Ontario's education minister has a blunt message for parents tempted to pull their kids out of class for a weekend tournament: don't.
Starting in the upcoming school year, attendance and participation will count for a meaningful chunk of every Ontario high schooler's final mark, and Education Minister Paul Calandra wants families to think twice before treating that as optional.
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How the new attendance rules work
Attendance and participation will make up either 10 or 15 per cent of a student's final grade, depending on what year they're in.
In Grades 9 and 10, that figure climbs to 15 per cent. In Grades 11 and 12, it drops to 10 per cent.
Students with more than two unexcused absences won't be eligible for that full percentage, no matter how strong their classroom work is otherwise.
Where the line is on excused absences
Illness and holy days remain standard excused absences. So does some flexibility around sports, at least for now. Parents are technically allowed to pull their kids out for something like a weekend hockey tournament that starts on a Friday.
But Calandra says he doesn't want that loophole to become routine.
He pointed to Ontario's high school attendance rates, which he says are among the worst in the country, as the reason the province needed to act.
"My advice to parents is, keep them in school," he said Monday at an unrelated announcement.
"Education should be their priority. We're going to monitor this over the next year, as I said last week, and if we have to make some additional modifications, we will."
An exception for elite athletes
Calandra acknowledged the rules can't apply the same way to every kid with a hockey bag.
He said the ministry has already heard from the Ontario Hockey League about how the new policy might affect serious, high-level athletes balancing school with competitive training schedules.
"High-level athletes in training, obviously, we'll make some accommodation for that, but I say this again to the sports organizations as well: Education is a priority," he said.
For most families, though, the message from Queen's Park is simple: treat school like the priority it's graded as.
This report includes information from The Canadian Press.
