Registering your kids for school and applying for child benefits

Registering your kids for school and applying for child benefits

Two separate systems, two separate authorities, and both are time-sensitive. Schools are provincial and run by local boards; child benefits are federal and run by the Canada Revenue Agency.

Part 1 — school

Your child has the right to attend

Ontario's Education Act gives every child resident in Ontario the right to attend school regardless of the immigration status of the child or the parents. A school board may not refuse enrolment on the basis of status.

This is worth knowing plainly, because families with precarious status sometimes keep children out of school out of fear. That is not required, and settlement agencies and school board welcome centres deal with these situations routinely.

Choosing a board

Ontario has four publicly funded school systems:

• English public
• English Catholic
• French public
• French Catholic

Which schools your child can attend depends on where you live and, for the French-language boards, on eligibility rules tied to language rights. Most boards have an online school locator by address.

Many boards operate a newcomer reception or welcome centre that handles registration, language assessment, and grade placement in one visit — start there if your board has one.

What to bring

Requirements vary slightly by board, but expect:

Documents not in English or French will generally need translation — see Certified translations and notarized copies in Canada.

Grade placement and language support

Your child will usually be assessed for English language proficiency and, where relevant, for academic level. Placement is normally by age rather than by prior grade, with ESL/ELD language support provided alongside regular classes.

If you disagree with a placement, ask the school for the reasoning and how it can be reviewed. Boards have processes for this.

Immunization reporting

Ontario requires children's immunizations for designated diseases to be reported to the local public health unit. This is a public health obligation, separate from school registration — the school does not do it for you.

Two things newcomers routinely run into:

• Vaccines given abroad still count, but the record must be translated and reported. A health care provider can help map foreign vaccine schedules to Ontario's.
• Exemptions exist on medical and other grounds, with a defined process.

Contact your local public health unit early — this is one of the few items with a hard consequence if left undone.

Part 2 — child benefits

The Canada Child Benefit (CCB)

A tax-free monthly payment from the Canada Revenue Agency to families with children under 18. The amount depends on family income and the number and ages of children — check the current amounts on canada.ca rather than any third-party figure.

How to apply:

• Form RC66 — Canada Child Benefits Application. This is the main form.
• Form RC66SCH — Status in Canada / Statement of Income, required when you or your spouse are newcomers.
• You can also apply through My Account with the CRA, or through the Automated Benefits Application when you register a birth in Ontario.

One parent applies for the family, but the form asks for both partners' details and incomes.

We have a step-by-step walkthrough: RC66 Canada Child Benefit autofill guide.

The waiting period question

This is the detail that causes the most confusion, and it depends on status:

• Permanent residents, protected persons and Canadian citizens — generally no waiting period. Apply as soon as you arrive.
• Temporary residents (work or study permit holders) — generally must have lived in Canada for the previous 18 months in a row and hold a valid permit in the 19th month before CCB can begin.

Apply anyway. Even where CCB cannot start yet, the application registers your children for the GST/HST credit, which has different rules.

Confirm your own case on canada.ca.

The GST/HST credit

A quarterly tax-free payment for individuals and families with modest incomes. Applying for CCB usually registers you; if you have no children, use Form RC151 instead.

Other programs worth checking

• Ontario Child Benefit — provincial, generally paid together with the CCB.
• Child care subsidies — administered municipally; apply early, because waitlists are long.
• Canada Learning Bond and RESP grants — federal contributions toward education savings for eligible children, which do not require you to contribute your own money in some cases.
• Child disability benefit, if applicable.

The one rule that keeps benefits flowing

File a tax return every year — you and your spouse, separately, even with no income.

Benefit amounts are recalculated each July from the previous year's returns. If either partner has not filed, payments stop. This is the most common way newcomer families lose thousands of dollars, and it is entirely avoidable. See Your first Canadian tax return as a newcomer.

How my-id.ca helps

School registration, the CCB application, the immunization report, the child care subsidy application, and the tax returns that keep it all running ask for the same facts about the same children, over and over: full legal names, dates and places of birth, immigration document numbers, your address, and both parents' details.

my-id.ca lets you store your household once — including each child as their own person record — and fill those details into forms automatically, on the web and in PDFs. Your children's documents are encrypted on Canadian servers, and searching them uses my-id.ca's own AI rather than a third-party provider.

Next steps

• Your first Canadian tax return as a newcomer
• Getting your Ontario health card (OHIP) as a newcomer
• RC66 Canada Child Benefit autofill guide
• First 90 days in Ontario: a newcomer's checklist

Important: this is general information, not legal advice

This article is general information to help you get organized — it is not legal, immigration, tax, medical, or educational advice, and my-id.ca does not provide legal or professional consultation. my-id.ca is not a government agency, law firm, school board, public health unit, or licensed advisor, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Government of Canada, the Government of Ontario, IRCC, the Canada Revenue Agency, Service Canada, or ServiceOntario.

Eligibility, benefit amounts, waiting periods, forms, and school and immunization requirements change often and depend on your specific situation and immigration status. Always confirm the current details on the official government sources (canada.ca and ontario.ca), with your school board, and with your local public health unit before you act, and complete and submit every application yourself. For advice about your individual circumstances, consult a qualified professional or a government-funded settlement agency. If anything in this guide differs from an official source, the official source is correct.