How do you enrol children in public school in Canada in 2026?

Start on the board website for your address. In Toronto, the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) asks for proof of age (passport or birth certificate are common) and two proofs of address from its accepted lists. TDSB explicitly rejects a driver's licence or health card as address proof, so bring a lease plus a utility or government mail item instead. Immunization records must meet the public-health schedule for that city; Toronto Public Health can accept and translate foreign vaccine cards for students attending Toronto schools.

Eligibility for free public enrollment depends on status and parent status under provincial education law. TDSB guidance allows many Canadian citizens, permanent residents, refugee claimants, and dependents of certain work-permit or Ontario post-secondary study-permit holders to register at the local school when other requirements are met. Other newcomers are referred to the International Students and Admissions Office (ISAO) on Yonge Street for eligibility letters and, when applicable, fee-paying international pathways. Do not assume a child's study permit alone means free board enrollment.

Outside Quebec, many cities offer English public boards and separate Catholic or French-language boards with their own catchment tools. Children can usually start without fluent English when ESL or ELL support is available: Children school without English. In Quebec, language-of-instruction rules under the Charter of the French Language shape whether a child can attend English public school. Confirm eligibility with the Ministry of Education and the relevant commission scolaire before you sign a lease in Montreal or Laval solely because an English school is nearby: French or English in Canada.

Kindergarten age cutoffs and French immersion lotteries (such as TDSB Early French Immersion applications) sit outside ordinary catchment registration. Apply on the board calendar, not IRCC timelines.

Find the catchment school for both temporary and permanent addresses. Hotel stays complicate residency proof; ask the board which affidavits or temporary documents it accepts. Prior transcripts help secondary placement. Provincial health enrollment is separate from school registration: enrol provincial health. Daycare is also separate: childcare costs.