THEE
310 Broadview Rd T8H 1A4 Sherwood Park, AB, Canada

Diploma Exam Information As you may know, Alberta Ed has made all diploma exams for the remainder of this school year to be optional. https://www.alberta.ca/diploma-exams.aspx... If your son or daughter has chosen to not write the challenge exam for the given 30-level course, then please know the following details regarding the final course credits and course mark: * if the student passes the course from the teacher-taught course (i.e. from the ADLC course) or from a course challenge exam, the student will have earned the course credits based on that school-awarded mark. * Your student does not need to register to write the diploma exam in order for Alberta Education to apply the exemption to the diploma exam requirement; students who have a school-awarded mark this school year will automatically receive an exemption from Alberta Education.

For ADLC Test Supervision Students who need to write an ADLC test but do not have an approved proctor for an onsite test-writing session can choose to write the ADLC test online via the student's ADLC account in Moodle. For this scenario, the student will be writing a web-based test, and I (Brett Bowers) can be your approved test proctor. I will proctor-supervise the ADLC test via a video conferencing session via Skype, and one of your parents will need to be present at the start and finish of the session. The student needs to tell his/her ADLC teacher to release the password for the online test, and I will then receive the password. Then the student will need to arrange a time with me to write the online test. My email address is [email protected].

Updated, "Reimbursement Request Form" This new form contains three new updates: 1. The instruction to email the completed form (and the receipts associated with the form) to our new email address for finance-related items: [email protected] 2. Revised line items for the first and last name of both the father and mother.... 3. New line items at the bottom of the form to accommodate the new policy from the Funding Manual regarding our ability to payout a parent when the parent has received at least 75% of his/her parent-allocated home ed funding. The total amount of home ed funding for all home ed children, which the parent(s) has received from Alberta Ed, constitutes the, "parent-allocated funding" amount. You can download this new and now current form from thee's website at https://thee.ca/how-it-works/home-school-funding/ Be sure to first save the document to your desktop before you begin typing your information into the PDF template.

Update on Reimbursements: Payments to more than 300 parents/families are on their way I confirmed today that over reimbursement payments to 300 parents went out today. About half are direct deposit, and half snail mail. We folded about 150 of the Direct Deposit forms to include in the paper envelopes that contained the paper cheque and that we will get into tomorrow's mail pickup. These reimbursements cover the reimbursement requests which we have received up until mid-Octobe...r. Just for context and perspective: during all of the previous 2019-20 school year, we processed approximately 430 direct reimbursement payments to parents for the entire school year. We've already processed about 300 direct reimbursement payments to parents within the first 2 1/2 months of this school year. We have also processed almost 400 payments to vendors via Purchase Orders which parents used to purchase learning resources. Just for context and perspective: during all of the previous 2019-20 school year, we processed approximately 450 Purchase Order payments for the entire school year. We've already processed about 400 Purchase Order payments within the first 2 1/2 months of this school year. The turn-around time for receiving, reviewing, and sending-out a reimbursement payment to a parent will be, Lord willing, approximately three weeks...three weeks of work days...not including holidays. Reminder: THEE will be processing reimbursement requests and Purchase Orders on a weekly basis from now until the deadline, which will be in mid-May.

Purchase Order Numbers: We can not edit or modify a PO# once we have issued it. When you request a PO# from us, be sure to have previously calculated the dollar amount that you will need. Asking for an amount that is $30-$50 more than what you think that you'll need is a good practice to follow. We will deposit back to your funding account any amount of the requested dollar amount in your PO# that you do not spend. Please review the attached graphic that lists several key details related to how to use a PO#.

THEE Reimbursement Updates

THEE: November Newsletter

Reimbursement Request 101...Lesson for today The receipt document that you will be including along with the, "Reimbursement Request Form", must show 1. the name or a description of the purchased resource 2. the purchase price of the purchased resource... for which you are asking reimbursement. We in the office must know what you have purchased in order to determine if we can reimburse you for the resource. We are not trying to be "picky" or "difficult", but we must be able to determine the eligibility of each resource for reimbursement.

For Requests for Purchase Order Numbers for Staples... You'll need to email your request to Natasha Hicks ([email protected]), and in the email message, you will need to include the following details: 1. Vendor name: Staples 2. Vendor address: [specific address of the Staples store from where you will be using the PO#. A PO# for Staples is specific to an individual store because we have to send the PO# information directly to the manager of that specific Staples store so that... the store's check-out teller will be able to recognize/expect/accept your PO#] 3. Dollar amount of your PO# This requirement for an address is just (at least for now) for Staples because every Staples store in Alberta will accept a PO# from THEE, and we have to send your PO# information to the specific store. ~Brett

Keeping Daily Logs of Instruction and/or Learning Activities (not required) One our our fantastic THEE facilitators let me know that many THEE parents (perhaps new-to-homeschooling parents) are diligently recording daily learning events, instructions, assignments, etc. into a logbook or planner. If you are doing this for your own personal organization or other reasons, then super. But, if you are doing it because you think that your facilitator is going to require to see s...uch daily or weekly details during the two visits/evaluations, then please know that your facilitator is not going to ask for or even expect you to maintain a daily record of all that you are doing, accomplishing, etc. Facilitators will be looking for evidence of "progress" and "achievement" (terms from the regulation), and progress and achievement can come in all sorts of shapes and sizes: ribbons or trophies won at competitions, belts that signify the attainment of certain levels in martial arts, certificates, photos of your child before, during, or after an event, photos of a project or other creation made by your child, photos of your children with mom, dad, uncle, grandparent, etc. in a learning event (and a learning event is not restricted to the 4 core subjects!), a grouping of particular stones that have special geological importance, copies of workbooks, a copy of a written report, a painting, a sculpture, a series of nature photos, a song played on a musical instrument, etc. Remember that you are educating at home and not recreating the school at home :-)

