Different types of schools

Practically all elementary and secondary school students in 1999/00 attended a public school. In 1999/00, public schools accounted for 93% of total enrolment, compared with 6% for private schools. An even smaller proportion of students attended special schools for the visually and hearing impaired. These proportions were more or less constant throughout the late 1990s.

A minute percentage of Canada's school-aged population is taught at home. In 1995/96, approximately 0.4% of the school-age population was reported to have been schooled from home.

Canada's public elementary and secondary school systems also include denominational schools, the majority of them Catholic. A number of other religious groups have sought equivalent status for their schools in recent years—an issue that will likely remain, given Canada's continually changing religious composition.