Acting Child and Youth Advocate is against Ontario's proposal of tying chronic absenteeism to school marks

Karen Gray says doing so may penalize vulnerable students, does not address the underlying reasons why students are absent, and may cause further absenteeism.

The province’s Acting Child and Youth Advocate believes a proposal by the Ontario Education Minister fails to recognize the complexity of chronic absenteeism. Karen Gray says she has concerns about incorporating student attendance into high school final marks as a remedy, which is what Ontario is proposing. She says doing so may penalize vulnerable students, does not address the underlying reasons why students are absent, and may cause further absenteeism. This includes poverty, family violence, kids don’t feel connected to the school, young people with duties at home, mental health, bullying in the school and more barriers. 

In January, 2019, the office of the Child and Youth Advocate office released a report identifying the many influencing factors that impact school attendance. Gray says it contained four recommendations. They include develop an action plan to address chronic absenteeism, a policy identifying how staff will assess and respond to it, policies defining the point at which it should be referred out, and partners’ roles in addressing chronic absenteeism. 

 In March 2025 the Child and Youth office provided a submission to the Education Accord that emphasized the need for collective action in addressing chronic absenteeism; recognizing that the needs and issues of children and youth can be quite complex, even beyond academics.