Helping students succeed

The problem

Although graduation rates across the province have never been higher, we are looking at more ways to help students succeed, including ways to promote and support student well-being.

This includes students’ physical, cognitive, emotional and social health; as well as their sense of self.

Students need support at all levels, in a positive learning environment, so they:

• can learn and thrive inside/outside the classroom and online
• are more likely to succeed at school and later in life, as active, engaged citizens

Education is more than just learning to read and write. It’s about having a safe and inclusive learning environment for students to succeed.

What new ideas or projects could help students develop a positive sense of self, feel engaged in school and learn the tools to deal with challenging situations?

Who we're trying to help

We want to help all students in Ontario’s publicly funded education system, from kindergarten to grade 12.

What we're doing/have done

Mental health supports

We are increasing funding by $6 million over the next three years for School Mental Health ASSIST (opens in a new window), which gives mental health leaders in local school boards access to provincial supports and resources, including mental health coaches.

We:

• are continuing to fund Kids Help Phone (opens in a new window)
• have completed 34 pilot projects at colleges and universities to address student mental health needs with a particular focus on:
  • transitioning students
  • Indigenous students
  • students struggling with addictions
• are enabling every college and university to hire a mental health worker who provides direct service to students
• are supporting the Centre for Innovation in Campus Mental Health and the Good2Talk (opens in a new window) mental health helpline, which provides direct counseling and referral services 24/7 in English and French
• are giving an additional $18 million, over the next three years, to colleges and universities across the province to support mental health services

Bullying prevention

Since 2012, we require every school board to:

• have a bullying prevention and intervention plan in place and to implement that plan
• provide programs, interventions and other supports for students who have been bullied, witnessed incidents of bullying and who have engaged in bullying 
• put in place procedures to allow students to report bullying incidents safely and in a way that will minimize the possibility of reprisal
• conduct school surveys (opens in a new window) to measure perceptions of safety among students, parents and staff and use the surveys to:
1. make better decisions about how to foster safe and inclusive schools
2. determine the effectiveness of school programs

Talking to students, families and educators

Over the 2016- 2017 school year, we went out across Ontario to get feedback on student well-being (opens in a new window) and how it is being supported in schools. We spoke to students, families, staff and other key partners to learn more about what’s working and what we need to do better.

We’re using the feedback we received to improve the day to day learning experience at school.

Learn more

Learn more about:

• what to watch for, what you can do and where you can go to get help (opens in a new window) if a child is being bullied
• the Ministry of Education’s goal for promoting and supporting well being (opens in a new window)
• what we heard about well-being (opens in a new window) during our consultation and next steps