The Short Answer: No Grant, Real Services
Quebec has no homeschool grant of any kind. The province funds school service centres based on enrolment, and no money follows your child home when you file your notice of intent. There is no per-student cheque like Alberta's, no division grants like Saskatchewan's, and nothing on your tax return either: neither the CRA nor Revenu Québec allows a deduction or credit for curriculum, supplies, or lessons you pay for at home.
What Quebec gives instead is written into law. The Regulation respecting homeschooling requires your school service centre to give your child free access, at your request, to textbooks, instructional materials, and a list of student services. The SSC evaluation and ministerial exams cost nothing to sit. No other province that pays families zero owes them this much in kind, and most Quebec families never claim it.
What Your School Service Centre Must Provide
Ask, and the SSC must lend your child the same textbooks and materials a school student would receive, for personal use, subject to availability and on conditions the SSC sets. Instructional materials reach past books: lab equipment, physical education equipment, and art supplies sit on the list too. Families who claim this cut real money from the yearly shelf, and the loan renews as your child moves up a grade.
Student services come with it. At your request, the SSC gives free access to the school library, academic and career counselling, psychology, psychoeducation, special education, and remedial services. Delivery varies by service centre, and some move quicker than others, so put requests in writing and keep copies. Our guide to how to homeschool in Quebec covers how the SSC relationship works across the year.
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, 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 and Manitoba pay nothing and lend nothing by law, which makes Quebec's textbook rule stand out.
Should you move for the money? No. A $901 grant doesn't cover a move, and every funded province brings oversight of its own, which Quebec families already know plenty about. The comparison earns its place for one reason: once you know no cheque exists, you can stop hunting for it and start claiming the services that do.
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Free and Cheap Resources Quebec Families Use
Start with what the SSC owes you, then fill the gaps for little or nothing. Alloprof offers free homework help, videos, and exercises in French and English, built around Quebec's program of study. The Quebec curriculum documents sit online at no cost, which helps when you write the learning project, and our learning project guide shows how to lean on them without copying the school year.
Libraries carry the reading load. Montreal's network and the regional systems lend French and English readers, chapter books, and audiobooks, and interlibrary loan reaches what your branch lacks. Free full curricula fill more of the gap: Simply Good and Beautiful Math gives away its complete course books for kindergarten through grade 7 as PDF downloads, and Khan Academy covers math and science at no cost. Used curriculum groups move popular programs at half price or better, and co-op families split science kits and trade levels as kids grow.
What Homeschooling Costs in Quebec
A realistic budget for a family buying new materials runs $200 to $700 per child per year, and families who claim SSC loans, use the library, and buy used routinely run a full year for under $150. Quebec adds one cost decision other provinces skip: the annual evaluation. The SSC evaluation and ministerial exams cost nothing, while a licensed teacher or private school evaluation costs real money every year, and our evaluation guide compares the five methods.
Spend where it counts. Reading and math deserve a structured program in the early years, and the rest can start as library books and SSC loans. 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 tell Quebec families something we can't tell Ontario or Manitoba families: the province owes you things, so collect them. Most homeschoolers never ask their SSC for the textbooks, materials, or library access the regulation promises, and what they leave on that table beats a small grant in plenty of years. The paperwork load in Quebec is heavy, we won't pretend otherwise, but the services attached to it are real, and they belong to your child by law rather than by anyone's goodwill.
Our advice is to send your requests to the SSC in writing early in the year, set a budget you can keep, and put your own money where it teaches: reading first, math second, library cards always. Then give your energy to 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, on both returns. The CRA treats curriculum, tutoring, co-op fees, and supplies as personal expenses, and Revenu Québec follows the same line: no deduction, no credit. The child care expense deduction doesn't apply, because educating your own child is not child care. Your RESP keeps growing for post-secondary, and the Canada Child Benefit arrives no matter how your child is schooled.
How Do We Get the Free Textbooks and Materials?
Ask your school service centre in writing. The regulation ties the loan to your request, subject to availability and on conditions the SSC determines, so a short email naming the grade level and subjects starts the clock. Your child gets personal use of the textbooks, the same ones school students receive. If your SSC drags its feet, ask again and keep every copy: the obligation sits in the regulation, not in the SSC's goodwill.
Where Do the Real Costs Show Up?
The evaluation method and the teen years. An evaluation through your SSC or ministerial exams costs nothing, while a licensed teacher or private school evaluation runs real money every single year. High school adds lab sciences and thicker programs, and kids aiming at a diploma face choices our evaluation guide walks through. Pick the free evaluation route and lean on loans and libraries early, and Quebec homeschooling stays cheap.
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.