when you say there’s a large number of international student paying to attend public school in Lower Mainland, I hope you are not referring to K-12 grades, if you do then you need to check your fact, I dont know where you get that from. International Tuition fee is almost $21,000 a year in BC to attend public school. The reasons why non permanent resident are guided to go through Ministry Funded for funding,The search engine in this forum is awful so I will not spend hours trying to find the examples. There is a lot of newcomers and visitors who come to especially the Vancouver area. Many are under the false impression that since Canadian students do not pay tuition and students who are eligible for public school at no cost that means that public school is free for anyone wishing to attend a public school. Proof that a parent is working or studying can be easily falsified or manipulated so that is one of the reasons that many schools or school boards now ask for study permits to verify that the specific child is eligible to attend school. There is a lot of inconsistency in the system and even depending on who you deal with. There is also a large international student population paying to attend public school on the greater Vancouver area. Schools and school boards in general are just trying to ensure that students who are eligible to attend public school without paying can do so and those who do have to pay do pay. The fact that there is a teacher shortage is another reasons many schools are trying to ensure that that only those entitled attend school.