Curriculum Budget

Encom Budget - Overages

When a student enrolls with HCOS, they get a specified amount of funding, as shown in the family's Budget Summary on their additional resource page. This amount will depend on the tuition option they have chosen. With that funding, families are able to purchase curriculum resources and lessons, but they must stay within their allotted budget.

If a family spends more than their budget, an overage will occur. All overages are the financial responsibility of the parents and must be repaid to HCOS. Teachers & parents work together to prevent overages by keeping track of the family's purchases and working within the budget. The HCOS Finance office also has several processes to help families manage their budgets.

HCOS has two ways families can make purchases:
  1. Purchasing Department - for purchases you would like to make from a vendor who requires payment at point of sale (for example amazon).
  2. Purchase Order system - families make orders directly from approved vendors or Lesson Providers using their PO#.
Purchasing Department:
Purchase Order system:

It is important to note that the HCOS Finance Department is not aware of any purchases families make, using the PO system, until invoices are received by our office. Vendors have their own timeline on when they send invoices to HCOS, sometimes it can take a few months before our department receives invoices from particular vendors. It is important families keep track of their purchases and look for the posting to be entered in ENCOM.

If parents, teachers and HCOS Finance are all working together to prevent overages, how do they still occur?
Given the above, what are some ways families can prevent overages?

Encom Budget - Additional Resource Page

The 'Additional Resource' page in Encom provides a variety of information that will help you track your budget during the school year. Please log in and review this page regularly, to ensure you are aware of your budget and can work within it to avoid going into an overage. 

Additional Resource

This page gives you information on funding and expenses as a family as well as per student. 

Student Summary

This box will include the following information per student and is located to the left of each students name.

 

 

Beside the summary box you will see the "Additional Resource" box. This box will include a list of expenses or items purchased using this students purchase order number.

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Group Summary

This box will include the following information per family and is located at the top left hand side of the additional resource page

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How does funding work for students in Grade 10, 11 & 12?

 

Information on Grad funding can be found here:  Grad Program Funding

Purchasing Forms

HCOS forms used by families to purchase curriculum and/or lessons using their Encom funding. 

This is for Encom funding ONLY, please contact the Special Education department if you are needing to make a purchase using Special Education funding or set up a lesson provider. 

1. Curriculum Order Form - use this form to purchase items from a vendor who is not an HCOS approved vendor. 

Go to the Vendors page on the HCOS website to see if the vendor is on the approved vendor list. If the vendor is listed and does accept POs, follow the instructions given to make the purchase.

If the vendor is not on the list, you will need to use the Curriculum Order Form.

2. Recreational Program Form

If the lesson or activity provider will not send HCOS an invoice and requires payment via credit card or if the lesson is through a City, District or Municipality recreation center you will need to use the Recreational Program Order Form

Please read the above links as with lesson and activity purchases, there are a few more steps that need to occur prior to arranging lessons.

3. HCOS Lesson Invoice Submission Form

If the lesson or activity provider will accept HCOS POs and will invoice HCOS, they will need to use this form to submit their invoices. They should already have access to this form as before offering lessons to HCOS students they will need to go through the Criminal Record Check process as well as sign the Lesson Provider Agreement. 

Information on Lessons: Where to start when making a lesson or activity purchase? 
Link to the form: HCOS - Lesson Invoice Submission Form 

Please read the above links as with lesson and activity purchases, there are a few more steps that need to occur prior to arranging lessons.

4. Computer/iPad Lease Form

If you are interested in purchasing a computer or iPad and using your curriculum funding over the course of three years, please fill out this form: Computer/iPad Lease Form 



Resource Vendor Directory

Please see the Resource Vendor Directory page for a list of vendors: Resource Vendor Directory 

What can I spend my funding on?

Resources and Programs provided by HCOS (Internal)
Resources and Programs by 3rd Party providers (External to HCOS) 

Allowable Equipment:

Curriculum & Computer Agreement and Deposit: Agreement between HCOS and parent/guardian - Signed by all parents/guardians during enrollment

What types of purchases are considered family expenses?

Parent Expense: HCOS is not able to pay for the following items as per Ministry Funding Guidelines and HCOS policy
Musical Instruments Ministry considers this a family expense; HCOS can pay for lessons, but not instruments

General school supplies

  Ministry considers this a family expense. Examples: notebooks, lined paper, pencils, pens, erasers, rulers, scissors, calculators, pencil sharpeners (including electric pencil sharpeners), daily planners, blackboards & whiteboards, etc...

Computer Accessories 

  Ministry considers this a family expense. Examples: adapters, USB, external storage, DVD drives, speakers, microphones, keyboards, mouse, etc...

