Alberta Home Education Program Plan: How to Write an EPP That Satisfies Any Board

The Education Program Plan (EPP) is the document every Alberta home educator registered with a supervising school authority must submit before the school year begins. It's often the first serious piece of administrative paperwork a new homeschooler encounters — and it's frequently more intimidating than it needs to be.

An EPP is not a day-by-day lesson schedule. It's a high-level description of what you plan to teach, how you plan to teach it, and how you'll evaluate whether your child is learning. Understanding what it actually needs to contain — and what it doesn't — is the fastest way to stop dreading it.

What an EPP Must Include

Alberta's Home Education Regulation (AR 89/2019) sets out the required components. Your EPP must document:

1. The subjects you intend to teach — aligned to the Schedule of Learning Outcomes (SOLO) under supervised programs, or the Alberta Programs of Study (APS) if you're pursuing official credits
2. Your instructional methods — how you'll deliver the curriculum (textbooks, unit studies, living books, online courses, co-ops, experiential learning, etc.)
3. Your resources and materials — what curricula, books, programs, or materials you'll use
4. Your methods of evaluation — how you'll assess your child's progress (portfolio, observation, tests, oral presentations, projects)

That's the regulatory minimum. Different associate boards ask for it in different formats and at different levels of detail.

Board-Specific EPP Expectations

WISDOM Home Schooling runs one of the more structured EPP processes. Returning families typically must submit their plans by late August before the new school year. WISDOM provides their own EPP form and expects families to explicitly state whether they're following SOLO outcomes or APS outcomes for each subject. They have a particular emphasis on educational philosophy statements and are known for thorough review.

Calgary Board of Education (CBE) provides an expanded EPP template through their home education portal (via ADLC partnership). Their template includes structured fields for each subject area, including expected learning outcomes and planned activities. CBE also requires families to specify how they'll gather evidence of progress — which connects directly to what you'll need to show in your two annual progress reports.

Edmonton Public Schools (EPSB) via Argyll Connect accepts EPPs in a more flexible format. Their facilitators tend to focus more on the subsequent evaluations than on the EPP itself, but having a clear, organized plan still makes the year easier to manage.

Smaller boards (THEE, Phoenix Foundation, local public school authorities) often have their own templates or may accept a freeform document as long as it addresses the required components.

SOLO vs. APS: The Decision That Shapes Your EPP

This is the most important concept to understand before you write a single word of your EPP.

SOLO (Schedule of Learning Outcomes) is a list of 22 broad learning outcomes that span areas like literacy, numeracy, social development, and personal skills. It's the legal minimum for supervised home education under AR 89/2019. Most elementary and middle school families document against SOLO — it gives you enormous flexibility in how and what you teach, with no obligation to follow the provincial curriculum.

APS (Alberta Programs of Study) is the official provincial curriculum — the 1,400+ specific learning outcomes that public schools follow. Documenting against APS is optional except when a student is pursuing official Alberta high school credits through Section 6 course challenges or diploma exams. Families who choose APS alignment voluntarily are often preparing for standardized assessments or want their child to have a clearly recognized academic pathway.

Most families in Grades K–9 should document against SOLO. Writing your EPP to the APS at this level creates enormous administrative overhead without any legal or practical requirement. You would be tracking your child against 200+ outcomes in Language Arts alone, rather than the handful of broad SOLO literacy outcomes.

Your EPP should explicitly state which framework you're using. "My child's learning will be evaluated against the Schedule of Learning Outcomes as per AR 89/2019, Section 4" is the sentence that protects you from a facilitator who might otherwise assume APS alignment.

Writing Your Educational Philosophy Statement

Many boards — and certainly WISDOM and CBE — benefit from a philosophy statement either within or attached to your EPP. This doesn't need to be formal or lengthy: one to two paragraphs explaining why you're homeschooling, your general pedagogical approach (Charlotte Mason, classical, eclectic, interest-led, structured textbook), and how you define educational success for your child.

This statement serves a practical function: it gives your facilitator the context to evaluate your child's progress fairly. A Charlotte Mason family that shows up to an evaluation with narration records, nature journals, and copywork samples will confuse a facilitator expecting worksheets — unless the EPP clearly explains the methodology upfront.

The Subjects Section: What to Include

A standard EPP addresses the same core subjects regardless of grade:

• Language Arts / English Language Arts (reading, writing, speaking)
• Mathematics
• Science
• Social Studies
• Physical Education / Health
• Arts (optional but worth noting)
• Optional: second language, religious studies, vocational skills, technology

For each subject, you need three pieces of information: what you're using (curriculum or approach), how you'll deliver it, and how you'll assess progress. For younger students, one or two sentences per subject is genuinely enough. The CBE template has structured fields — fill them in plainly. For WISDOM's more detailed review process, you might write a short paragraph per subject.

Example for Mathematics (elementary): Program: Saxon Math 3. Method: Daily lessons following teacher's manual, with manipulatives for new concepts. Evaluation: Dated math workbook samples selected from beginning, middle, and end of year. Monthly review tests retained as work samples.

Common EPP Mistakes

Over-planning in the EPP. Your EPP is a planning document, not a contract. Writing in specific textbook page ranges or week-by-week breakdowns creates a standard you'll feel obligated to follow even when life intervenes. Keep it at the level of "approach and resources" rather than "schedule."

Forgetting to address evaluation. Every EPP must explain how you'll evaluate progress. "Portfolio of dated work samples" is a valid and complete answer for most families. Vague entries like "ongoing observation" without more specifics can prompt questions from facilitators.

Submitting an American curriculum EPP without Alberta framing. If you use a US curriculum like Sonlight or My Father's World, your EPP should still reference the SOLO outcomes and explain how your curriculum addresses them. A facilitator reviewing your plan needs to see Alberta-specific language, not references to Common Core or state standards.

Missing the deadline. WISDOM's late August deadline is strict. CBE and other boards have their own timelines, often requiring EPP submission within the first few weeks of school registration. Check with your specific board — submitting late can delay your funding and complicate the facilitator's ability to schedule fall reviews.

If you want a complete EPP framework already formatted to AR 89/2019 standards — with fillable fields for each subject, philosophy statement prompts, and SOLO outcome checklists — the Alberta Portfolio & Assessment Templates includes an EPP template designed for any associate board. It also includes facilitator visit preparation checklists and a Section 6 course proposal framework for high school families.

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