Two Toronto school boards have officially opened new support offices that they say will provide students and caregivers with a “direct way” to flag concerns with the boards. The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) and the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) opened the offices this week as required by Ontario’s Ministry of Education. In a letter to parents, which was shared with CP24.com, the TDSB said its virtual office will be open Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. “We are pleased to launch the Toronto District School Board’s Student and Parent Support Office to provide students, parents, guardians, and caregivers with a direct way to raise concerns, get help, and find solutions faster,” the letter read. The offices were first announced by the province in November, several months after the Ontario government’s decision to take control of five school boards, including the TDSB, the Toronto Catholic District School Board, the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, and the Thames Valley District School Board in London. The province subsequently took over the Near North District School Board at the end of last year. “The Ontario government is requiring school boards to establish Student and Family Support Offices, so parents and guardians have a clear, effective way to get help regarding their child’s education and find solutions faster,” the province said in a news release issued in November. “The offices will act as an additional way to help families get answers on broader community concerns, as well as contentious or complex issues that need to be escalated after speaking with the school.” The TDSB’s letter said staff will “do their best” to confirm receipt of an email within 48 hours and address specific requests within five business days. It notes that for “more complex matters,” staff will provide a timeline. In a statement to CP24, Brendan Browne, the TCDSB’s director of education, said families should still contact individual schools first as “concerns are best addressed locally.” “This office helps families navigate next steps by providing a clear path when matters are more complex and require additional support beyond the school,” the statement read. “When families feel supported and informed, students are better positioned to learn and succeed. As always, we are here to help and support families along the way.” Speaking to CP24 after the announcement last year, Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra said the goal of the offices is to give parents and students better access to information. “At the same time we want to be able to monitor the types of questions that are being asked. We want to be able to track it,” he said. “We hear a lot of trustees say, ‘Oh these are the issues that we are facing in the board,’ but they have never tracked the requests that they are getting from parents or the requests that they are getting from students. So we have no idea really, as a whole, what are the challenges that parents and students are facing in the school boards?” Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles has repeatedly criticized the province for the decision to strip powers away from elected trustees. “The government is removing people who are truly accountable to their local communities and replacing them with, we don’t know what,” she said last year. “It really feels like again the minister of education doesn’t know what to do. He doesn’t know what to do to address the disaster that he has created… He is just sort of throwing something against the wall and seeing what’s going to stick.” All other school boards under provincial supervision will be expected to submit a report by March 31, 2026 that details how they plan establish a support office by September 1, 2026.
