Funding Cut

This page provides information and details regarding changes made by HCOS due to the funding cut implemented by the Ministry of Education.

On this page you will find:

Funding Cut: Where We Find 21%
Tuition, Tuition Assistance & Resource Budgets

K-9
Community Connections (CC) & CC+
Grad Program
Cross-Enrollment
Home School Registered

PO Spending
HCOS Forward Together Bursary Campaign

Please note that the structure below is subject to change as we work to provide flexibility and reduce family impact over time wherever possible.

Funding Cut: Where We Find 21%

The Ministry of Education’s decision to cut Independent DL funding by 21%, or $793 per student, has resulted in significant challenges to our school budget. The hard reality is that this cut impacts all of us. As an IDL with low funding rates, HCOS already runs a lean budget. Our amazing teachers and staff sacrifice financially to work for an Independent DL school, which is one key reason we have been able to provide IDL education without adding a tuition to the out-of-pocket expenses you already incur as families.

Here is how HCOS is making up the reduced funding amount:

Tuition charges have been instituted.
Resource budgets have been reduced.
We have gone over every line item in our budget and made cuts to all areas of the school’s operation. The focus was on efficiencies in processes and staffing rather than items that would impact the programming or resources available for students.

Tuition, Tuition Assistance & Resource Budgets

HCOS strongly believes in providing flexible options to families. The results from the Family Impact Survey confirmed this is what families are looking for.

We recognize that paying tuition to home educate is difficult. HCOS is committed to keeping this as minimal as possible and looking for opportunities to reduce or eliminate this impact where needed.

We are also committed to pursuing additional revenue streams in order to decrease family impact over time.

Our community is our priority. In determining internal cuts and family impact, we focused on ensuring students still have access to the support and guidance from our excellent teachers, grad advisors, administration and educational assistants. Resources like online subscriptions and learning commons kits and books are available to help reduce the cost of purchasing additional curriculum.

K-9 Tuition & Resource Budget

Tuition Amount (per student)	Resource Budget (per student)
$20 per month or $200	$600
Tuition is charged for the first three K-9 children in a family. The fourth child and on are free. Able to be paid monthly from September to June or as a one-time payment in September Tax receipt eligibility*	No restrictions on third-party spending versus internal spending

K-9 Tuition Assistance Options

Home educating already requires financial sacrifice. In order to ensure that no student is unable to enrol due to finances, we are providing two assistance options:

$0 Tuition Option	Bursary Option
No application necessary. Simply select this option. $0 tuition $350 Resource Budget	Apply for a bursary. This process will be simple and non-invasive. Bursary will offset full $200 tuition cost in most cases** $600 Resource Budget
* Tax receipting is still in process to determine if a worthwhile portion of tuition is eligible based on CRA regulations ** Bursary allocation will be determined by the volume of bursary applications and the available bursary finances. See below for more details on the HCOS Forward Together Bursary Campaign

$0 Tuition Option

Bursary Option

No application necessary. Simply select this option.
$0 tuition
$350 Resource Budget

Apply for a bursary. This process will be simple and non-invasive.
Bursary will offset full $200 tuition cost in most cases**
$600 Resource Budget

* Tax receipting is still in process to determine if a worthwhile portion of tuition is eligible based on CRA regulations

** Bursary allocation will be determined by the volume of bursary applications and the available bursary finances. See below for more details on the HCOS Forward Together Bursary Campaign

Special Education

K-9 FAQs

Can I have one of my students paying tuition and choose the $0 option for another?
Yes. You can choose different options for each of your K-9 children in HCOS

I have a student in the Grad Program. Do they count as the first student in the family?
No. The student count is limited to K-9 students. Grad Program students have a different tuition structure (see below).

Can I start spending with my PO again?
See section further down this page on PO Spending

Will this new tuition & resource structure be here permanently?
We hope not and will be working to reduce the family impact every year.

Am I able to help other families with tuition costs
Absolutely! Please see the HCOS Forward Together Bursary Campaign below for information on how to give. This gift would be eligible for a tax receipt as per the standard charitable donation rate.

