1. Legislative committee amends Bill 212
On May 28, the General Government committee adopted a number of amendments to Bill 212 the Education Amendment Act (Student Discipline and School Safety), 2007.
Amendments include:
- Changing the effective date from July 1, 2007 to February 1, 2008
- Requiring principals to inform a student’s teacher when the student is suspended
- Adding the student’s teacher to the list of individuals who must receive a copy of the principal’s written report outlining the principal’s recommendation to expel or not expel a student
- Adding the student’s teacher to the list of individuals who can respond to the expulsion report
- Streamlining the expulsion process so that the school board makes the final determination rather than passing the matter back to the school principal for action.
Future regulations will define “bullying”, one of the behaviours being added to the list of incidents for which a student may be suspended. The regulations will also define the “mitigating factors” boards must consider when making decisions about student suspensions and expulsions.
The bill was reported for Third Reading on May 29. It is likely to be passed next week.
2. School safety and supervision time an issue
On May 28, following the shooting death of a Toronto student in a school hallway, PC Leader John Tory pressed the government on why schools were still waiting to receive surveillance cameras and why more wasn’t being done to ensure safety in schools.
Education Minister Kathleen Wynne indicated that $34 million had been allocated to provincial elementary schools for surveillance cameras and that the Toronto board had its own capital allocation and its own priority list for surveillance cameras.
In a supplementary question, Mr. Tory raised the issue of elementary supervision time:
“Across the province we’ve heard concerns about supervision in the schools. The Ontario Principals’ Council has said that there’s been a dramatic one-third reduction in supervision time, and the gap is not being filled. The gap would clearly seem to be an issue if we’re going to maintain safe schools. At least according to the principals’ council, it would seem to be an issue.
“This supervision gap is not a new concern. I wonder if the minister can tell us what specific steps she has taken to address it so as to help ensure safe schools in Toronto and across the province?”
Minister Wynne replied:
“We have been working with the Ontario Principals’ Council, the teachers’ federations and the individual school boards to guarantee that all of our schools have the safest conditions possible. Some 80% of the elementary schools in the province have supervision schedules that have been signed off on by principals, and where there hasn’t been a signed-off agreement, the principal’s plan is in place. So in fact the principals themselves are the ones who take responsibility for safety in the schools.”
3. EQAO releases grade 10 literacy test results
On May 30 the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) announced that 84% of the Grade 10 students who wrote the 2007 literacy test were successful. The data show that 95% of students enrolled in the academic English courses and 62% of students enrolled in the applied English courses were successful in meeting the provincial standard.
The EQAO will release a comprehensive report on the literacy test results on June 13. School data will also be available at that time and posted on the EQAO website.
4. Government criticized for hiding data on child Care safety
On May 28 the Toronto Star reported its staff had to go through freedom of information requests to access data on serious occurrences reported about licensed child care programs. Both PC Leader John Tory and NDP Leader Howard Hampton attacked the government for its lack of public accountability regarding these incidents.
While acknowledging that more could be done to oversee licensed child care, Children and Youth Services Minister Mary Anne Chambers reported the Ministry does take its inspection role seriously and that currently 57 child care programs were on “provisional” licenses because of failing to meet standards.
When pressed by John Tory about making the serious occurrence information more accessible, including placing the information on the Internet, the Minister indicated that a website was “in the works.”
Howard Hampton linked the problems facing child care programs to under funding. He asked: “Can the minister tell us what happened to the promised $300 million of new provincial money? Because we haven’t seen it yet.”
Although she didn’t respond to the direct question, Ms Chambers was forced to admit in a follow-up media scrum that the provincial government had not lived up to the 2003 election promise to increase provincial funding for child care. The recent provincial child care expansion has been funded through federal funding that expired in March.
5. Government launches accessibility awareness campaign
On May 28 Minister of Community and Social Services, Madeleine Meilleur, announced the government was launching a public education campaign to promote accessibility for Ontarians with disabilities.
The campaign includes a new website: 
www.AccessON.ca that primarily targets businesses and employers.
6. Recent poll suggests minority government
The latest Ipsos-Reid poll of Ontario voters, conducted May 15 – 24, indicates the following support among respondents:
Liberals: 41%
Conservatives: 37%
NDP: 15%
Green Party: 6%
The results show the distance between the Liberals and Conservatives may be narrowing prompting John Wright of Ipsos-Reid to suggest Ontario may be looking at a minority government next fall. Traditionally parties have had to win between 43% and 45% of the vote to win a majority. In a February poll the results were: Liberals 38%; Conservatives 33%; and the NDP 17%.