Appendix C: Dreams Delayed Calls to Action
Accountability and Transparency

Action 1 – Education Duty-Holders Must Acknowledge and Commit/Pledge to Action on Anti-Black Racism and Discrimination in Education – Immediate (1–2 years)

All levels of the education system, including school boards, schools, unions, and Faculties of Education must make a clear, formal, and public acknowledgement of the structural and systemic nature of anti-Black discrimination and its impact on Black students and Black education staff’s right to an education and work environment free from discrimination and harassment. Further, duty-holders must recognize that systemic anti-Black racism is at the root of the tacit acceptance of the ongoing discriminatory practices pervasive throughout Ontario’s publicly funded education system.

Duty-holders must also work with Black communities to establish and implement measurable plans and initiatives (e.g., human rights and anti-discrimination frameworks, human rights indicators and evaluations, targeted supports with impact evaluations) to address and report on anti-Black racism and discrimination.^[12]

Action 2 – Education Duty Holders Must Develop a Communication Strategy to Acknowledge Anti-Black Racism and Discrimination in Education – Immediate (1–2 years)

The OHRC calls on all levels of the education system, including school boards, trustees, schools, unions, and Faculties of Education to clearly communicate their acknowledgement of anti-Black racism and discrimination in education.

In collaboration with students, parents/guardians, and the community, school boards must adopt multi-modal and multilingual approaches to ensure the acknowledgement and associated action plan reach the whole student population and their families.

Action 3 – The Ministry of Education Must Create a Provincial Framework to Address Human Rights and Anti-Black Discrimination – Immediate (1–2 years)

The OHRC calls on the Ministry of Education to create a provincial policy and impact framework to address discrimination and harassment in Ontario’s education system. This should include specific measures to combat anti-Black discrimination and harassment including addressing gaps in responsiveness and accountability through mechanisms to verify performance impact and improvement.

The Framework must include:

1. A Multi-Year Plan (MYP) for sustainable expansion of resources and programs created to address anti-Black racism and discrimination.
2. Goals and outcomes pertaining to the hiring, promotion, and retention of Black educators and education workers, and employment systems review process.
3. An independent and comprehensive evaluation of the framework to determine effectiveness and potential improvements.
4. A commitment from leadership at all levels of administration, including trustees, to drive systemic change and accountability.
5. Training and support for leaders to effectively implement accountability measures specific to addressing racial discrimination with particular focus on anti-Black racism.
6. Accountability measures for data governance.
7. Accountability and enforcement measures for intervening in instances of racial harassment and discrimination.
8. Clear guidelines for reporting and addressing human rights violations with transparent lines of authority for roles, responsibilities, and functions.
9. Transparent and accessible complaints process for students, educators, education workers, parents, and community members.

Action 4 – The Ministry of Education Must Develop a Communication Strategy for the Accountability Framework – Immediate (1–2 years)

The OHRC calls on the Ministry of Education to develop a communication strategy for the provincial framework to address human rights and anti-Black discrimination and harassment referenced in Action 3.

The communication strategy must:

1. Incorporate multi-modal and multilingual approaches to ensure rights-holders can access the information.
2. Include a multi-year plan with clearly defined outcomes.
3. Include a timeframe for compliance reporting.
4. Be community-informed and trauma-informed.
5. Be publicly available.

Action 5 – The Ministry of Education Must Review the Policy and Protocol of PPMs – Immediate (1–2 years)

While the Minister of Education has the authority under the Education Act (s. 8(1)(29.1)) to require school boards to develop and implement equity and inclusive education policies, the Ministry must ensure these policies are strengthened to explicitly align with human rights and anti-discrimination principles.

Updated policies should provide clear, mandatory guidance for school boards and ensure alignment with the provincial framework on human rights and anti-discrimination (see Action 3).

