SOLO vs APS Alberta Homeschool: Which Framework Should You Follow?

The single most common source of confusion for Alberta home educators isn't the registration process or the facilitator visits — it's the question of which curriculum outcomes they're actually required to follow. The answer hinges on understanding the difference between two distinct frameworks: SOLO and APS.

Getting this wrong in either direction has real consequences. Families who incorrectly assume they must follow the APS end up tracking hundreds of granular outcomes and burning out on paperwork. Families who don't understand the distinction at all may document their programs against the wrong standard, creating confusion during evaluations and potentially jeopardizing high school credit applications.

What SOLO Is

SOLO stands for Schedule of Learning Outcomes. It's a list of 22 broad learning outcomes established under Alberta's Home Education Regulation (AR 89/2019) that describe the general areas of development a home-educated child should demonstrate progress in over time.

The 22 SOLO outcomes cover areas including:

• Basic literacy (reading, writing, speaking, listening)
• Numeracy and mathematical reasoning
• Scientific thinking and inquiry
• Social studies and civic awareness
• Physical education and wellness
• Arts and creative expression
• Personal development and life skills

These are deliberately broad. The SOLO outcome for mathematics is essentially "the student demonstrates progress in mathematical concepts and problem-solving" — not a list of 200 specific grade-by-grade skills. That breadth is intentional: it's what gives Alberta home education its distinctive flexibility.

For most home educators registered with a supervising school authority in grades K–9, documenting progress against the 22 SOLO outcomes is all that's legally required under AR 89/2019.

What APS Is

APS stands for Alberta Programs of Study. This is the full provincial curriculum — the same detailed scope and sequence that public schools follow, containing approximately 1,400 specific learning outcomes across all grade levels and subject areas.

The APS is organized by grade and subject: English Language Arts K–6, Mathematics 10-C, Chemistry 20, Social Studies 7, and so on. Each course has dozens to hundreds of specific, measurable outcomes.

Following the APS as a home educator is optional in most circumstances — but it becomes mandatory when a student is:

• Pursuing official Alberta Education credits through Section 6 course challenges
• Writing provincial Grade 12 Diploma Exams
• Enrolling in Shared Responsibility courses with an associate board

If your Grade 11 student wants to officially challenge English 30-1 for an Alberta transcript credit, their course portfolio must be mapped to APS outcomes for that course. The evaluating principal checks against the APS, not the SOLO.

The New K–6 Curriculum (Effective 2024/2025)

Alberta rolled out a significantly overhauled K–6 curriculum beginning in the 2024/2025 academic year, with changes to English language arts, mathematics, physical education, and science. A new Grade 7–9 social studies curriculum followed in 2025.

This matters for two reasons. First, any template, tracker, or advice blog created before 2024 that references specific APS outcomes may now be citing outdated standards. Second, if you're using a curriculum that was designed for the old APS (many Canadian and US curricula were aligned to pre-2024 Alberta standards), the alignment between your curriculum and the current APS has shifted.

For SOLO-based families, this is low-stakes — the 22 broad SOLO outcomes haven't changed substantially. For families explicitly tracking against APS (typically those pursuing high school credits), the 2024/2025 curriculum changes require updated tracking tools.

How to Determine Which Framework Applies to You

Use these questions:

1. Is your child in Grades K–9? If yes, and you have no immediate plans for formal credit accumulation, document against SOLO. The regulation requires progress against SOLO outcomes; the APS is not required.

2. Is your child in Grades 10–12 pursuing official Alberta high school credits? If yes, you need APS-level documentation for any course you intend to challenge under Section 6 or register with a distance education provider. The Section 6 course portfolio is evaluated against APS outcomes by a certified teacher.

3. Does your associate board have specific requirements? WISDOM and some other boards may ask you to specify in your EPP whether you're following SOLO or APS for each subject. Some boards provide APS-aligned templates for families who choose that path. Always check your board's specific requirements.

4. Are you following a structured curriculum aligned to APS? Some families using Alberta-specific curricula (ADLC courses, certain Catholic or Christian school curricula) are effectively following APS even at younger grades because the materials are APS-based. If your curriculum is APS-aligned, referencing it in your EPP naturally demonstrates APS alignment without requiring you to manually track individual outcomes.

Why This Matters for Your Portfolio

A SOLO-based portfolio is fundamentally different from an APS-based portfolio in scope and structure:

Most Alberta families who burn out on documentation are inadvertently tracking against APS outcomes when they're only legally required to track against SOLO. Recognizing the distinction often cuts documentation time in half overnight.

The Practical Takeaway

Write your EPP to explicitly state which framework you're using. A sentence like "This program is designed to address the Schedule of Learning Outcomes as per AR 89/2019" protects you from a facilitator who might otherwise assume APS compliance.

For high school families, start APS-level documentation no later than Grade 10 if you're planning any Section 6 course challenges. The University of Calgary's admissions process for home-educated students relies heavily on standardized metrics — diploma exam results or equivalent standardized test scores. The University of Alberta's portfolio route requires documented evidence spanning Grades 10–12. Neither is achievable without early, systematic APS-level documentation.

The Alberta Portfolio & Assessment Templates includes a SOLO vs. APS mapping matrix that clearly shows which outcomes you need to track under each framework — so you're documenting what's legally required, nothing more and nothing less. It includes separate tracking sheets for SOLO-based programs and Section 6 course portfolios aligned to current 2025/2026 APS standards.

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