Bill 157
Keeping Our Kids Safe at School Act
Loi de 2009 modifiant la Loi sur l’éducation (sécurité de nos enfants à l’école)
Bill 157, Keeping Our Kids Safe at School Act, became law on February 1, 2010. Together with Regulation 472/02 and additions to PPM’s 144 and 145, this Act includes a number of requirements for school boards and principals. The following set of resource materials are designed to assist school boards and school authorities implement and meet the requirements of the legislation, policies and guidelines.
Included are an Action Plan for Principals and an Action Plan for Boards. These documents will help principals and boards to understand the steps that must be taken to inform staff about the new expectations inherent in the legislation, and adjustments that will need to be made to both school and board policies and procedures.
A Policy Template developed by the legal firm Keel Cottrelle LLP is also provided. This template is valuable for school boards/school authorities to adjust their policies within a sound legal framework.
Consultation with the Ontario Human Rights Commission was undertaken when changes to reflect the requirements of Bill 157 and the amendments to PPM144 and PPM145 were being made to the Draft Procedures for Progressive Discipline Template. The suggestions communicated by the Ontario Human Rights Commission were not included in their totality, and for this reason, a Note that identifies the concerns and expectations that the Ontario Human Rights Commission staff have identified about the application of progressive discipline in schools is indicated below.
While the Ontario Human Rights Commission’s concerns and expectations include student “exclusions” from their own school, please note that the Draft Procedures for Progressive Discipline Template does not include procedures for implementing exclusions. We do however, recommend that school boards consider developing a policy and corresponding procedure to address student exclusions, and we have made reference to such a policy and procedure in the Draft Procedures for Progressive Discipline Template.
More Resources
Bill 157 — Policy Template — Final