Serving the Home Education community.

AHEA Updates

Keep up to date with everything going on in our province!

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Convention Updates

Special Help Has Arrived

22.04.14 - Special Help Has Arrived Special Help Has Arrived

AHEA is pleased to direct you to the special needs help that we've worked so hard for you to have access to. (Read more about our efforts for you in the previous article.)

IN ONE WEEK our friends at AISCA is will be hosting a virtual meeting for all home educators to attend... and 'all' means ALL!
It does not matter if you have decided to do Notification Only or if you are with an Associate Board/Private (Independent) School as you all have equal access to these services. What a win for the whole home education community!

YOU are in charge of your child's education. These supports, you are now able to obtain, don't change why you decided to home educate. They enhance your ability to address pre-existing needs. Your decision to home educate was not reliant on this, but this access will enhance your ability to get help if and when you wish to. Watch AISCA's explanation of how it's going to work here!

AISCA Poster (Click to download a printable version.)

AHEA is an independent voice for parents that home educate, though our work often has far reaching implications in supporting and advocating for choice, parental rights and the family in general. If you would like to support AHEA in our efforts please click here.

Something Special Happened

22.02.26.Something Special Happened ---banner

The heart cry of the special needs families in the home education community, to be seen and treated as equals, has finally been heard and responded to. It is with a thankful and joyful heart that we are able to confirm that special needs families will have access to supports equal to that of the public system. AHEA has worked hard to see that this issue was addressed. Our discussions specific to this topic started in July of 2020. AHEA has had two very specific goals in our advocacy - philosophical agreement and practical action, as explained in our previous article A Special Report. Our initial focus was refined to one very clear and pointed question:

The answer to our question was clearly given within the Throne Speech delivered by the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta on February 22, 2022. It was an exciting moment when these words were heard…

We had seen some initial movement on this issue this last fall, which was encouraging. However, the fact is that the practical action was still of help to some families and not all, and not as full in scope as we wished. We wanted to see the kind of course correction that will result in more than a nod in the direction of home education families. Our idea of the practical side of this question had seen us focus on requesting three specific items:

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When To Say ‘Uncle’

21.12.20.When-to-Say Uncle When to Say 'Uncle'

 Have you ever made a comment and then had to reverse engineer why that popped out of your mouth? That happened to me this fall. It was a situation that made me realize that a lesson I had a hard time absorbing as a home education mom may, just may, have sunk in. Perhaps not everyone will relate to this struggle, but it is a lesson that is helpful to all home educators who might need to know that they can say 'Uncle' when it comes to curriculum choices.

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Worth Dying For

2021-11-11-worth-dying-for Worth Dying For

Remembrance Day makes us all pause, at least for a minute, and remember those who died in service of something greater than themselves. They were those with a hope and a future. Yet they were willing to give it all up… all. Let us then pause and consider...

Who were these men, sometimes barely out of boyhood, who risked it all? Who, far too often, gave their all. Where did this courage come from? How had they been taught and what? What deep conviction would draw this level of courage to the surface and sustain them during the most difficult of times? How could they endure the loss of innocence and friends, of life or limbs?

We do not often hear of the men who are willing these days to die for their country, their beliefs or even for their families. In the time that has since passed under the bridge, unnoticed yet impactful changes have occurred while we have been swinging our legs and chattering like magpies. Deep and dangerous currents move about us and we have sat too long unaware.

What is worth dying for these days? How has the pride of our country, that used to be there, been lost? Where does morality come from that makes the value of sacrifice plain? Can that be found in a sustainable form outside of a faith in God? Where is a love to be found that makes one willing to lay down their life for a friend or, even harder, an enemy? 

There is no way to avoid the truth of our struggle today...

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A Special Report

A Special Report "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" is a quotation from William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. On this topic, no matter what terminology is used, it has been a privilege to focus time and effort on some very special people in our home education family. Webster's website says that the word special stresses having a quality, character, identity... of its own.

AHEA knows that those of you who have these exceptional children in your home have faced extra challenges because of your choice and commitment to home educate, since you've felt it provides the best environment for your child. We, in turn, made a commitment to you to seek to address this issue, and we have. It has been a regular discussion point in our advocacy work with the government for over a year now.

Last fall we invited families with special needs to participate in a survey on this topic. We collaborated with another stakeholder so that we could gather data from a wider group. The resulting information from respondents confirmed what we had heard and seen. As was shared in a Political Update blog last November, "There is no funding for diagnosis and support for children with diverse learning needs under The Home Education Regulations, The Guide to Education, and the Funding Manual." This is a serious problem that affects a great many of our home education families.

  • 38% had more than one child with special needs
  • 11% were single parent/caregivers
  • 90% were traditional, parent-directed home educators
  • 77% were formerly in the public system
    • 59% left within 1-3 years and another 27% left after 4-6 years

Everyone AHEA has spoken to about the topic has been very kind and cares about the needs that we are discussing. People have not been calloused, whether or not they personally have a child that may require additional support. However, and this is a big HOWEVER, caring needs to result in some very specific actions in order to be of help. Families don't want empathy - they want the kind of support that will make a real difference in their life. 

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