Video games

 HCOS considers this a family expense. Examples: Nintendo switch games, PS4 games, Xbox games etc...

Equipment & Costumes needed for activities and lessons

  Ministry considers this a family expense; HCOS can pay for lessons, but not equipment or costumes. Examples: household appliances, workshop tools/equipment, sports equipment, greenhouse equipment, incubators, etc...
Cameras, microscopes & telescopes Available on loan from HCOS Learning Commons
Rentals & Deposits


 Ministry considers this a family expense
Furniture


 Ministry considers this a family expense. Examples: desks, chairs, carpets, lamps,. shelves, blackboards & whiteboards, etc...
Duty

HCOS considers this a family expense
Tuition

Ministry considers this a family expense; Funding cannot be used to pay tuition
Summer Activities HCOS does not pay for summer programing, day camps, trips, lessons or activities. 

If unclear about an item, please contact your teacher or the office for clarity before making the purchase. 

ALL purchases must be made with approval from the teacher



Where to find the Curriculum and Recreational Program Order Forms and how to fill them out?

The first step is to go to the Vendors page on the HCOS website to see if the vendor is on the Vendors Accepting HCOS PO Numbers list. Vendors on this list do not require a curriculum order form as you can contact them directly to make your curriculum purchase. 

If the vendor is not on that list, the next step is to sign into Encom where an option on the tool bar called Curriculum Resources is available. Click this link to fill out an order form for Curriculum purchases whose vendor will not accept an HCOS PO number.

Click on the    to start a curriculum order on the order form. Each form submission allows a family to order up to 10 items from a single vendor. The template will not allow more, but there is a note section on the order form to indicate if the order will be continued on another form.

If purchases will be made from a variety of vendors, each vendor will require a different order form. 

When the “I’m Done!” box is clicked, a prompt will appear asking for the Support Teacher’s email address. (For those who may not have a teacher as yet, please use the email address of the Regional Administrator who accepted your application to HCOS.)

Please do not try to enter a password .. that is for teacher use only.  A link to the order form will then go to the Support Teacher indicated who will verify the order before purchases can be made. Verification includes making sure that that item/lesson is in the Student Learning Plan (SLP), that there is sufficient funding for the purchase and that there is an equipment agreement or CRC, if necessary.

Once the Support Teacher has verified the order form, an email similar to the one below will be generated and sent to the family, which indicates the order has been approved and gone through to the purchasing department:

OR .. an email like the one following which indicates that the Support Teacher cannot approve the items requested. If the following email is received, the family should get in touch with the Support Teacher to discover the reason.


Upon receipt of the verified order form, the purchasing department will either make the purchase within 3 – 5 days of receiving it or will be in touch with the family to work out any complications with the order.

As per HCOS policy, lessons will not be available for purchase until October. Close to the time that funding is released for lesson purchases, a link to the lessons order form will be made available alongside the Curriculum order form in Encom. 

For further information about purchasing, please contact the purchasing office.

Purchasing Office
Phone: (250) 862-2376
Toll Free 1 (877) 862-2375
Email Albana Nicka, Lead Purchaser: albana.nicka@onlineschool.ca 

Video Instructions

Video- a short video showing how to use the curriculum special order form.

Lesson Purchasing Procedures

As per HCOS policy, lessons and activities will not be available for purchase until October. Close to the time that funding is released for lesson and activity purchases, a link to the Recreational Program order form will be made available alongside the Curriculum order form in Encom.

New * Lessons through a City, District or Municipality recreation center MUST be purchased using the online recreational program order form.

Most of the other lesson/service providers WILL “invoice” (3rd party bill) HCOS for payment by cheque.

Some guidelines that may be helpful:

  1. Many sports clubs (hockey, soccer, gymnastics, dance, etc.) are also willing to 3rd party bill as long as they are informed that there is a 3rd party (HCOS) potentially paying even a portion of the fees.
  2. Finally…regardless of whether paid by cheque or credit card the government requires that HCOS have criminal record check (CRC) confirmation/clearance before paying for any 3rd party lessons. Therefore, it is recommended that parents call the HCOS Head Office to make a quick check in our extensive database to make sure the lesson provider is “approved” or whether that process still needs to be completed.

All lesson providers must supply copies of their Criminal Record Check (CRC) policy before payment can be made. CRC policies need to be in compliance with Ministry guidelines.

The recreational program order form will only be for those vendors who will not third party invoice HCOS and require credit card payment  (exception: City and Municipality Recreational Centers which must use the recreational program order form).