The Ministry of Education must:

1. Embed human rights principles into relevant policy and program memorandums to ensure compliance with the Code.
2. Conduct a review of PPM 119 and Developing and Implementing Equity and Inclusive Education Policies in Ontario Schools (June 24, 2009) to align it with human rights and anti-discrimination principles and the Anti-Racism Act (2017) and the Anti-Racism Data Standards (2018).
3. Establish a separate PPM to address anti-Black discrimination with detailed guidelines and actions to combat anti-Black racism at all levels of the education system.
4. Establish clear mechanisms for oversight and enforcement of the policy, with clearly delineated roles, functions, and responsibilities.
5. Establish standards for human rights knowledge and anti-racism to be included in teacher qualifications.

Action 6 – The Ministry of Education Must Communicate Policy and Procedure Updates – Immediate (1–2 years)

The OHRC calls on the Ministry of Education to communicate to school boards, unions, and rights-holders about their policy reviews updates and to consult with school boards to establish the most effective manner of communication.

The Ministry of Education must:

1. Provide rights-holders an overview of process;
2. Provide a completion timeframe;
3. Provide a publicly published update and incorporate multi-modal and multilingual approaches to ensure rights-holders have access to information.

Action 7 – The Ministry of Education Must Establish a Threshold for Independent Intervention for Code violations – Immediate (1–2 years)

The OHRC calls on the Ministry of Education to establish a clear threshold for when it will engage an independent reviewer to address serious or ongoing allegations of anti-Black racism within a school board. This threshold should be defined to ensure that any organization consistently violating the Ontario Human Rights Code faces appropriate remedial measures to address and rectify systemic issues. The threshold criteria must be developed in consultation with external experts who have a demonstrated competence in human rights and in addressing anti-Black racism. School boards must be able to demonstrate that they comply with all legal obligations.

The Ministry of Education must:

1. Develop a clear and measurable threshold to address serious or repeated instances of racism and discrimination within a school board, with the authority to engage an independent reviewer. The threshold should consider the frequency and severity of the racism and discrimination, and its impact on students, families, school, and community. The threshold should be developed in consultation with external experts who have a demonstrated competence in human rights and in addressing anti-Black racism.
2. Provide preventive support, including policy development and regular audits to school boards to ensure educators, principals, and senior leadership uphold and advance human rights principles.
3. Ensure any investigator involved in reviewing and addressing human rights issues, including from trustees and student trustees, has extensive knowledge and experience in human rights.

Action 8 – School Boards Must Communicate Roles and Responsibilities Related to Human Rights – Immediate (1–2 years)

The OHRC calls on school boards to establish greater clarity of roles, responsibilities, qualifications, standards, and legal obligations of duty-holders (including but not limited to those with human rights portfolios) under the Ontario Human Rights Code and to clearly communicate these to the community.

Action 9 – Faculties of Education Must Establish an Accountability Framework for Increased Diversity of Teacher Candidates with Particular Attention to Increasing the Number of Black Educators – Immediate (1–2 years)

The OHRC calls on Faculties of Education to create and implement an internal human rights accountability framework to address anti-Black discrimination and harassment in education.

Faculties of Education must:

1. Increase the diversity in teacher candidates through targeted recruitment.
2. Secure a commitment to the framework from leadership at all levels within faculties.
3. Provide training and support for leaders to effectively engage with and implement the accountability measures.
4. Establish a comprehensive evaluation process with specific timelines to determine compliance and effectiveness of the framework.
5. Establish assessments to measure the impact of courses on aspiring educators and their practice.

Action 10 – Unions Must Establish an Accountability Framework for Addressing the Discrimination and Harassment Experienced by Black Educators and Addressing Anti-Black Racism when Committed by Members – Immediate (1–2 years)

The OHRC calls on unions to establish and implement an internal human rights accountability framework to address anti-Black discrimination and harassment in education.

