Putting an American kid into elementary school in Canada for one year?

[Pegleg]

This is a long shot, but if anyone has any experience or advice on what's involved in registering an American second-grader for school in Vancouver, BC for one year, I'd appreciate any advice. I may be taking the family there for a one-year sabbatical starting in fall 2017 and would like to enroll my daughter in public elementary school for the academic year while we're there, but I can't seem to figure out how to Google this and get any useful information on whether it can be done and what's required if so.

Obviously I can call the school district there, but was hoping to at least get some basic background before I ask them a bunch of stupid questions, and yet I'm coming up completely empty on the interwebs.

[tacklebox]

He/she will have to leave their gun at home...

[mtngirl79]

lots of Canadians move to Blaine so their kids can go to 'merican schools..

[That was Pontus]

She'll be forcibly vaccinated, after immunization she'll be laced with socialist propaganda.

[Jesse]

Should be easy. You just walk into neighborhood school with proof of residence and can start 2 days later given space.

Not sure if there is $$ component for american citizens. I know there is a lot of foreigners who send kids to our schools at a cost - mostly from Asia. I think that may be different than if you moved here.

Make sure your chosen neighborhood school has room. Most do, but a few particular areas are pretty full.

Check into housing too. You probably already know, but it is expensive and can be hard to find rentals due to very low vacancy rates.

Mtn girl - I don't know what you are talking about. I've never once in my life heard of anyone wanting to leave BC school system for Blaine. Not saying it hasn't happened, but BC schools are overall rated in top 5-10 in the world depending on the area being rated. It's far from perfect, but generally speaking it's good schools with pretty high teaching standards.

Vsb.bc.ca for info on vancouver schools. If it's a suburb it'll be a different site.

Good luck

p.s.

Double check what I'm saying by calling a local school in the general area you are planning to move to.

[gaijin]

As a teacher, I'm posting here to tell you to not post here. This thread is going to drive you around in circles. Just make phone calls and figure it out.

1) Every situation is different.
2) Some schools nurture a culture of freedom, allowing students to move around, others don't.
3) There are literally 100's of 1000's of families that move to other countries each year. It's not a big deal.

[mtngirl79]

I can think of three families in the last couple months who have told me they moved to Blaine for the schools. Maybe Vancouver, proper is different from the surrounding areas...?

[Kenny Satch]

get her to stop speaking & writing American

we speak & write English...not Canadian eh

[mtngirl79]

I don't believe that. Why is the Blaine school district en vogue?

Don't know.

[ill-advised strategy]

maybe hippy/religious anti-vaxxers are taking their kids to Blaine?

[riser4]

Be glad that you are moving to BC for that year and not Quebec. The whole French language thing is messed up. We have friends that tried living there for his job and decided to move back here after several years even though he has to do a long cross border commute every day. It really boiled down to the language thing. He's looking at jobs in Ontario.

[Danno]

damn frenchies.

[riser4]

damn frenchies.

I love the people. The laws don't make sense. The things the Quebec government does to drive wedges between Anglophones and Francophones are bewildering.

[Danno]

they also make some fantastic toast and fries.

[Kenny Satch]

Be glad that you are moving to BC for that year and not Quebec. The whole French language thing is messed up. We have friends that tried living there for his job and decided to move back here after several years even though he has to do a long cross border commute every day. It really boiled down to the language thing. He's looking at jobs in Ontario.

This is such a sad reality. It's one of the better places to live on so many levels.
I would love to live there but Westmount is too bloody expensive.
Enjoy BC Pegleg, I hope this experience creates a life time of memories

[SUMMITX]

Watch out, the B.C. government is not providing adequate funding for education. We are seeing school closures throughout the province resulting in students spending hours on buses to attend a school that is overcrowded and using portables for classrooms. There is also a big curriculum change in the works that will be a shit show for the first bunch of years. Likely won't affect you as they are starting with this in grades 8 to 10. I would not go out of my way to send my kids to a B.C. school. Consider a private school. More expensive but worth it. Do your homework (ha) on the area you intend to live and look carefully at what is available. Education in B.C. is a mess.