For further information, contact the purchasing office:
Email Albana Nicka, Lead Purchaser: albana.nicka@onlineschool.ca 

Where to start when making a curriculum purchase?

There are two ways to make a curriculum purchase with HCOS

Option 1. Purchase Order Number:
Option 2. Purchasing Department:

Parents who order from US vendors to Canada are personally responsible for any customs or brokerages fees.

Parents CANNOT ship to a US address, even with cheaper postage, as HCOS, as the legal owner of the curriculum, would be liable for brokerage and customs fees.

Please note the following curriculum vendors who have specific and unique instructions listed below

Please note: As per the Ministry of Education, HCOS cannot reimburse families for any reason. Please do not make purchases using your personal funds with the intent of HCOS reimbursing you. 

Name of Vendor Unique Instructions
Teachers Pay Teachers

List the items you want on the curriculum order form. The purchasing department will then purchase a gift card to cover those items and send you the gift card. Once you have used the gift card, the receipt from the purchase needs to be forwarded to albana.nicka@onlineschool.ca. 
Abeka Curriculum

* Please Note: Due to difficulties connecting with customer service and the inability to ship directly to a families (when we use our HCOS account), HCOS can no longer purchase Abeka Curriculum directly from Abeka. 

 

If a family requires Abeka curriculum, they can fill out a curriculum order form and purchase the items from Christianbook.com.   The purchasing department will place the order and make payment for that.
Abeka Academy

* Please Note:

 

The purchase must be set up in the parent’s Abeka account, with parents choosing the 10-month payment plan.  Once the order is placed, the parent will need to add ALBANA NICKA as a contact person to their account (teacher), then email their Abeka account login information along with their Abeka sales order number to the purchasing department.  The purchasing department will then go into the parent account and pay the amount available for the year.  The parent will then pay the remaining portion of the payment.

 

A specific amount is set up each year as the max that will go toward Abeka Academy depending upon the exchange rate at the beginning of the school year. 
Homeschool Buyer's Co-op

There are a number of vendors whose curriculum is at a lower price through the HSBC.  Orders for those vendors are placed on the curriculum order form. Here is the link to the various vendors who give discounts:

 

                https://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/heritage_christian_online_school

 

In order for us to make these purchases, the parent must have a Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op account and include the email they use to set up that account in the note section of the curriculum order form.

Where to start when making a lesson or activity purchase?


Please Note: HCOS does not begin accepting and/or paying invoices for lessons and activities until October 1st of the school year.

HCOS is not able to pay for any item (curriculum) or lesson that has been previously paid for by the family. HCOS does not reimburse providers, who in turn reimburse families. We can only pay an unpaid invoice. 

Step One: Determine if the Lesson or Activity Provider has a Criminal Record Check (CRC) on file with HCOS

All lesson and activity providers, must have a CRC on file with HCOS prior to lessons begin, in order for HCOS to process payment

Step Two: Determine how the Lesson or Activity provider needs to be paid 

There are two payment options:

Payment Option One -  Purchase Order/ Invoice: Most Lesson and Activity providers (music lessons, sports associations, choir, gymnastics, dance, etc...) will invoice HCOS and get paid via cheque. This is the preferred process for the lesson providers as well as HCOS.

All lesson and activity invoices must be submitted via the new HCOS Lesson Invoice Submission form. HCOS will no longer be accepting lesson invoices via email.

  1. *New Lesson Providers will now send their invoices directly to the HCOS Payable department via the HCOS - Lesson Invoice Submission form
    • Their submission will never be blocked by our servers (thinking it is spam)
    • Their submission will be processed quicker
      • Reduced back and form between the HCOS finance office and Lesson Providers - All information needed to successfully process will be available to the finance office
      •  Will go directly to the person processing Lesson and Activity invoices

Important things to know regarding Lesson and Activity purchases and invoicing:

  1. HCOS will accept invoices in October for lessons occurring until the end of January (Term One)
  2. HCOS will accept invoices at the end of January for lessons occurring Feb - the end of June (Term Two)
  3. If a Lesson or Activity Provider does not have an invoice, a template has been provided that they can use on the  HCOS - Lesson Invoice Submission form

Lesson and Activity providers are given a Lesson Provider Agreement to sign during the CRC process. This document outlines how to invoice HCOS successfully.

Payment Option Two -  Recreational Program Online Form: This form is for all City and Municipality Recreational Center purchases (all City Rec center purchases MUST go through this form; do not ask them to invoice HCOS).

City and Municipality Recreational Centers

The Recreational Program Online form will be available October 1st - April 15th of each school year