Unions must: 

1. Create an accountability framework that includes clear guidelines on and timelines for reporting and addressing human rights violations, including anti-Black discrimination and harassment, with transparent roles, responsibilities, and functions.
2. Develop and implement accountability procedures for local union branches to investigate complaints of discrimination and harassment, including from Black educators and education workers.
3. Hold members accountable for human rights violations, including anti-Black racism and harassment, and leadership for addressing complaints of discrimination or harassment from Black educators and education workers.
4. Identify and implement transparent processes for reporting, investigating and following up on instances of anti-Black discrimination, harassment, and poisoned work environment. Unions have legal obligations under labour law to investigate complaints or potential grievances for merit. Where systemic patterns of anti-Black racism are identified within local unions, national branches have an obligation under the Code to establish processes to investigate and address these issues, including conducting reviews to ensure fair representation of Black members. Where possible, these investigations should be conducted by an independent investigator.
5. Ensure all processes (e.g., grievance, arbitration) include a human rights lens.
6. Integrate and implement human rights language, including discrimination and harassment into constitutions, by-laws, and collective agreements.
7. Develop transparent and accessible complaints mechanisms for educators and education workers, including how they hold employers accountable and establishing a clear process for addressing discrimination between members.
8. Establish a comprehensive evaluation process with specific timeframes to determine compliance and effectiveness of the framework.
9. Secure commitment to the framework from leadership at all levels within the union to drive systemic change.
10. Provide training and support for leaders to effectively implement accountability measures.
11. Establish a centrally administered complaints system to investigate external complaints against members.

Action 11 – Unions Must Establish a Communication Strategy for an Accountability Framework and Monitoring Framework – Immediate (1–2 years)

The OHRC calls on unions to establish a clear communication strategy to inform members of the accountability framework.

A communication strategy must be: 

1. Developed in partnership with Black members.
2. Circulated to all local levels.
3. Made accessible online and regularly updated.

Action 12 – The Ontario College of Teachers Must Enhance Capacity on Anti-Black Racism and Discrimination – Immediate (1–2 years)

The OHRC calls on the Ontario College of Teachers (OCT) to work with education partners to improve public awareness and access to its publicly available information about disciplinary processes, increase its capacity to investigate incidents of anti-Black discrimination, and improve standards of practice regarding racism, discrimination and culturally responsive pedagogy.

OCT must: 

1. Review standards of practice regarding racism, discrimination and culturally responsive pedagogy.
2. Create a mechanism to track complaints filed at the school board level that may also amount to professional misconduct.
3. Explore ways to collaborate with other duty-holders to increase public awareness of publicly available information.
4. Hire staff who have demonstrated knowledge and experience in investigating anti-Black racism, discrimination, and harassment.
5. Work with Faculties of Education and school boards to increase educator engagement in anti-Black racism Additional Qualifications.

Action 13 – School Boards Must Establish a Human Rights Office in Each School Board – Intermediate (3–5 years)

The OHRC calls on each school board to establish a central office to implement human rights policies and investigate human rights complaints from students and staff under the Code, such as discrimination, harassment, and poisoned environments, including anti-Black racism, and to develop human rights capacity within the board.

The Human Rights office must be established in collaboration with the community and supported by the Ministry of Education and the school board.

The Human Rights Office must: 

1. House Human Rights and Equity Advisors.
2. Respond promptly to incidents of discrimination.
3. Be empowered to create accountability measures for board directors and school principals for human rights incidents.
4. Assist students, parents, and communities facing discrimination and harassment to access information, navigate school systems and effectively advocate for students.

The Ministry of Education must:

5. Empower and resource school boards to establish human rights offices, which will engage and collaborate with community groups and stakeholders, collect and report data as per the Provincial Framework (Action 3), and investigate complaints.

Action 14 – School Boards Must Develop Culturally Competent Communication Plans for Student and Family Engagement – Intermediate (3–5 years)

The OHRC calls on all school boards to partner with School and Family Advocates (SFA) or System Navigators to develop culturally competent communication plans to inform and engage parents and students at critical points in the educational transitions to improve their understanding of education pathways and opportunities.