Am I able to help cover a specific student’s tuition?
Absolutely! Anyone can pay for someone’s tuition directly. Tax receipts would only be applicable in the standard tuition tax receipt rate.

Are there other ways I can help my fellow home educators?
Yes. Help your fellow home school families save money on curriculum by returning the school’s curriculum for reuse in the Learning Commons. When we can provide less expensive used curriculum for our families, they don’t need to use as much of their resource budgets to buy new instructional materials.

How can you help?

Return materials by post or in person to:
- 905 Badke Road,
- Kelowna BC, V1X 5Z5
Return materials directly to your support teacher

Something’s Not Adding Up

“Wait a minute ... I’m now paying $200 in tuition and losing $400 in resource budget. That seems like a lot more than that pie chart up above showed.”

It definitely seems like that. The challenge is that $1,000 per K-9 student is not what was actually spent by families. The average spent per student was $835 or 83.5%. The remaining $165 was used in other areas of the school such as the Learning Commons, Learning Camps, Community Connections and so on. This means the average family impact is $200 tuition plus $235 reduction in resource budget, for a total of $435.

With lower resource budgets, we now expect the average spending to be 100%. Therefore, the school must find that $165 per student internally on top of the other internal cuts. We understand that your family may be one that used the full $1,000 per student in resource funding and that this affects you more than a family that did not. Our goal is that in time our bursary program, along with other revenue generating initiatives, will be able to help increase resource budgets and minimize tuition.

Community Connections (CC) & CC+

Community Connections (CC) and CC+ tuition will not increase but stay at the same level as previous years. Please see the Learning Groups website for further information and registration.

Grad Program Tuition & Resource Budgets

The Grad Program functions per course, not as a whole student. Please keep that in mind in contrast to K-9.

Tuition Amount (per course)	Resource Budget (per course)
Courses 1-4: $50 per course Courses 5-9: $0 per course Courses 10+: $35 per course	Varies (see below)
Tuition is charged per enrolled course. The first four courses per year* per student are $50 each. Each course after that is free up to a total of 9 courses. A full time Grad program student tuition is equal to a K-9 student at $200. Students who choose to enrol in more than 9 courses will be be charged $35 for each additional course Able to be paid monthly from September to June or as a one-time payment in September. Courses enrolled by mid-September will be eligible for monthly payments from Sept to June. Courses enrolled after that point will need to be paid in full at time of enrollment. Per course fees are not refundable. However, courses can be exchanged for a different course at no cost. Eligible for a tax receipt**	Individualized Elective Courses: $50 All Other Courses: $0 The Learning Commons will be stocked with common resources for Individualized core courses and will be available for lending terms sufficient for course completion. No restrictions on third-party spending versus internal

Tuition Amount (per course)

Resource Budget (per course)

Courses 1-4: $50 per course

Courses 5-9: $0 per course

Courses 10+: $35 per course

Varies (see below)

Tuition is charged per enrolled course. The first four courses per year* per student are $50 each. Each course after that is free up to a total of 9 courses. A full time Grad program student tuition is equal to a K-9 student at $200.
Students who choose to enrol in more than 9 courses will be be charged $35 for each additional course
Able to be paid monthly from September to June or as a one-time payment in September. Courses enrolled by mid-September will be eligible for monthly payments from Sept to June. Courses enrolled after that point will need to be paid in full at time of enrollment.
Per course fees are not refundable. However, courses can be exchanged for a different course at no cost.
Eligible for a tax receipt**

Individualized Elective Courses: $50
All Other Courses: $0
The Learning Commons will be stocked with common resources for Individualized core courses and will be available for lending terms sufficient for course completion.
No restrictions on third-party spending versus internal

Grad Program Tuition Assistance Options

Home educating already requires financial sacrifice. In order to ensure that no student is unable to enrol due to finances, we are providing a tuition assistance option:

