How do we change schools in Canada?

Families change schools after a move within a city, a new job in another province, or a change of lease. Your address usually decides your public school, French immersion has fixed entry points, and in Quebec the right to an English school depends on your status, so check before you move.

Your address decides your school

Canadian school boards give each public school an area, called a boundary or catchment. In Toronto, you find your designated school by typing your address into the Toronto District School Board’s (TDSB) Find Your School tool, and you can apply for an out-of-area place. In BC, a child’s catchment is set by where the parents normally live. When a school is full, boards usually rank applicants. In Greater Victoria, for example:

1. Children already at the school
2. A brother or sister of a child at the school, living in the catchment
3. A new child living in the catchment
4. Then children from outside the catchment and outside the district

Check the boundary for the exact address before you sign a lease or buy. See finding a home to rent.

Moving during the school year

Boards expect families to arrive and move during the year. Vancouver, for example, treats a child who has just moved into the catchment from another district, province or country as a newly arrived student. If the catchment school is full, your child may be offered another school, with first refusal on a catchment place when one comes up. To register in Toronto, a parent usually brings:

• Proof of age, such as a birth certificate or passport
• Two current proofs of address, such as a lease, a utility, internet or home phone bill, or a home or tenant insurance policy
• Your immigration document: work permit holders and permanent residents can register at the school; study permit holders go through the board’s international admissions office first
• The date your child arrived in Canada, if born abroad
• Their immunisation record, reported to Toronto Public Health, which accepts and translates records from other countries

School records

In Ontario, every student has an Ontario Student Record (OSR) that moves with them from one Ontario school to another. The new principal places an elementary child in a grade using their report card and OSR, and a secondary student’s credits move on their transcript.

Coming from another province or from the UK, the rules differ:

• Elementary: the principal places your child in an age-appropriate grade, using attendance records, report cards and assessments you bring
• Secondary: the principal works out how many credits earlier study is worth. As a guide, a student who has finished one year of secondary school still needs at least 22 credits for the Ontario diploma, after two years 14, and after three years 7. They also have to meet the literacy requirement
• Bring recent reports, any special educational needs plan, and exam certificates. They help the school decide on placement and support

French immersion

Immersion programs teach mostly in French to children who don’t speak it at home. Places and entry points depend on the board. In Toronto, Early French Immersion can only be started in Junior Kindergarten. You apply online in November for the following September, and every on-time applicant is offered a place in the program, though not at a particular school. The next entry point is Middle French Immersion in Grade 4. If you arrive mid-way, ask the board about entry points and any late places before you choose where to live.

Quebec: who can go to an English school

Under the Charter of the French language (Bill 101), most children in Quebec must go to a French-language school. Public English schooling needs a certificate of eligibility. The usual routes depend on a parent who is Canadian and did their elementary schooling in English in Canada, so a British parent schooled in the UK doesn’t qualify on that basis.

• On a work or study permit: your children can get a temporary authorisation for English school. It lasts as long as your immigration document or stay, up to 3 years, and is issued only once
• Moving to permanent residence: the authorisation isn’t available to families who settle in Quebec and get a Quebec Selection Certificate (CSQ). An existing authorisation ends on 30 June of the school year in which the CSQ is issued
• Then: your child moves to a French school, or to a private English school that doesn’t receive government funding

Talk to a Bill 101 specialist at the English school board, such as the English Montreal School Board, before you commit to a move or a Quebec route to permanent residence. See how schools work in Canada and permanent residence.