School boards must:

1. Collaborate with students, parents, and communities to establish multi-modal and multilingual approaches to targeted and effective communication, including:
    
   1. Create a communication plan for parents/guardians and families about the transition from Grade 8 to Grade 9, and other significant decisions taking place in grades 1 to 6.
   2. Create a communication plan for parents and families about the transition to post-secondary school.
2. Collaborate with parents/guardians of Black students and Student and Family Advocates to develop culturally relevant education and support services. These services should provide meaningful support to parents/guardians within/from diverse communities.

Appendix C: Dreams Delayed Calls to Action
Monitoring and Evaluation

Action 15 – The Ministry of Citizenship and Multiculturalism Must Amend the Anti-Racism Act Regulation 267/18 and Data Standard – Immediate (1–2 years)

The OHRC calls on the Minister of Citizenship and Multiculturalism (MCM) immediately to review and amend the Anti-Racism Act (ARA) regulation 267/18 to designate the Ministry of Education as the primary authority for education data collection, instead of individual school boards. While the ARA and the Human Rights Code establish the legislative authority for data collection, the Minister should implement enhanced guidelines that go beyond the minimum standards. This should include establishing and mandating the use of a comprehensive template to collect and report race-based data, and enforcement mechanisms for non-compliance.

The Ministry must:

1. Amend the ARA to mandate school boards to collect and disaggregate data on student demographics based on Code grounds and non-Code grounds, to measure academic achievement, EQAO results, suspensions, expulsions, exclusions, graduation rates.
2. Amend the ARA to mandate school boards to collect, disaggregate, analyze, and publicly report data on their workforce representation and tenure, particularly on educators, to support diversity within their board. This includes a schedule for data collection, analysis, and reporting, and ensuring that disaggregated data is published on Open Data.
3. Amend the ARA and Regulation 267/18 to include a compliance framework for collecting data and reporting timelines to guide the Ministry of Education and school boards and to designate the Ministry of Education as the authority for data collection in publicly funded education.
4. Create resources for school boards on stakeholder partnerships for the data collection, analysis, action planning and monitoring processes.
5. Collaborate with Statistics Canada to align data collection standards with current socio-demographic data collection practices.

Action 16 – The Ministry of Education Must Centralize and Standardize Data Collection, Analysis, and Reporting – Immediate (1–2 years)

The OHRC calls on the Ministry of Education to mandate a centralized and standardized process for all school boards to collect and publicly report demographic and Code-based data. This includes establishing and mandating the use of a comprehensive template to collect and report race-based data.

Monitoring, reporting, and preventing discrimination in the education systems are important accountability measures. Data collection and climate surveys using disaggregated data are effective tools to do so and should include information on who experiences discrimination by racialized group and their intersecting grounds of discrimination. They should also outline the nature of incidents and where they happen.

The Ministry of Education must:

1. Review EQAO to include race-based data collection.
2. Identify the essential disaggregated data that all school boards must collect on an annual basis, in addition to other relevant data specific to school boards, to show outcomes for Black students.
3. Develop a robust monitoring framework to ensure school boards collect and use Code-based data to address the impact of racial disparities on the mental health of students.
4. Equip school boards with expert resources to monitor consistency in the collection, quality, and analysis of their data.
5. Work with the OCT to collect and publicly report data on the racial composition of the education professional body.
6. Require school boards to record and publicly report on an annual basis the number of Black educators, staff, and students, and incidents of anti-Black racism in their board.
7. Require school boards to use year-over-year data to identify and address patterns of anti-Black racism in their board, in collaboration with Black community organizations and families.
8. Develop a framework that provides school boards with guidance to collect, analyze and report findings from biannual employee surveys. Data collected from these surveys may include, but is not limited to, employees’ day-to-day experiences, engagement, work environment, and applicable Code-based data. ^[13] 
9. Require school boards to publicly release de-identified disaggregated data from the biannual employee survey that assesses their employment practices. This report should highlight important perspectives including, but not limited to, representation from historically marginalized groups, treatment in hiring, training experiences, and promotion. ^[14]

Action 17 – The Ministry of Education Must Publish Disaggregated Data on Ontario Data Catalogue – Immediate (1–2 years)

The OHRC calls on the Ministry of Education to publicly release all de-identified disaggregated data on Ontario Data Catalogue to allow access to the public, communities, and researchers.