[mad847]

I am not sure if this link will help you? Basically you have to send your child to the school in your home district or "home school." There are LOTS of international students in BC, most of whom speak Mandarin, Cantonese or Korean. When you go to the school office you will need to provide your Canadian home address as well as your work permit (or whatever it is called) plus birth certificates, passports etc. It is smart to take your child's old report card too. Your best bet is to go into some of the schools you are interested in and meet with the office staff and get a feel for the place.

check our w w w dot welcomebc.ca/Work-or-Study-in-B-C/Study-in-B-C/International-Students

[mtngirl79]

I would not go out of my way to send my kids to a B.C. school. Consider a private school. More expensive but worth it.

or Blaine

[riser4]

Bread too

Lots of awesome food north of the border. And people. However, the politics and laws are becoming insane in Quebec. Some of those awesome people are fleeing to neighboring provinces. I was up there for a wake a not long ago and there were quite a number of Montreal natives in attendance, both English and French, that had moved to Ontario permanently in the not so distant past. Especially the ones in mixed marriages and with children. My daughter wants to go to University in Canada. Ask her where. She'll say anywhere except Quebec. Sad too. McGill is/was an awesome school. And close. I have heard they have recently imposed new language rules at the school for students and professors.

[shafty85]

or Blaine

You're basing that recommendation on the anecdotal evidence of 3 families moving there?

[SUMMITX]

The French schools are the only ones with adequate funding as they have the right to be educated in French no matter where they live in the country. The funding for French kids is federal and ridiculous. They have their own schools throughout the country. All other students in the country have to rely on a provincial funding formula. You could look into the French school in the area you intend to live. They are the only ones that have adequate funding for text books, art supplies, etc.

[mtngirl79]

You're basing that recommendation on the anecdotal evidence of 3 families moving there?

Yes. Three families in the last few months that told me that the schools being better here than they were experiencing in Canada was the driving force behind their move.

[BCMtnHound]

The French schools are the only ones with adequate funding as they have the right to be educated in French no matter where they live in the country. The funding for French kids is federal and ridiculous. They have their own schools throughout the country. All other students in the country have to rely on a provincial funding formula. You could look into the French school in the area you intend to live. They are the only ones that have adequate funding for text books, art supplies, etc.

Yep, but the funding cat is out of the bag. There's quite the waiting list for enrolment in the French emersion schools. No idea if the queue can be jumped with a donation, are they considered private or public schools?

Regarding the moving to outside the school district, or crossing the border, my aunt is a teacher in Abbotsford. ESL issues are the big drawback, with numbers of Asian students vastly outnumbering the traditional European/Anglo students. The recent immigrants have no issues with the math and sciences, but language and cultural nuances make her job very challenging.

[XXX-er]

AP is one of them there frenchy type teachers in BC so he could give you a lot of insight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMZ8AcDtAz4

but with this ^^ new info released by Trump ... why would you want to move to canada?

[Angle Parking]

Gee thanks xxx-er. I was trying to not get involved in this one. Here are a few observations;

Suffice it to say that French immersion programs have become incredibly popular in BC and across Canada as well. So popular in fact that many of them have begun to rot from within, in the sense that there are not enough qualified teachers to fill the demand. Ergo, teachers who can barely speak French end up getting hired because there is simply no one else to do the job. Waiting lists, lottery systems, people lining up outside schools at 4 AM on registration day, there is no denying the popularity of French and other second language programming

The question remains, why is Fench Immersion so popular? Many reasons. If you are like me, you value languages and want your child to be at a minimum bilingual. My parents both speak 4 languages and their appreciation for language is something they passed onto me. I intend to pass it along to my kids. Much of the clientelle at our school believes this very thing. Travel, employment, cognitive development, love and understanding, etc; the benefits of multi-lingualism are innumerable (including the fending off of senility and alzheimers).

As for the issue of funding, French immersion programs do qualify for special funding but so do students in hockey academies, students with special needs, aboriginal students and any number of other 'special groups'. In terms of special funding SUMMITX is simply wrong in making the statement that French schools (immersion or francophone, there is a difference) are the only ones to receive adequate funding. No schools in BC receive adequate funding. And much to my chagrin, this is where SUMMITX is correct, BC education is a mess. Compared to schools in Alberta, BC is in the educational dark ages. A trully, trully sad state of affairs. One can only come to the conclusion that the province of British Columbia is indeed starving public education with the intent to destroy it and replace it with a 2 tiered, private / public, have / have not system.

Given this sad state of affairs, I would be kidding myself and everyone here if I did not state that a significant percentage of our clientelle (roughly 50% would be my estimate) place their kids in French Immersion to isolate them from the above stated debacle. By placing their kids in French Immersion, parents are to a great extent ensuring that their kids will be surrounded by like minded kids and families, that is to say people who value learning and education. One of the reasons why French Immersion and Francophone schools appear better funded is because the parent communities of these schools work very hard to raise funds and make school a very special place for their kids. Canadian Parents for French is a parent group whose advocacy and fundraising can not be understated or inder appreciated. They rock!