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Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra speaks at an announcement at a school in Ottawa, in December 2025. Starting in September, attendance and participation will count for a percentage of Ontario high school students’ final grades.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
High school students in Ontario who miss school without their parents’ permission will be penalized with lower grades, while those with legitimate reasons will be allowed to miss classes, provincial Education Minister Paul Calandra said as he sought to clarify the new policy before it comes into effect in the fall.
In September, attendance and participation will count for 15 per cent of the final mark for students in Grades 9 and 10 and 10 per cent for those in Grades 11 and 12.
Currently, attendance does not factor into grades. The government announced the change in April, as part of an effort to tackle high absentee rates.
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Many parents have wondered what the new policy would mean for their children’s grades in cases where they need to take them out of school for sports or for other reasons.
Those parents have nothing to worry about, Mr. Calandra said in an interview on Tuesday.
Students who are absent from school because of hockey tournaments, other extracurricular activities or even family vacations will not see their grades docked so long as parents notify the school, he said.
“Those who have just decided that they’re going to skip, not be in class, that participation mark will suffer as a result,” Mr. Calandra said.
Participating in sports or other extracurricular activities that sometimes mean being away from class are part of a “well-rounded” student’s life and they will not be penalized, he said.
The policy is intended to target students who aren’t in class because they are “just deciding not to go to school,” Mr. Calandra said.
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Attendance rates in the province are so poor that something had to be done to get students back in their desks on a more regular basis, Mr. Calandra said.
The government expects students to be at school 90 per cent of the time, otherwise they are considered to be chronically absent.
However, only about a quarter of Grade 12 students and less than 34 per cent of those in Grade 11 are meeting the threshold of 90 per cent attendance. Among students in Grades 9 and 10, 43 and 36 per cent, respectively, are meeting it.
“Obviously we’re having a challenge with attendance,” Mr. Calandra said. “We’re not taking away a parent’s right to make decisions on behalf of their children. It’s not about that. But it also matters, you’ve got to show up, you’ve got to participate.”
Regular attendance is important for classroom “continuity,” Mr. Calandra said. When students are frequently absent, it can disrupt a teacher’s ability to deliver instruction effectively,
When it comes to participation, some parents have said that it will unfairly penalize students who are shy or otherwise uncomfortable speaking up in class compared to their more extroverted peers.
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Mr. Calandra said he is aware of these concerns, and that teachers will be able to use their “professional judgment” to assess students’ abilities to participate and the different ways in which they might do so.
That might mean coming to the teacher to ask questions instead of asking in front of the entire class, as well as looking at how students participate with their peers when doing group assignments.
“It’s different for everybody, but ultimately, do we want kids to be more confident? Absolutely,” Mr. Calandra said.
On Monday, at an unrelated announcement, Mr. Calandra appeared to suggest that parents who may want to pull their children from school for sporting events should avoid doing so.
But on Tuesday, he made it clear those students’ grades will not suffer.
“Rest assured, if you have the next Wayne Gretzky somewhere in a hockey league, and you have a tournament, you can just call on the school, let us know. They’re not gonna be punished.”