The Short Answer: No Provincial Money
Ontario has no homeschool funding program of any kind. The Ministry of Education funds school boards based on enrolment, so when you withdraw your child, the money stays with the system and nothing follows your child home. There is no per-student grant like Alberta's, no division-level funding like Saskatchewan's, and no reimbursement stream of any kind. The province asks for a yearly notice of intent and, beyond that, leaves you alone.
The tax side is just as bare. Homeschool expenses are not deductible in Ontario or federally, and no education credit applies to curriculum, supplies, or lessons you pay for at home. Don't let a forum post talk you into claiming curriculum on your return. The CRA does not allow it, and there is no Ontario credit hiding in the fine print either.
Why Ontario Pays Nothing
Provinces that pay families also supervise them. Alberta ties its funding to registration with a supervising school authority, an education plan, and facilitator visits. BC routes its money through schools that oversee registered homeschoolers. The cheque always arrives with strings knotted to it, and the strings are plans, reporting, and someone reviewing your year.
Ontario made the opposite trade. Policy/Program Memorandum 131 asks for one short letter a year and nothing else: no required curriculum, no testing, no inspections, no reports. Families give up the money and keep full ownership of their kids' education. Our full guide to how to homeschool in Ontario covers just how light the requirements are. Whether that trade is good news depends on what you'd rather have, but most Ontario homeschoolers come to see the freedom as the better half of the deal.
What Other Provinces Pay
Alberta is the big exception in Canada. Families who register with a facilitating school authority get $901 per student in grades 1 to 12 reimbursed for curriculum and supplies, and our Alberta homeschool funding guide breaks down how to claim it. Saskatchewan has no province-wide cheque, but many school divisions pay real grants to registered families, which the Saskatchewan funding guide maps out division by division.
BC pays money to the school you register with rather than to you, and what reaches your family depends on the route you choose, covered in the BC funding guide. The territories run reimbursement programs of their own: the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Nunavut each pay eligible families for learning materials. Ontario, Canada's largest homeschool population by far, pays nothing at all.
Should you move for the money? No. A $901 grant doesn't offset a house move, and every funded province attaches oversight Ontario families never deal with. The comparison matters for one reason: knowing the money doesn't exist here stops you from burning evenings searching for it.
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Free and Cheap Resources Ontario Families Use
Ontario libraries carry more of your homeschool than any grant would. The big systems stock curriculum guides, decodable readers, chapter books, and audiobooks, and interlibrary loan brings in what your branch doesn't hold. A library card plus a weekly visit replaces hundreds of dollars of purchased books, and it's the first habit experienced Ontario homeschoolers build.
Free full curricula exist too. Simply Good and Beautiful Math offers its complete course books for kindergarten through grade 7 as free PDF downloads, Khan Academy covers math and science at no cost, and TVO Learn publishes free learning resources aligned to the Ontario curriculum. None of these require enrolment anywhere. Used curriculum closes most of the remaining gap: Ontario's homeschool buy-and-sell groups and curriculum swaps move popular programs at half price or better, and non-consumable programs resell again when you're done.
Co-ops and homeschool groups round it out. Families split the cost of science kits, share teacher manuals, and trade levels as kids grow. In a province with this many homeschoolers, someone nearby has finished the exact program you're about to buy.
What Homeschooling Costs in Ontario
A realistic budget for a family buying new materials runs $200 to $700 per child per year, with reading and math programs taking most of it. Families who lean on the library, free curricula, and the used market routinely run a full year for under $150. The expensive years are the first one, when parents overbuy out of nervousness, and high school, where credits through courses have real fees, covered in our guide to the OSSD and homeschooling high school in Ontario.
Spend where it counts. Reading and math are the two subjects worth paying for a structured program in the early years, and everything else can start as library books. Before you buy anything, find out where your child stands: a free reading assessment takes about ten minutes and stops you from buying a level your child is past or not ready for. The guide on how to choose homeschool curriculum keeps the rest of the spending honest.
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A Note from Homeschool Teacher Guide: What This Really Means for You
We watch Ontario parents discover that Alberta pays $901 a year while their own province pays nothing, and the sting is real. But we would not trade Ontario's deal away. Every funded province ties its money to plans, facilitators, or reviews, and Ontario ties nothing to your year except one short letter. You fund your homeschool yourself, and in exchange you own it outright: no one reviews your plan, approves your curriculum, or audits your receipts.
Our advice is to stop hunting for a grant that doesn't exist, set a budget you can keep, and put the money where it teaches: reading first, math second, library cards always. Send your notice of intent, then spend your energy on the teaching. That's the part no province can fund anyway.
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☕ Buy us a coffee ($5)Frequently Asked Questions
Is There Any Tax Break at All?
No. Curriculum, tutoring, co-op fees, and supplies are personal expenses in the CRA's eyes, and the child care expense deduction doesn't apply, since educating your own child is not child care. Two things keep working as normal: RESPs keep growing for post-secondary, and the Canada Child Benefit is unaffected by how your child is schooled. You keep receiving it either way.
Will the School Board Lend Us Anything?
Boards are not required to provide homeschoolers with curriculum, textbooks, or services, and most provide nothing. Some families ask anyway, and once in a while a friendly school lends readers, but treat that as luck rather than policy. This is a real difference from BC, where the school a family registers with owes them assessment services and resource loans.
Where Do the Real Costs Show Up?
High school. Elementary homeschooling runs cheap in Ontario if you use the library and the used market, but teens working toward the OSSD pay course fees for credits, and those add up fast. Plan for that stage early, and enjoy the inexpensive years while you have them.
Sources
This guide was verified in July 2026 against the following primary sources. Program details change, so confirm anything that affects your budget directly with the source.