AODA Alliance
ACCESSIBILITY FOR ONTARIANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT ALLIANCE
NEWS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
One of the Five Ontario School Boards Required to Publicly Post Contact Information for Their Mandatory New “Student and Family Support Office” by Today Did Not Post This Information for Parents on Its Website – the Ford Government Runs that Board
January 19, 2026 Toronto: Of the five Ontario school boards that were required by today to make public information on how to contact their new Student and Family Support Office, one of them has failed to do so by the close of business hours on January 19, 2026. The Thames Valley District School Board appears to have nothing on its website. The Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board has an announcement and an online form on its website, but no means of contact for those who don’t have computer access or cannot operate a computer.
In 2025, the Ontario Government seized control of six of Ontario’s 72 school boards and ousted their elected school board trustees: the Toronto District School Board, Toronto Catholic District School Board, Near North District School Board, Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board and Thames Valley District School Board.
On November 13, 2025, Minister of Education Paul Calandra ordered each Ontario school board to establish a “Student and Family Support Office.” This Office would address complaints from students or their families about problems at school.
The Ford Government issued this order a telling three short days after disability advocates’ held a November 10, 2025 Queen’s Park news conference. There, disability advocates decried the Ontario Government’s having eliminated school board trustees at school boards that the province had seized. Those trustees had been the final recourse for families of students with disabilities when they could not get school staff and school board executive leadership to accommodate their child’s disability-related learning needs.
At that November 10, 2025 news conference, the AODA Alliance, Ontario Autism Coalition and Ontario Parents for Education Support called on parents of students with disabilities/special education needs across Ontario to phone Education Minister Paul Calandra in their “Better Call Paul” campaign. Because the Ford Government had ousted elected school board trustees at several Ontario school boards, parents were urged to bring their child’s disability-related complaints right to the Minister of Education for help.
On November 13, 2025, The Education Minister directed that school boards under provincial supervision must open their Student and Family Support Office by January, and must alert parents about these offices including how to contact them by January 19, 2026. All other school boards must open their Student and Family Support Office by the start of next September.
Below is set out the contact information for the five school boards in issue that we were able to find using Google and Chat GPT. One of the boards had nothing on their website that we could find. If information for parents cannot be easily located by such tools, this raises serious concerns.
It is especially noteworthy that these are all school boards that the Ford Government is directly running. It has appointed a supervisor to each board who evidently reports directly to the Minister’s Office. A failure to fulfil the Minister’s deadline is the responsibility of the Minister and his office. He cannot blame the trustees for this failure. The Ford Government is contemplating the possibility of abolishing all elected trustees.
In a November 13, 2025 news release, the AODA Alliance identified serious concerns about the Ford Government’s specifics regarding these new Student and Family Support Offices. The Ford Government’s announcement of them didn’t even mention much less address the needs of vulnerable students with disabilities. Nothing in that announcement required that those handling calls in these new Student and Family Support Offices will have the needed expertise in disability education to quickly and competently investigate and solve problems presented by parents of Ontario’s over 300,000 students with disabilities/special education needs. Nor did it ensure that these offices will have the required authority to get their problems fixed. The Ford Government’s plan ignores most if not all of the important recommendations it received in 2022 from the Government-appointed K-12 Education Standards Development Committee in its final report.
Making this worse, The Province gave school boards no funding to finance the staff and other resources needed to operate these offices. This new cost burden was imposed on school boards that the Ford Government knew were already running deficits.
Last December, the TDSB’s Special Education Advisory Committee made detailed recommendations on what needs to be included in the Student and Family Support Office to ensure that it makes a difference for TDSB’s 40,000 students with disabilities/special education needs (set out below). It is evident from SEAC’s questioning of senior TDSB staff at the January 12 2026 TDSB SEAC meeting that TDSB so far has not implemented any of that Advisory Committee’s recommendations in the newly-opened TDSB Student and Family Support Office.
The Ford Government ordered TDSB and other school boards under provincial supervision to stop live-streaming their SEAC meetings, a controversial move that has been blasted as undemocratic. However the January 12, 2026 TDSB SEAC meeting was nevertheless live streamed by a member of the public. The discussion of TDSB’s Student and Family Support Office started at about 62 minutes into that meeting.
Contact: AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky, aodafeedback@gmail.com
Twitter: @aodaalliance
Toronto District School Board (TDSB)
On January 19, 2026, the TDSB website’s Student and Family Support Office page includes:
“Welcome to the TDSB’s Student and Family Support Office. We’re dedicated to supporting students, parents, guardians and caregivers in raising concerns, getting help, and finding solutions faster.
Our team will make every effort to acknowledge your email within 48 hours and address your request within 5 business days. …
If your concerns haven’t been addressed through the school … please contact the Student and Family Support Office: SupportOffice@tdsb.on.ca or call 416-397-3100.”
Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB)
On January 19, 2026, the TCDSB website includes:
“… the Student and Family Support Office (SFSO) at the Toronto Catholic District School Board is now open and ready to support students and families. …
The Student and Family Support Office is designed to help families navigate questions or concerns and connect with additional support at the Board level when a matter cannot be addressed at the school level. …
To ensure every inquiry is directed to the right staff member and receives a timely response, families seeking support are asked to begin by completing the Student and Family Support Form. …
If you need assistance completing the form, staff are here to help and can be reached at 416-397-6222 (Monday to Friday, 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM).”
Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB)
On January 19, 2026, the OCDSB website includes the following. It includes a charter which is not accessible to people with disabilities using a screen-reader, contrary to the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act’s Information and Communication Accessibility Standard:
“We’re here to help! OCDSB’s Student and Family Support Office is a dedicated service that provides an additional avenue for parents, guardians and caregivers to get timely help with complex questions or concerns regarding their child’s education.
Before contacting the Student and Family Support Office
Before reaching out to the Support Office, we encourage you to first bring your question or concerns to the school directly.
Most concerns can be addressed directly by speaking with your classroom teacher, vice-principal, principal, or superintendent. Whether it’s a classroom or school-wide issue, this chart outlines the best first step.
Visit our Responding to concerns page to find more information about the OCDSB’s Communications Protocol.
Please note, if you have concerns related to student transportation, these should be directed to the Ottawa Student Transportation (OSTA).
Contacting the Student and Family Support Office
If your question or concern requires additional follow-up or assistance beyond the school level, please contact the Support Office:
Fill out the intake form on this page.
Email: supportoffice@ocdsb.ca
Phone: 613-596-8223
When emailing or phoning in, please provide as much information as possible (parent and student name, school name, detailed description) so we can best address your question or concern.
Timelines and reporting back
Business hours for the Support Office are Monday to Friday, from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
The OCDSB Student and Family Support Office, in alignment with the service standards outlined in the Ministry’s Policy/Program Memorandum 170, will endeavour to:
- Acknowledge your inquiry within two (2) business days, and provide a full answer within five (5) business days.
- If we cannot give you a full answer within five (5) business days, we’ll provide an estimate of when you can expect a response.
Privacy note: Notice of the collection, use and disclosure of student personal information
Form instructions
When filling out the form below, please select one of the categories that best fits your question or concern. After you submit the form, you will receive an automated reply via email confirming your form was submitted….”
Note: We do not set out the entire form. We have not explored the form to see if it is disability-accessible.
Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board (DPCDSB)
On January 19, 2026, the DPCDSB website has the following is posted:
“Our Student and Family Support Office is here to help parents and guardians navigate questions or concerns about their child’s education and ensure they are connected to the right support as quickly as possible.
As always, we strongly encourage you to first bring your question or concerns to your child’s school and principal. If you require additional follow-up, please complete the form on this page and select one of the four categories below that best reflects your inquiry and elaborate in the Message section.
- School-related: Examples include curriculum, course content, homework, assessment, support for your child, student behaviour, student safety and well-being, etc.
- Student Transportation:Examples include bus delays, route issues, bus stop locations, bus safety, ridership eligibility, etc.
- Facilities-related:Examples include heating/cooling, cleanliness, maintenance issues, etc.
- Other: Any issues that do not fall into one of the above categories.
Submissions will be sent to the appropriate supervisory officer and/or staff for action/response.
… Please note: The DPCDSB Student and Family Support Office aims to acknowledge inquiries within two (2) business days and provide a response within five (5) business days. The office will be to ensure accountability and timely resolution of issues. …”
Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB)
As of 5 pm on January 19, 2026, there appears to be no posted email address or phone number for the TVDSB’s Student and Family Support Office. It is not known whether the online form is fully accessible to people with disabilities.
December 8, 2025 Motion on Student and Family Support Office Passed by the TDSB Special Education Advisory Committee
SEAC recommends that:
- The new TDSB Student and Family Support Office should provide a prompt, user-friendly, fair and effective process for parents/guardians of students with disabilities/special education needs to seek a resolution if they believe that TDSB is not providing an accommodation for their learning needs that would benefit the student, e.g. if TDSB is not delivering on commitments in the student’s Individual Education Plan or if TDSB has not agreed to provide an accommodation that the parent/guardian believes that the student needs.
- Staff in the new TDSB Student and Family Support Office who receive and address a complaint from a parent/guardian of a student with disabilities/special education needs should:
- a) Have expertise and experience with the education of students with disabilities/special education needs.
- b) Be independent of those TDSB staff who have dealt with the student’s needs in issue.
- c) Have expertise and training in effective mediation/alternate dispute resolution
- d) Have authority to direct any corrective action that they decide is needed.
- If, after a review, the TDSB decides not to provide the accommodation that the
parent/guardian has requested, TDSB shall give written reasons for this decision.
- Every effort should be made to mediate and resolve any disagreements between the family and TDSB. If the matter cannot be resolved, there should be an option for TDSB to appoint a person or persons outside TDSB to consider the issue, along short time lines.
- This process should be designed and carefully tailored specifically for addressing the needs of students with disabilities/ special education needs. It should also not deal with other students’ complaints that are unrelated to disability/special education needs.
- This motion outlines the principles that should guide the needed process, while leaving flexibility on how it will be designed and operated. This process can be designed so as not to conflict with Ministry requirements. A Parent/caregiver, or the student themselves, can first bring their concerns to their teacher, and then the principal, after which this avenue would be available to them if needed.
- 7. No funding should be taken from special education services to fund this service.