Action 18 – The Ministry of Education Must Establish and Implement a Monitoring Framework – Immediate (1–2 years)

The OHRC calls on the Ministry of Education to establish a comprehensive provincial monitoring framework to ensure school boards effectively address disparities amongst students in educational outcomes. The framework should include, but not be limited to, benchmark data, qualitative and quantitative outcomes, and performance and compliance indicators.

The Ministry of Education must:

1. Develop and implement an outcomes monitoring framework with indicators measuring progress and achievement on anti-discrimination.
2. Require school boards to report annually on outcomes, disaggregated according to Code grounds, including:
    
   1. Educational achievement;
   2. Student well-being;
   3. Literacy, numeracy and graduation rates;
   4. Discipline, suspension, expulsion, and exclusion rates;
   5. Number of human rights-related complaints.
3. Identify disparities, create approaches to address them and identify remedial measures for lack of compliance.
4. Provide preventive support, including, but not limited to, Action 13, 24, 25 to school boards to assist them in meeting their obligations, including policy development and regular audits.
5. Develop mechanisms to monitor and evaluate school boards’ initiatives and programs to hold school boards accountable.

Action 19 – The Ministry of Education Must Establish a Cross-Ministry Data and Monitoring Working Group – Immediate (1–2 years)

The OHRC calls on the Ministry of Education to establish a working group, in collaboration with the OHRC, the Anti-Racism Directorate, and other relevant community stakeholders, to review and update the outstanding recommendations from the Ministry of Education’s 2017 report Unlocking Student Potential Through Data.

The working group should develop a comprehensive plan to expand and enhance data governance, collection, analysis, and reporting within the public education system, and focus on implementing outstanding recommendations relating to data.

The working group must: 

1. Develop a comprehensive plan based on  Unlocking Student Potential Through Data and implement the outstanding recommendations from the report. The plan should outline objectives, timelines, and deliverables for expanding and enhancing data governance, collection, analysis, and reporting within Ontario’s public education system.
2. Develop a robust human rights monitoring framework to track progress on implementing recommendations.
3. Evaluate and strengthen existing data governance frameworks within the public education system to ensure compliance with privacy laws and ethical guidelines.
4. With guidance from the Information and Privacy Commission of Ontario, implement protocols for secure data storage, access, and sharing among relevant stakeholders.
5. Conduct a thorough assessment of current data collection practices across all school boards to identify and address gaps and strengths and develop adaptable and consistent criteria for data collection for rollout across systems.
6. Work with researchers, subject experts, and communities to develop strategies to identify and address discrimination or disproportionality among Code-protected individuals in the education system.
7. Ensure an intersectional analysis is incorporated into existing and new data related recommendations to understand how vulnerable students are affected.
8. Collaborate with Statistics Canada and relevant institutions to map, retrieve, maintain, and, to the extent permitted by law, share reliable, disaggregated data on Black representation over defined periods of time.
9. Engage with diverse stakeholders including Black educators, students, parents/guardians, community organizations, and advocacy groups to seek input through consultations to ensure that the plan and indicator framework are inclusive, culturally sensitive, and responsive to community needs.
10. Establish mechanisms for continuous monitoring and evaluation by the Ministry of Education and MCM on data-related initiatives and human rights indicators, as well as compliance management and operationalisation of oversight.
11. Publicly publish a report on the results.

Action 20 – Unions Must Establish and Implement a Monitoring Framework – Immediate (1–2 years)

The OHRC calls on unions to monitor and evaluate all initiatives relating to their accountability framework guided by benchmark data, qualitative and quantitative outcomes, and performance and compliance indicators.

