Ministry Policy Site

Distributed Learning - BC Residency Policy

July 1, 2007

Revised

Boards or authorities may enrol students who are ordinarily residents of British Columbia, but temporarily out of province, in distributed learning schools or programs. Boards or authorities are responsible to determine their own residency policy in compliance with the School Act and Regulations and Ministry of Education policy.

Distributed learning provides the opportunity for boards or authorities to provide an educational program for students who are not geographically located in the local school community. The International Student Policy provides guidance in determining residency, however its focus is on students who were not previously resident in British Columbia. Section 168(3) of the School Act allows a board, with the approval of the Minister of Education, to enter into an agreement with an education authority outside British Columbia for the education of children for whom the outside authority is responsible. The Distributed Learning – Out of Province Student Policy provides suggestions that may assist boards or authorities in establishing their own residency rules, and outlines procedures a board or authority must follow to receive the Minister’s approval to enter into an agreement with an outside authority to provide an educational program for students who are not resident in British Columbia, but living within Canada.

School Act, Section 168 (3)
School Act, Section 82 (1,2)

Definition - "International students" : Students who have moved from outside of Canada to British Columbia and do not meet the residency requirements of Section 82 of the School Act.

Definition - "Residency ": Section 82 (1) of the School Act states: "a board must provide free of charge to every student of school age resident in British Columbia and enrolled in an educational program in a school operated by the board" instruction in an educational program and educational resource materials necessary to participate in the educational program. Section 82 (2) states "for the purposes of subsection (1), a student is resident in British Columbia if the student and the guardian of the person of the student are ordinarily resident in British Columbia."

Boards or authorities may wish to enrol students located outside of the province in distributed learning schools or programs. The School Act outlines procedures for the provision of educational programs for students who are resident in the province, not for those temporarily or permanently residing outside of the province. Accordingly, boards or authorities are required to establish their own residency policy consistent with Ministry legislation and policy. Under their residency policy, boards or authorities may enrol students who are ordinarily residents of British Columbia, but temporarily out of province, or through agreement with an education authority, students who permanently reside outside of British Columbia but within Canada, in distributed learning schools or programs according to the procedures contained within the Distributed Learning – Out of Province Student Policy.

Ordinarily Resident Status

For International Students, the International Student Policy provides guidance and a Decision Aid to establish eligibility.

For students who were residents of British Columbia at one time, but do not have a current address in British Columbia, determining “ordinarily resident” status is a school board decision, and a board or authority must have a policy for determining “ordinarily resident” status to claim funding for these students.

In deeming a student “ordinarily resident” there is no specific time limit, such as two years, but time may be a factor . A board or authority may consider various kinds of evidence from the student, parent, or legal guardian, to determine if they are “ordinarily resident” in BC such as:

• passports, citizenship cards, birth certificates, driving licences
• local utility or property ownership or leasing information,
• diplomatic or Armed Forces status,
• work, study, or temporary residence permits or visas issued by other jurisdictions,
• letters of employment or relocation assignment with length-of-term information

Evidence used to establish residency must be kept in the student’s file.

Non-residents Within Canada

Boards or authorities interested in delivering a course or program through distributed learning to students who reside outside of British Columbia but within Canada, and will obtain a certificate of graduation in the other jurisdiction, will be permitted to do so providing the following:

• The board or authority must have a signed Distributed Learning Agreement with the Minister for the school year in which course or program will be provided.
• The distributed learning school or program must be identified by a facility type 08 and be able to provide performance information for all students served.
• The board or authority must have a written agreement with the education authority in the other jurisdiction in which the students are resident. The authority in the other jurisdiction could be the responsible ministry or school board. The board or authority requires an agreement for individual students as well as for a group of students. The students in the other jurisdiction will not be funded by the BC Ministry of Education. School boards may set fees for the courses as they deem appropriate.
• School boards wishing to proceed must:

1. Request approval from the Ministry of Education to enter into an Agreement with another Canadian jurisdiction and/or another Canadian jurisdiction’s school board or authority. The School Act Section 168 Agreement Form must be used to request this approval.
2. Submit to the Ministry a copy of the fully executed Agreement between the board or authority providing the services and the Jurisdiction or School Board authority.
3. Report students on Student Level Data collections (“1701”) using Funding Code 14 (Offshore, Out-of-Province).

The Ministry will keep this information on file for monitoring purposes as part of the board or authority’s compliance with the Distributed Learning Agreement.

The procedures outlined in this policy do not enable boards or authorities to offer a course or an educational program through distributed learning to students outside of BC for the purpose of obtaining a BC certificate of graduation (Dogwood).

International Student Policy

Other resources referred to in the International Student policy include: the School Act, the Family Relations Act, the Infants Act, the Divorce Act and the Child, Family and Community Service Act, and Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

If you have any questions relating to this policy, please contact the Distributed Learning Unit, Information Department.