Saskatchewan Homeschool Withdrawal Letter: What to Write and Send

Saskatchewan families who decide to homeschool should handle two separate documents — and most resources online describe only one of them. The Notice of Intent and Written Educational Plan are the registration documents; a separate withdrawal letter to the school is highly recommended for a clean administrative transition. During the gap between withdrawal and completed registration, your family is technically still subject to the province's compulsory attendance requirements.

Here is what each document is, when it is required or recommended, and exactly what to include.

The Two-Document System

The confusion for most Saskatchewan families comes from treating withdrawal as a single event. A clean transition uses two distinct documents with two different recipients:

Document 1: Withdrawal letter to the school principal. This helps sever your child's enrollment at their current school. It goes to the school, not the division office, and should request removal from the attendance register.

Document 2: Notice of Intent to the school division board. This registers your family's home-based education program under Part VII of the Education Act, 1995, and the Home-Based Education Program Regulations, 2015. It goes to the school division's central office — not the school itself.

Many families send the Notice of Intent to the school principal, or forget the withdrawal letter entirely. Neither mistake is catastrophic, but both create administrative confusion and potential follow-up from attendance staff who don't know your file has moved to the division office.

What the Withdrawal Letter Must Include

The withdrawal letter to the school principal doesn't need to be long. Its purpose is narrow: formally notify the school that your child's enrollment is ending as of a specific date.

Include the following:

• Your child's full name, grade, and homeroom teacher (for identification)
• The effective date of withdrawal
• A statement that you are registering with the school division under Saskatchewan's Home-Based Education Program
• A request to remove your child from the attendance register effective that date
• A request for transfer of your child's cumulative record to the home-based education program (report cards, IEP if applicable, progress notes)
• A reference to the Education Act, 1995 as the authority governing your decision

Keep the tone factual. You are not asking for permission. You are notifying the school of a decision already made. Avoid language like "I would like to request approval to withdraw" — there is no approval required.

Delivery: Send by certified mail or email with a read receipt. If you send by email, follow up with a hard copy if you do not receive acknowledgment within 48 hours. This paper trail matters if any attendance or truancy question arises later — especially for mid-year withdrawals where your child will miss school days during the notice window.

What the Notice of Intent Must Include

The Notice of Intent goes to your school division board's administrative office. Saskatchewan has 27 school divisions; find your division at the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation website or your municipality's school board website.

The Notice of Intent must include:

• Your child's full name, date of birth, and previous school (if applicable)
• Contact information for the responsible parent or guardian
• A Written Educational Plan with a minimum of three broad annual goals for the core areas of Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies, plus the expected educational activities, instructional methods, learning resources, and means of assessing and recording progress
• The date you intend to begin home-based instruction

The Written Educational Plan does not need to be elaborate. Most school divisions accept a plain-language description of the program's philosophy, activities, methods, resources, and assessment approach. You are not submitting a lesson plan — you are describing your overall program.

Deadline for the Notice of Intent: If you are starting at the beginning of the school year, the deadline is August 15. For mid-year transitions, the Notice of Intent must be submitted 30 days before you intend to begin.

The 30-Day Gap: What Happens Between Withdrawal and Registration

This is the part most families don't anticipate. When you withdraw mid-year and submit your Notice of Intent, there is a 30-day window before your home-based education registration is formally in effect. During that window, your family is technically still subject to compulsory attendance requirements.

In practice, most school divisions process the Notice of Intent quickly and don't pursue attendance actions against families who have clearly filed. But the 30-day gap is a real legal status, not just a bureaucratic formality. Two things protect you during this period:

First, your withdrawal letter establishes a clear paper trail that your child has been removed from the school's roll with the intent to register for home-based education. Second, your submission date on the Notice of Intent creates a record that you initiated the process.

This is why sending both documents simultaneously — on the same day, to the correct recipients — matters. It compresses the exposure window and demonstrates good-faith compliance with the regulatory timeline.

For families in a hurry (a safety concern at school, a health situation, a custody arrangement), some divisions will process the Notice of Intent more quickly on request. Call the division office directly and explain your circumstances rather than relying on the standard timeline.

What You Don't Have to Do

A few things families are often pressured into that are not legally required:

Exit meetings. The school or principal may invite you to a meeting to discuss your decision. You are not required to attend. Politely declining is completely appropriate.

Home visits. Some principals suggest a home visit "to make sure you're set up." This is not part of the provincial registration process. You can decline without explanation.

Justifying your decision. You do not need to explain why you are withdrawing your child. The withdrawal letter states what is happening; it does not need to argue for it.

Permission from the division before starting. The Notice of Intent is a notification, not an application. The school division does not "approve" your home-based education program — they receive your plan and file it. For a start-of-year program, follow the August 15 deadline; for a mid-year program, wait for the applicable 30-day notice period before beginning instruction.

After the Documents Are Sent

Once your withdrawal letter is confirmed received and your Notice of Intent is on file, you will receive acknowledgment from the school division — typically a letter or email confirming your registration for the current school year. Keep this with your records.

From that point, your obligations are annual: you submit a progress report to the school division at the end of the school year covering the educational activities your child completed during the year. Standardized testing is optional; a written summary and portfolio of work can satisfy the reporting requirement. Most families manage it in a few pages.

The Saskatchewan Legal Withdrawal Blueprint includes ready-to-use templates for both the withdrawal letter and the Notice of Intent, written to meet the specific requirements of Saskatchewan's Home-Based Education Program Regulations. It also covers how to handle division-by-division variation, what to do if the school pushes back, and how to protect yourself during the 30-day notice window.

If you're at the point of actually writing these letters and want to get them right the first time, that's what the blueprint is for.

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