child:
- Mathematics, science and technology
- Social Sciences
- other knowledge and skills intended to be acquired (optional).
You will find tools to help drafting your documents in the Member area, including documents consolidating all required subjects per cycle (elementary and secondary), with competencies and end-of-cycle expectations associated with each.
In order to facilitate reporting and avoid the need to document changes, we suggest that you:
- include only the activities you are certain to explore during the year;
- avoid indicating a specific grade: you can simply indicate that you are working on all levels included in your child’s cycle;
- give a list of examples rather than naming resources or specific textbooks.
If needed, you can elaborate at the meeting, evaluation or in the portfolio.
Modifications to the learning project
According to the regulation, you can modify your learning project whenever you desire.
You must inform the DEM within 15 days only if the change is substantial.
- What is considered a substantial modification is open to interpretation.
- AQED considers that a substantial change would have to represent a major change to the learning approach. For example: going from curriculum-based teaching to informal learning or vice-versa. Another example: a child falls sick and consequently cannot do most of the activities outlined in the learning project.
- Changes such as frequency of activities, changing math textbooks, or not being able to go on certain outings should not be considered substantial. Such minor changes can be mentioned in the status report, if needed.
Here is a template of substantial change notice [.docx].
The more your learning project remains general, the less changes you will have to document.
Keeping track of changes takes time and could lead you to avoid changing your education approach to suit your child’s needs.
It is in the best interests of your child to keep your documentation simple.
Evaluation of the learning project
The content of your learning project will be evaluated to ensure that it conforms to the regulation. The regulation specifies that your resource person at the DEM may ask you for additional information if she judges that information is necessary for the evaluation of the project.
The regulation does not indicate a deadline to respond to this request, it is therefore a matter of agreeing with your resource person on a reasonable deadline.
What to do if there is a problem with your learning project?
If the learning project does not meet requirements, the Minister will notify the parents in writing of the reason for the lack of conformity. This notice will include recommendations about how the parents can update the learning project to meet these requirements. You will have 30 days after the official request to submit a new document.
Resource persons usually will call you first, to tell you that your document is incomplete and offer solutions. You can use some of their propositions or suggest your own ideas. Some resource persons offer a shorter delay for an answer to a question or an incomplete learning project. Sometimes only a couple of days are given. However, know that these days are an addition to the 30 official days. By doing so, your resource person gives you some extra days before sending out an official letter.
You can make the changes right away, before receiving the letter. Or you can take your time to find out more information, get the letter and have 30 more days to make required changes.
At all times, AQED members that feel the need can contact our member support for help.