Action 21 – Faculties of Education Must Establish and Implement a Monitoring Framework – Immediate (1–2 years)

The OHRC calls on Faculties of Education in Ontario, in partnership with their post-secondary institution and associated human rights offices, to establish a monitoring framework that includes audit, reporting, and evaluation to measure the impact of initiatives and programs implemented by the faculties.

Action 22 – Education Duty-Holders Must Review and Update Complaints Procedures and Processes – Immediate (1–2 years)

The OHRC calls on all educational organizations, including school boards and unions, to review and update complaints procedures to receive, investigate, and resolve complaints of discrimination and harassment.

The complaints procedures should establish an anti-racism protocol for recognizing, acknowledging, tracking, measuring, investigating, and responding to incidents of discrimination, harassment, and poisoned environment reported by students, educators, staff, parents, or the school community. These mechanisms should also provide programs, interventions, and other supports for students and educators targeted by racism, witnesses of racism, and individuals who have engaged in racist behaviors, delivered by trained professionals such as social workers and psychologists. There should also be an effective internal complaint resolution process guided by the OHRC’s Policy and Guidelines on Racism and Racial Discrimination.^[15]

Education organizations must implement robust data collection on complaints to monitor and address systemic issues and share data about discrimination and harassment complaints with unions. Key considerations should include:

1. The number of human rights complaints received, disaggregated by Code grounds.
2. Whether the complaint was from a student, educator, education worker, or other staff.
3. The name of the school in the complaint.
4. The number of internal investigations relating to human rights, disaggregated based on Code grounds.
5. The number of applications filed with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.

The Ministry of Education must:

6. Mandate school boards to co-develop a school-based human rights complaints policy, procedure, and process with parents/guardians, caregivers, and members of the broader school community. This includes procedures for addressing issues with school policies or potential discriminatory suspensions, expulsions, and exclusions of children, detailing all recourse. The complaints procedure must consider the existing institutional barriers which impact victims of discrimination. Comprehensive data and reporting requirements should be publicly available.
7. Mandate school boards to inform parents/guardians and caregivers about school human rights complaints policy, procedure, and process. This includes procedures to address issues with school policies and discriminatory use of discipline practices, including but not limited to, suspensions, expulsions, and exclusions. School boards must also inform parents/guardians and caregivers about their right to file an application with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario or a complaint with the Ontario College of Teachers.

Action 23 – Education Duty-Holders Must Develop an Early Intervention System for Racial Discrimination and Harassment – Intermediate (3–5 years)

The OHRC calls on the Ministry of Education to work with school boards to develop and implement an Early Intervention System (EIS) to track and address potential racial discrimination and harassment complaints reported within the board or schools.

Early intervention systems, also known as early warning systems, can help school boards to quickly identify and prevent potential human rights issues before they happen. This can be done through the collection and analysis of race-based data and identification of patterns of behaviour to alert supervisors of potential issues that must be addressed.

The EIS would help school boards to proactively address racial and other Code-based discrimination and harassment to ensure safe learning and working environments for all students and educators.

The Ministry of Education in partnership with the relevant education partners must: 

1. Develop and implement an EIS for school boards to prevent racial and other Code-based discrimination and harassment by administrators, educators, or education workers.
2. Ensure the EIS aligns with leading practices for data collection, privacy protection, and fairness in monitoring potential misconduct.
3. Integrate Code-based data into the EIS to effectively monitor and analyze incidents of discrimination and harassment.
4. Develop procedures to capture and assess data on behaviors or incidents of anti-Black discrimination and harassment.
5. Engage with the community, including Black students, families, and advocacy groups for input into the procedures and to receive feedback on the effectiveness of the EIS.
6. Use data to publicly report on the effectiveness of school boards preventing racial discrimination and harassment using EIS.

School boards must:

7. Use the EIS to promptly identify patterns of behavior or incidents that may indicate racial discrimination or harassment.

