The New Brunswick government says it’s monitoring a new policy in Ontario where school attendance counts for a student’s final grade. The new rules are a response to years of chronic student absenteeism in that province, which has been positioned as a top priority in New Brunswick by Claire Johson, minister of education and early childhood development. Johnson says there are no plans in New Brunswick this year to link a student’s attendance with their final grade. “But we’re very curious about what’s happening in Ontario,” says Johnson. “If they’re successful with it in Ontario it would be something we could consider here in New Brunswick as well.” Under Ontario’s new rules, student attendance and participation will now count for 15 per cent of final grades in Grades 9 and 10, and 10 per cent in Grades 11 and 12. Students who have excused absences won’t be penalized, but those who have two or more unexcused absences will be docked marks. Last school year in New Brunswick, more than 28 per cent of kindergarten to Grade 12 students missed 10 per cent or more of class time. A breakdown of those numbers show more than 35 per cent of New Brunswick high school students missed 18 days or more of school in 2025-26. Johnson says New Brunswick’s current procedures for addressing chronic student absenteeism include the province’s new in-school hot lunch program (which began rolling out to all schools for 2026-27) and breakfast program (which began last year). “We want to create a welcoming school environment for everyone, to prevent chronic absenteeism,” says Johnson. “After that, if we start to notice that a student is absent from school, then we want to create a supportive relationship with the school and the family and try to figure out what’s happening and how the schools can best provide support to get the students back into the classrooms.” Johnson released a statement last week on the “connection between consistent attendance and success at school.” Paul Bennett, an expert on classroom teaching and senior fellow in education at the MacDonald Laurier Institute, says attendance being tied to grades is an idea “worth looking at.” “I’m in favour of taking extraordinary measures in extraordinary times,” he says. “We need to be looking at every measure possible to ensure students get the message that being in school isn’t a ‘nice-to-do.’ It’s a requirement and in fact, it’s key to doing well in school. I view this as an approach that needs to be looked at.” Bennett says he had some unease about the “arbitrariness of the penalties” under Ontario’s policies, but says the premise is sound. “The concept that students should be held accountable for missing class, and it does count toward your grades, is one that I support.” For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.
