Canadian Home and School Federation : The Canadian Home and School Federation was formed in 1927 under its first name, the Canadian National Federation of Home and School. Its creation was the culmination of a community-based movement that had begun in Baddeck, Nova Scotia in 1895. In December of that year, Mabel Hubbard Bell, the wife of Alexander Graham Bell, founded the Parents' Association for Baddeck Schools based on similar organizations in the United States. In other parts of Canada, mothers' clubs and parents' clubs evolved into parent-teacher associations in the first two decades of the 1900s. The first local council was formed in Toronto in 1916 consisting of nine parent-teacher associations with Ada C. Courtice as its first president. Under her leadership, the first provincial federation was formed in Ontario in 1919. Following the creation of a provincial federation in British Columbia in 1922, discussions were held about the possibility of creating a national organization to coincide with the meeting of the World Federation of Educational Associations in Toronto in August 1927. As a result, the Canadian National Federation of Home and School was formally established on 11 August 1927.
The objectives of the national federation (loosely based on those of the National Parent-Teacher Association in the United States) were to bring together all agencies concerned with the care and welfare of children in the home, school, and community, and to educate adults to meet their responsibilities toward children. Its structure and objectives recognized that education was a provincial responsibility under the Canadian constitution. The Federation was run by an executive committee generally comprised of elected officers and the presidents of the provincial federations. Biennial meetings were replaced by annual meetings in 1946 and in that year its name was changed to the Canadian Federation of Home and School. A more substantial change occurred in 1951 when it was awarded letters patent as a non-profit organization and incorporated as the Canadian Home and School and Parent-Teacher Federation. The new name recognized that local affiliates used both of these titles. In that year, a Board of Directors was created with broad authority over the Executive Committee. The Federation had hired a full-time secretary in 1949 and purchased a headquarters in Toronto in 1955. Post-war population growth led to continued expansion as the number of school-age children in Canada multiplied. In 1963, the Federation had some 325,000 members and was the largest voluntary organization in Canada. Its national bulletin was replaced by a magazine, "Canadian Home and School", in 1945 and its circulation had reached 11,000 by 1958. In 1963, "Quest, Spotlight on Education", became its new official magazine.
More recently, the Federation has been active in promoting the health and well-being of children and youth through a variety programs. It has produced parent information and resource material for schools concerning issues such as child abuse, smoking, drug use, fitness and nutrition, and AIDS. In the area of education, it has promoted parental involvement, vocational training and guidance in schools, and addressed issues such as literacy, technology and learning, computers in the schools, second-language education, and the impact of the media on children. The head office moved from Toronto to Ottawa in 1984 to forge closer links with the federal government. The success of the home and school movement has encouraged its adoption by provincial governments as a model for parental involvement in education. Since the 1970s, provincial legislation concerning the creation of parent committees or councils in elementary and secondary schools has increasingly offered public funds for this involvement and made it more structured, posing a new challenge for the Federation. In the face of these changes, the Board of Directors initiated a renewal of the Federation in 1993 based on the following principles: that its primary focus would be the well-being of children and youth, that it would promote parental involvement in education, and that it would respect the diversity of Canada and its provinces. Its name was changed again in 1997 to the Canadian Home and School Federation in order to reflect this new mandate.