Appendix C: Dreams Delayed Calls to Action
Student Well-Being

Action 24 – The Ministry of Education Must Monitor and Expand the Graduation Coach Program for Black Students – Immediate (1–2 years)

The OHRC calls on the Ministry of Education to increase provincial investment in the Graduation Coach Program for Black Students across school boards. In addition, the OHRC encourages expanding the program to all school boards and schools in proportion to the local student population.

The Ministry of Education must:

1. Allocate ongoing funding and resources to expand the graduation coach program for Black students.
2. Work with educators, students, and community organizations to establish program standards and guidelines for graduation coach programs across the province including hiring qualified coaches.
3. Mandate school boards to collect and report on comprehensive data, including disaggregated data on an annual basis on the number of participants, academic achievements, graduation rates, and post-secondary placements for all participants in graduation coach programs.
4. Monitor implementation of the graduation coach program across Ontario and conduct periodic evaluations of the program for effectiveness and changes.
5. Include data in the Ministry of Education’s centralized data repositories for analysis and public reporting.

Action 25 – Education Duty-Holders Must Expand the Student and Family Advocates (SFA) / System Navigator Program – Immediate (1–2 years)

The OHRC calls on the Ministry of Education to partner with the Ministry of Citizenship and Multiculturalism (MCM), the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services (MCCSS), and the Ministry of Francophone Affairs (MFA) to fund the expansion of the Student and Family Advocates (SFA) program provincially with added responsibility to engage parents/guardians and caregivers of Black students to help them navigate the education system to advocate for their children. Data from SFA programs should be shared with the Ministry of Education.

This will foster stronger partnerships between schools and families of Black students, enhance student support, improve educational outcomes, and promote a more inclusive and equitable learning environment for Black students across the education system.

The Ministry of Education must:

1. Work with the MCM, MCCSS, and MFA through the Black Youth Action Plan and Youth Opportunities Fund to allow system navigators at the elementary and secondary schools levels to provide supports, including mentorship, tutoring, mental health support, and career guidance to Black students.

School boards must:

2. Develop tailored strategies to support Black families to navigate the education system in culturally sensitive ways, including:
    
   1. Foster partnerships with community organizations and cultural groups to provide additional support and resources to Black families.
   2. Conduct regular evaluations and gather feedback from parents and communities to assess the clarity, accessibility, and relevance of communicated information.
3. Develop processes which enable Black families to work with the SFA program for Black communities through targeted outreach and communication.
4. Strengthen supports for parent involvement committees to broaden community participation and balance representation based on demographics.

Action 26 – School Boards Must Create Inclusive Guidance Counselling for Students’ Transitional Stages – Immediate (1–2 years)

The OHRC calls on school boards to include parents/guardians and their children in the guidance counselling process when students reach grades 8 and 9. The transition into secondary school and the educational pathway selected in Grade 9 can significantly influence students’ opportunities. While de-streaming is ongoing, students and their parents/guardians would continue to benefit from understanding the different streams (e.g., academic for university, applied for college and trades, essential for the workforce directly after high school). Including parents in targeted guidance counselling will enhance educators’ accountability to students and parents/guardians during these educational transitional stages.

Action 27 – School Boards Must Create Affirmative Education Spaces for Black Students – Immediate (1–2 years)

The OHRC calls on school boards to create affirming educational spaces that respect all Black students’ intersecting identities.

School boards must:

1. Create inclusive school policies and practices that celebrate and validate Black students’ intersecting identities within the school community, including, but not limited to, dedicated spaces for gathering and support.
2. Foster a school climate that promotes respect, understanding, and appreciation for diversity among students and staff.

Action 28 – Education Duty-Holders Must Create Black Affirming and Empowering Curriculum – Immediate (1–2 years)

Representation in the curriculum is important to create an increased and sustained inclusive, non-discriminatory learning environment that imparts the richness of Ontario’s communities to all students. A shift in curriculum development to intentionally incorporate Black history and Black experiences is essential to creating a positive learning environment for Black students. The Ministry of Education, school boards, and unions should support educators in learning and teaching culturally responsive curricula.

