Ontario to Introduce Legislation to Strengthen School Board Oversight

On Thursday, May 29, 2025, Ontario will introduce the Supporting Children and Students Act, 2025, that, if passed, would strengthen government oversight, accountability and transparency in public school boards, postsecondary education and children’s aid societies. The changes would also increase the safety, well-being and academic and personal achievement of children and youth.

To further address several cases of financial mismanagement by school boards, the proposed enhanced measures would increase government’s oversight of school board finances, governance and program performance, including giving the Minister of Education the ability to respond quickly to matters of public interest.

“Parents deserve confidence that school boards are making decisions in the best interests of their children’s education,” said Paul Calandra, Minister of Education. “That’s why we are strengthening accountability and transparency across Ontario’s education system — to ensure that every dollar invested is preparing students with practical skills for good-paying, stable careers. These new measures would build on our previous actions to improve governance, enforce compliance and focus school boards on what matters most: student success. We are making it clear that school boards must put students first — not politics, not bureaucracy — and that we will act decisively when they fall short of that responsibility.”

Other key accountability and oversight measures being proposed include:

• Setting out requirements for board expense policies and requiring school boards to post key individuals’ expenses on their public-facing website
• Increasing the accountability of children’s aid societies by taking measures to strengthen financial oversight, board governance and transparency
• Improving fee transparency for postsecondary students
• Requiring all publicly assisted colleges and universities to have clearly outlined, merit-based admissions policies

Additional proposed changes would promote student success and enhance student, child and youth safety by:

• Incentivizing student volunteerism by introducing a new Minister’s Certificate of Recognition for Community Involvement for students who earn 50 or more community involvement hours
• Requiring school boards to implement School Resource Officer (SRO) programs where they are offered by local police services starting in the next school year
• Expanding the Ombudsman’s investigative authority to include 18- to 22-year-olds who are eligible for, or are in the Ready, Set, Go program and requiring children’s aid societies to notify these youth about the Ombudsman’s services regularly
• Consulting on requiring children’s aid societies and out-of-home care licensees to physically post age-appropriate information about children and youth rights and internal complaints processes in areas of a residence that are accessible to them

The measures contained in this legislation would build on the government’s ongoing work to ensure students, children and youth interact with accountable and transparent public systems and benefit from the supports they need to reach ultimate achievement academically and personally.

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