The 2026 Board Report Card is public: results for all 72 Ontario district school boards on codes of conduct, bullying prevention and intervention, and accessibility documents, with the four letters we sent to the Minister of Education and the Minister for Seniors and Accessibility.
Summary
The 2026 results of three reviews of all 72 district school boards are now published, board by board, on the Board Report Card. Each review read the documents a board publishes on its website against a provincial instrument: the code of conduct memorandum (PPM 128), the bullying prevention and intervention memorandum (PPM 144), and the accessibility documents required under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 and the Integrated Accessibility Standards. The sector results, which name no board, went to the Minister of Education and the Minister for Seniors and Accessibility on 15 October 2026.
- Codes of conduct. No board met all eight PPM 128 requirements tested. The three requirements in force since 2019 are met by 71, 62 and 18 boards; the four added in 2024 are met by 25, 6, 0 and 0.
- Bullying prevention and intervention. No board met all fourteen PPM 144 requirements tested. A board plan was found at 28 boards and a board policy at 29; 25 boards publish neither.
- Accessibility documents. No board met all fifteen requirements tested under the AODA and the Integrated Accessibility Standards. Of 1,080 determinations, 487 are met, 479 not met and 114 not scored because the document could not be reached. Of the 138 policies, plans and status reports posted as PDFs, 111 fail at least one measured accessibility check.
- Every board will be reviewed again in mid-January 2027, and the result published beside the 2026 figures.
1. Find your board
The Board Report Card opens on a snapshot for each board: the result of each of the three reviews, Met or Not met, with a button to that review’s full report card, alongside the board’s Director of Education pay and EQAO results. Each review has its own report card, requirement by requirement, showing the board’s own documents and the date its website was reviewed:
Each page opens on the board chosen from its list. A board’s results can be linked directly by adding its board code to the address, for example /board-report-card/#TVDSB for the Thames Valley District School Board. The 2026 results are also kept at a fixed address, /board-report-card/2026-review/, so that a link saved this year will still show the 2026 results after the next review.
2. What we wrote to the Ministers
On 15 October 2026 School Board Research sent four letters by tracked email: three to the Minister of Education, on codes of conduct (PPM 128), bullying prevention and intervention (PPM 144) and accessibility documents (AODA), and one to the Minister for Seniors and Accessibility on the same accessibility documents. Each letter reports what we did, what we found across all 72 boards, and what we recommend. None names a board. Each asks the Minister to direct every board to bring its published documents into line within 30 days, and each states that we will review every board again in mid-January 2027 and publish the result.
- Letter to the Minister of Education on school board codes of conduct and PPM 128 (PDF)
- Letter to the Minister of Education on school board bullying plans and policies and PPM 144 (PDF)
- Letter to the Minister for Seniors and Accessibility on school board accessibility documents under the AODA (PDF)
- Letter to the Minister of Education on school board accessibility documents under the AODA (PDF)
The PDFs are tagged, titled and marked in Canadian English so that a screen reader can use them. Each letter carries its annexes: the authorities relied on, the method and definitions, results by board group and, for the code of conduct letter, four boards’ published codes as exhibits.
The two education memoranda are policies of the Minister under section 301 of the Education Act, and the Act provides that the Minister may require boards to comply with them. The accessibility documents are required by the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 and the Integrated Accessibility Standards, whose enforcement rests with the Ministry for Seniors and Accessibility; the boards themselves act under the authority of the Minister of Education. Each letter therefore asks the Minister who holds the relevant power to direct every board to publish what the instrument requires, in the form it requires, within 30 days, and to publish the sector result at each reporting cycle. The three letters to the Minister of Education also ask that each Director of Education attest once a year, in a published statement, that the board’s documents meet each requirement.
The accessibility letters also record that in June 2026 we asked the Ministry for Seniors and Accessibility, under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, for the accessibility compliance reports the 72 boards have filed since 2023 and the Ministry’s related records. The Ministry issued a fee estimate of $24,000. That estimate is under appeal to the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario. The reviews were made from the boards’ public websites because the Ministry’s own records were not available to us.
The fee estimate is posted here in full: Fee estimate, request MSAA-26-013, 15 July 2026 (PDF). The recipient’s name, address and email, and the signing Director’s handwritten signature, have been removed; nothing else in the document has been changed, and the file as received is held unaltered. As the Ministry sent it, the letter declared no language and carried no title identifying the document, two of the four file checks this review applied to the documents school boards publish about accessibility. Those two faults were corrected in the copy posted here, and each removed passage is labelled for a screen reader, so that a reader using a screen reader can read it.
3. What happens next
We will review every board’s website again in mid-January 2027, 90 days from the date of the letters, score the same requirements on the same instruments, and publish the result board by board beside the October figures. Board-by-board results are on the Board Report Card. A board that considers a finding wrong can respond through the board response form. The board must show that the document or language that answers the requirement was published on its website on the date of the review shown on its report card, in a form that meets the requirement, and give the route from the board’s home page by which a parent would have reached it. A finding shown to be wrong on that evidence is corrected, and the correction is noted. A document posted or changed after the date of the review does not change the 2026 result; it will be read in the January 2027 review. Members of the public can report what they find at their own board through the public report form.
4. Data, method and limitations
Each review is of documents published on the boards’ websites on stated dates in September and October 2026, reached by following the links a parent would follow from the home page. Each requirement is scored met or not met, with no partial credit. Every determination that turned on a judgement was decided against written rules; file measurements were made by machine on the live file. The reviews do not observe schools, and the requirements tested are not the whole of any instrument. The letters’ Annex B sets out the method and definitions for each review, and Annex A the authorities relied on, each checked against the consolidated text on e-Laws before the letters were sent. The reviews are research findings about published documents, not compliance verdicts.
Legal disclaimer. School Board Research is not a law firm, its researchers are not lawyers, and nothing in this article is legal advice. The results are research findings about documents published on board websites, read against a written method, available on request, on the dates stated. They are not findings that any board has contravened the Education Act, Policy/Program Memorandum 128, Policy/Program Memorandum 144, the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005, the Integrated Accessibility Standards or any other law; only a regulator, the Ministry or a court can make that finding. A reader who needs advice about their own situation should consult a lawyer.
School Board Research publishes independent analysis of Ontario school board data and policy. We are not lawyers, and nothing in this publication is legal advice. If you identify an error, please write to info@schoolboardresearch.ca. Corrections are noted on the page where they are made.
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