Faculties of Education, OCT, unions, and school boards should build capacity within the curriculum for student educators and educators to develop the skills and competencies they need to teach about Black intersecting identities and to address discrimination.

The Ministry of Education must:

1. Ensure representation of Black intersectional identities in curriculum materials, textbooks, and supplementary resources.
2. Develop and disseminate culturally responsive teaching resources that reflect the diversity of Black experiences, identities, and histories.
3. Provide access to supplementary materials and tools that educators can use to enhance classroom discussions on intersectionality and diversity.
4. In collaboration with Black communities, parents, and community organizations, research and integrate diverse Black narratives, histories, and contributions in the K to 12 curricula as core subject disciplines.

School boards must:

5. In partnership with OCT and unions, implement mandatory professional development programs for educators on culturally responsive teaching practices.
6. Partner with Black students, parents, community organizations and educators to assess the impact of curriculum transformation on learning experiences and educational outcomes.

Action 29 – Education Duty-Holders Must Develop Targeted Recruitment of Black Educators and Education Workers – Immediate (1–2 years)

The OHRC calls on school boards to actively increase the diversity of leaders within the education system, specifically by including Black persons with lived experiences of discrimination. This approach will enable Ontario’s public education system to more effectively respond to the needs of all students, especially Black students.

School boards must:

1. Develop targeted recruitment strategies to attract Black educators, educational workers, and staff.
2. Establish networks and communities of practice where educators, administrators, and school staff can share knowledge, experiences, and resources related to creating safe and welcoming environments for Black students.
3. Promote diversity throughout the education system, including educators, educational assistants, social workers, guidance counsellors, office staff, vice-principals, principals, and superintendents.
4. Implement targeted initiatives to recruit and retain Black educators in Northern Ontario, considering the unique challenges of geographic isolation, limited resources, and lack of supportive networks.
5. Provide additional support and resources to ensure that Black educators in Northern Ontario can thrive and contribute effectively to creating inclusive and positive educational environments.
6. Incentivize educators in completing Additional Qualification courses in the areas of culturally responsive pedagogy, anti-racist pedagogy, trauma-informed pedagogy and supporting student well-being.
7. Develop targeted strategies to ensure a pipeline of Black education leaders (including school and system leaders).
8. Develop and implement strategies that are responsive to concerns about discrimination and harassment from Black leaders.

Faculties of Education must: 

9. Develop targeted recruitment and retention policies/strategies to attract Black educators, educational workers, and staff.

The Ministry of Education must:

10. Review all hiring and promotion policies to identify and eliminate systemic barriers and biases.
11. Require each school board to undergo a streamlined comprehensive employment systems review process and provide a report to the Ministry.

Ontario College of Teachers must:

12. Offer targeted professional development opportunities focused on cultural awareness and culturally relevant or culturally responsive teaching, anti-racism education, trauma-informed practices, and supporting Black student well-being.
13. Identify baseline training that is mandatory for graduation.

Collaborative Actions: 

14. School boards and Faculties of Education must increase diversity in leadership positions.
15. School boards, in partnership with Faculties of Education, should develop and implement outreach programs to encourage Black students to pursue careers in education. Resources should be allocated to provide support throughout potential students’ educational journeys (e.g., entrance scholarship and bursary).
16. The Ministry of Education, in partnership with stakeholders, should develop a standard hiring and promotion policy or guide to ensure equitable access to leadership positions.
17. In partnership with unions, school boards and the Ministry of Education must establish and enforce policies and practices that create safe, inclusive, and supporting working environments for Black educators and staff. Policies addressing Code-based discrimination and harassment, including a poisoned environment must be updated and publicly reported to all members.
18. School boards and unions should establish mentorship programs, professional development opportunities, and career advancement pathways to support the career growth and engagement of Black staff members.
19. OCT should improve offerings of targeted professional development opportunities focused on culturally responsive teaching, anti-racism education, trauma-informed practices, and supporting Black student well-being. School boards should incentivize educators in completing Additional Qualification courses in these areas.