Good News: Our Financial Software App that Provides Our Purchase Order Numbers and Other Reimbursement Processes is Back Online We are now testing out our financial software app after the tech support department from the company certainly appears to have fixed the problem. We should be back on track by tomorrow afternoon.... Also, we send out our direct deposit reimbursements and hardcopy-snail-mail reimbursement cheques every Friday, so we will get back on schedule starting with next Friday's issuance of the reimbursements. ~Brett

Reimbursement Requests: A Right Way and a Wrong Way Hey, I just wanted to follow up on the newsletter that I sent out regarding the "Funding and Reimbursement" section. Here is a mistake that we are already seeing: a parent sends to Natasha just the receipt. Then the parent sends just the "Reimbursement Request Form" with no receipts.... You the parent must send to Natasha a complete set of documents in one email message or one physical snail-mailed package, and the documentations needs to be correctly completed and/or provided: 1. the "Reimbursement Request Form" 2. the receipt(s) Please take some time to watch the videos that Natasha Hicks and I have made and posted to https://thee.ca/virtual-open-house/ in an effort to "help you help me/us" with getting your reimbursements to you ASAP.

Purchase Orders and Reimbursements for new-to-THEE parents: We are still waiting for a technical "repair" to our PowerSchool-related software app that supports our ability to offer Purchase Order Numbers and to record and provide reimbursements to new-to-THEE parents. These problems are hitting us all at the worst possible time. We are waiting for the tech support person from PowerSchool to find the problem and to fix it ASAP. These tech problems are affecting the parents ...who are new-to-THEE. If you are a returning-to-THEE parent, then your funding/reimbursement account is fine. We in the office are processing the reimbursement request forms and receipts for everyone. If you are new-to-THEE, please continue to send to us your reimbursement request form and receipts so that we can process them and make them fully ready for reimbursement via direct deposit (or paper cheque) for when the PowerSchool tech problem has been fixed. ~Brett

Purchase Order (PO) Numbers: We're experiencing a technical glitch The software application that we are using to create, track, and process our PO Numbers (for new-to-THEE families) is not cooperating with us and is keeping us from being able to issue PO#'s to new-to-THEE families. We are waiting for a technical solution from the tech department of the software company. Yes, this is really a bad time for us to not be able to issue PO#'s!!!... ~Brett

Purchase Order #'s and Reimbursements Now that the registration time period has ended, we in the office will be focused on 1. ensuring that everyone's funding is available and 2. responding to all of the requests for Purchase Order Numbers.... We must spend a few days on task #1 because 1. we only received the funding today (October 2) 2. we have to resolve priority school conflicts for several students who thus will not have funding available until we can resolve those conflicts 3. we had to wait until today to know for sure which students would remain in our home education program since parents can change their minds up to September 30th. We will be processing your requests for PO#'s as quickly and as accurately as possible. If you are new to THEE or new to using PO#'s, please take some time to watch the info-videos at https://thee.ca/virtual-open-house/ to learn how the reimbursement and PO# processes work.

Requesting the student's, "Academic Cumulative File" I've been hearing from several parents and schools who are asking THEE to essentially, "hurry up and request the student's cumulative file"...as if the homeschooler who is joining THEE can't join us until THEE has requested the file. This is absolutely not true. The student's former school simply needs to transfer-out the student from the school’s student information system (SIS). We at THEE are in the process of requestin...g academic cumulative files for over 1,400 students, who are new to THEE, so we need a bit of time to do this. We have three people in THEE’s office assigned to this task, and we've been requesting files for the past 4 weeks. In normal years, we would be requesting approximately 200 files (not 1,400 files). Requesting the cumulative file has no bearing on the former school’s ability to transfer out the student from that school’s SIS.

Art Gallery of St. Alberta (north of Edmonton) has the following special programs for homeschoolers... http://artgalleryofstalbert.ca//community-clas/homeschool/

French Immersion Option for Home Education Students ... If you are concerned that your son or daughter, who had been enrolled at a French Immersion school during the previous school year(s), will be losing ground in terms of their French language skills, please consider attending an information night for, "Le Petit Prof", micro-school (not a legal school in terms of the Education Act). The information night will be tomorrow night (sorry for the late notice!), Monday, September 21st, at 6:45 PM. Location & Driving Instructions: 50308 Range Road 233, Leduc County (Near Nisku). Be careful with GPS... if you come south from Sherwood Park on Hwy 21, turn west on Hwy 625 and then south on Range Road 233... The building is half way up on the west side of the road. Gate with white fences and gargoyles. https://abc123tinyteacher.blogspot.com

Fully-Online Registration (i.e. "Notification") is now available for Home Ed Students! The long-asked for and long-advocated for, "Fully Online Registration Process" is now a reality! Alberta Ed provided late today the needed information and "green light" for home ed programs to offer a fully online Notification Form! Up until recently, home ed parents had to use PAPER forms (only a few months ago did Alberta Ed officially provide an allowed fillable PDF form). We've been w...aiting for this announcement for many years! I am VERY excited to see that we can now offer a fully online registration-notification process to our home education parents! No more need for paper forms, printing PDF forms, hand-written signatures, etc. Parents can complete both the Notification Form and the Program Plan via our online, "School Engage", system, and they can upload the required ID document, such as a birth certificate or PR Card. https://thee.ca/register/