Summary#

Bill 33, the Supporting Children and Students Act, 2025, is an enacted Ontario law that amends four Acts: the Child, Youth and Family Services Act, 2017, the Education Act, the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities Act and the Ombudsman Act. Its stated goal is to make changes relating to child and family services, education, and colleges and universities. Some changes took effect on Royal Assent; others require a later start date or regulations.

• School boards must work with local police services in circumstances set by regulations. This can include access to school premises, police participation in school programs and school resource officer programs where available.
• The Education Minister gains broader powers to investigate public-interest concerns about school boards, direct boards to act and, in specified circumstances, take control of a board’s affairs.
• Colleges and publicly assisted universities must assess applicants on individual merit and publish their admissions criteria and process. They must also develop and implement research security plans.
• Children’s aid societies must provide Ombudsman information in more situations and in language the person can understand. If a person entitled to continued care and support asks for help contacting the Ombudsman, the society must provide a private way to contact the Ombudsman without unreasonable delay.
• Children’s aid societies must review and publish their by-laws as regulations require. They also need the Minister’s approval for financial transactions or arrangements that regulations deem to affect their ability to operate within their approved budget.
• The law allows regulations to govern fees charged to college and university students; it does not itself set new fees or change their amounts.

What it means for you#

• Students and families in public schools: Boards must work with local police under circumstances and rules to be set by regulation. The law does not require a school resource officer in every school; that duty applies where such programs are available and in circumstances set by regulation.
• School boards: The Minister may investigate concerns about matters of public interest, require records and evidence, and direct a board to act or prepare a plan. If a board does not follow a direction, or other stated conditions apply, the Minister may take control of its affairs. That control can extend to board staff, spending, assets, fees and debt.
• People affected by a board investigation or takeover: A Ministerial order may follow an investigation, or at least 14 days’ notice and an opportunity for the board to respond. The Minister may act provisionally without those steps if, in the Minister’s opinion, immediate action is needed to avert a threat to a matter of public interest. The Act says the Minister’s jurisdiction to make a takeover order cannot be questioned or reviewed in a proceeding or court.
• College and university applicants: Institutions must assess each applicant’s merit and publish the criteria and process they use. Regulations may set criteria or exceptions; the law does not define “merit.”
• College and university students: Regulations may specify which fees can be charged, require some fees to be refundable on request, and set rules for publishing, charging or refunding fees. No particular fee change is made in the Act itself.
• Researchers and institutions: Colleges and publicly assisted universities must develop and implement research security plans and provide them, along with other requested information or reports, to the Minister.
• Children, young people and people entitled to continued care and support: Children’s aid societies and residential licensees must share information about the Ombudsman in additional situations and use suitable language. A person entitled to continued care and support means someone a society must enter into a care-and-support agreement with, or someone who is party to such an agreement.
• Children’s aid societies: They must employ or contract for internal auditors, and the Minister may appoint Ministry auditors with access to board records and premises. Maternity homes are no longer excluded from the Act’s definition of “institution.”

Money#

No cost information is in the available material.

• Every school board must employ or contract for one or more internal auditors. No staffing cost is given.
• The Minister may appoint Ministry auditors, but the law does not state how many will be appointed or what they will cost.
• The law raises an amount in an auditor-related Education Act provision from $200 to $5,000. The supplied material does not show the conduct or offence to which that amount applies.
• No estimate is given for the cost of the other new duties, or for any savings or revenue.

What is unclear#

• Regulations will determine when boards must provide police access, permit police participation in programs or implement school resource officer programs, and what safeguards or review those programs require.
• The law does not define “merit” for admissions or “research security.” Regulations, ministerial directives or later decisions may add requirements.
• The by-law review rules and which children’s aid society financial transactions need approval depend on regulations.
• The law allows regulations to govern student fees, but the material gives no fee rules or start date for the changes.
• The law does not say how often the Minister will use school-board investigations, directions or takeover powers, or what practical limits will apply beyond the stated conditions.
• The college and university changes start on a date to be named by order. Some child-and-family-services changes also require a later order; the supplied material does not give those dates.

Case for#

• The law appears intended to strengthen oversight of school-board duties, finances and use of resources. Investigations and directions could give the Minister tools to address public-interest concerns.
• Requiring published admissions criteria and processes could make it easier for applicants to understand how institutions assess applications.
• Research security plans could help institutions identify and address risks to their research activities.
• Providing Ombudsman information in suitable language, and a private contact method on request, could make it easier for people receiving child and family services to raise concerns.

Case against#

• The Minister’s school-board powers are broad. The Minister can take control of a board’s affairs, including staff, spending, assets and debt; the Act also limits court or proceeding review of takeover orders.
• The law leaves important rules about police involvement, admissions, research plans, fees and children’s aid society finances to later regulations or directives. Their practical effects are not yet clear from the available material.
• Requiring school boards to work with police on school programs could affect students and schools in ways that depend on regulations not provided here.
• New audit, planning, review and reporting duties may require staff and money, but the available material gives no cost estimates.