Bursary Application
Apply for a bursary. This process will be simple and non-invasive. Bursary will offset full course tuition costs in most cases***
* For the purposes of course counts, a “year” is considered to be the period from the May funding snapshot to the following May funding snapshot (typically in the first week of May). Courses that remain inactive by the end of the year will be removed without a refund. Tax receipting is still in process to determine if a worthwhile portion of tuition is eligible based on CRA regulations ***** Bursary allocation will be determined by the volume of bursary applications and the available bursary finances. See below for more details on the HCOS Forward Together Bursary Campaign

Bursary Application

Apply for a bursary. This process will be simple and non-invasive.
Bursary will offset full course tuition costs in most cases***

* For the purposes of course counts, a “year” is considered to be the period from the May funding snapshot to the following May funding snapshot (typically in the first week of May). Courses that remain inactive by the end of the year will be removed without a refund.

** Tax receipting is still in process to determine if a worthwhile portion of tuition is eligible based on CRA regulations

*** Bursary allocation will be determined by the volume of bursary applications and the available bursary finances. See below for more details on the HCOS Forward Together Bursary Campaign

Special Education

Grad Program FAQs

Why isn’t there a $0 tuition assistance option like in K-9?
As in most schools, the grad program is more expensive to run so there was no room to offer a $0 tuition option. However, if you are unable to pay tuition, bursary applications are available.

Can I access a K-9 sibling’s resource budget for my grad student if needed?
Yes. We will continue to treat resource budgets as a family budget in terms of accessibility for any student in the family.

Can I start spending with my PO again?
See section further down this page on PO Spending

Will this new tuition & resource structure be here permanently?
We hope not and will be working to reduce the family impact every year.

Am I able to help other families with tuition costs?
Absolutely! Please see the HCOS Forward Together Bursary Campaign below for information on how to give. This gift would be tax receiptable per the standard charitable donation rate.

Cross Enrollment Tuition & Fees

Cross Enrollment functions per course, not as a whole student. Please keep that in mind in contrast to K-9.
Type	Amount
Grade 10-12 Courses: Proctored Exam Fee*: Adult Dogwood (school-age): Adult (non-graduated): Adult (graduated): Grade 8-9 Courses: International Students:	$35 per course $15 per course $50 per course (includes exam fee if applicable) $75 per course $650 per course $215 per course $925 per course
All tuition & fees must be paid in full at time of course or exam registration There are no resource budgets available for cross enrolled students Per course fees are not refundable. However, courses may be exchanged for a different course at no cost. Not eligible for tax receipts
*Advanced Placement Courses (AP) have additional fees associated with taking the AP Exam.

Cross Enrollment Tuition Assistance Options

There are no tuition assistance or bursary options available for cross enrollment.

Home School Registered

Tuition Amount (per student)	Resource Budget (per student)
$0	$0
HS Registered students will continue to receive the support of our Home School Liaison HS Registered students will continue to receive access to our Learning Commons, Subscriptions and Exam Bank HS Registered students are able to receive a high school transcript for $150

PO Spending

Thank you for your patience! The current pause on PO spending is now lifted and a maximum of $350 per K-9 student can be spent if you are committed to staying with HCOS. Once we have established which resource budget amount your student(s) will be at for 20/21, then PO spending can increase up to $600 if applicable.

For Grad Program students, any Individualized courses active prior to June 30, 2020 will be funded at the old resource rate. Any courses active from July 1, 2020 onward will be at the new resource rate of $50 for individualized elective courses only.

HCOS Forward Together

Forward Together is about ensuring families have the freedom of choice in how to educate their children. We do not want any student to be unable to enrol with HCOS due to finances. Let’s work together to continue to make HCOS a viable option for all students.

We are looking for partners to help us continue to offer Christian Education through distributed learning to students all over the province of British Columbia. All donations are eligible for a tax receipt and will go to provide bursaries for families who cannot afford tuition.

Donate to Forward Together

Corporate Sponsorship

Contact Chantelle Olsson-Chang, HCOS Advancement & Donor Relations, to discuss corporate sponsorship options at forward.together@onlineschool.ca