Policy/Program Memorandum 172

Date of issue: August 15, 2025

Effective: until revoked or modified

Subject: Supporting Multilingual French-language Learners Including Newcomer Students in French-Language Schools

Application:
Directors of Education of French-language school boards and the Centre Jules-Léger Consortium
Supervisory Officers and Superintendents of Education
Principals of French-language elementary schools
Principals of French-language secondary schools

Purpose

This document sets out policies and procedures for the development and implementation of programs and supports for students^{footnote 1[1]} in French-language elementary and secondary schools in Ontario, from Kindergarten to Grade 12 in French-language school boards^{footnote 2[2]} (the “boards”). The purpose of this memorandum is to provide direction to boards to assist all students in acquiring the skills and knowledge required to succeed academically and to achieve their future goals and aspirations.

It follows the retirement of the Actualisation linguistique en français (ALF) and Programme d’appui aux nouveaux arrivants (PANA) curricula, effective September 1, 2025.

This memorandum must be implemented in alignment with collective agreements. Where there is a conflict between the memorandum and a collective agreement, the collective agreement prevails. The memorandum also updates the intended outcomes described in the Politique d’aménagement linguistique de l’Ontario pour l’éducation de langue française.

Curricula Retirement

The following four curriculum documents will be permanently retired from the Ontario curriculum effective September 1, 2025:

• Actualisation linguistique en français (French Language Proficiency Development), Grades 1 to 8 (2010)
• Actualisation linguistique en français (French Language Proficiency Development), Grades 9 to 12 (2010)
• Programme d’appui aux nouveaux arrivants (Support Program for Newcomer Students), Grades 1 to 8 (2010)
• Programme d’appui aux nouveaux arrivants (Support Program for Newcomer Students), Grades 9 to 12 (2010)

Requirements for French-language School Boards

French-language school boards are responsible for the implementation of this memorandum. They will work in collaboration with families, schools, and community partners of interest to provide culturally sensitive and responsive services and resources for all students and their parents^{footnote 3[3]}. Compliance with this memorandum is mandatory for all French-language school boards and the CCJL.

Regular Curriculum for All Students

The Ontario curriculum describes learning expectations and content by subject and discipline as well as by year of study. It is the primary source for planning all teaching and learning, including the assessments used to develop student learning portraits. Planning should begin with the grade level that aligns with the student’s age, while focusing on their strengths and what they already know and can do. The regular curricula also provide educators with the necessary tools and inclusive strategies (e.g., Universal Design for Learning, Differentiated Instruction) to be responsive to students’ learning strengths, growth, and goals. 

Initial Assessment of Learning

School boards are required to establish or update a process for schools to assess new students’ competencies in language and mathematics. Such assessments may take place in class, alongside other students at the beginning of the school year, or individually in the case of enrolments during the school year. Assessments must be carried out by a teacher (or team of teachers) who holds a certificate from the Ontario College of Teachers. The teachers responsible for conducting assessments will be assisted by the school principal and the school’s support team. This will inform next steps pertaining to the students’ academic learning portrait and a subsequent Temporary Support Plan, if needed.

Schools are required to conduct an initial assessment of student learning at the time of enrolment. To establish a student learning portrait that reflects current curriculum and assessment practices, school boards will use, select, or develop an assessment tool that:

• Sets specific objectives.
• Builds on the foundations of Ontario’s Français and Mathématiques curricula.
• Focuses on French-language skills and mathematics skills.
• Provides data that is valid, rigorous, and reliable.
• Places particular importance on culturally responsive and relevant pedagogy
• Uses language that is accessible and familiar to the student.
• Is flexible and responsive to individual needs and contexts.

To promote a successful student experience, the conditions under which the initial assessment is conducted must consider the needs of students.

School boards must take steps to ensure that the initial assessment is conducted in the student’s first or principal language (e.g., the language previously used for schooling) to obtain a comprehensive overview of their academic progress and prior knowledge. As part of their assessment process, school boards may also interview parents/guardians/families to help understand the students’ previous educational experiences, languages spoken/understood, interests and strengths.

When simultaneous interpretation services are necessary, the school board should call on external professionals to ensure a degree of neutrality and greater accuracy of the gathered information. This process must be transparent, and parents must be informed of the initial assessment’s results.

Supporting Kindergarten students

Kindergarten students, due to their age and developmental stage, require sufficient time to demonstrate their French-language skills and other learning across the four curriculum strands. Therefore, initial and ongoing assessment of their learning should adhere to guidelines outlined in the kindergarten curriculum to ensure that they reflect research-based practices, are developmentally and age appropriate and leverage students’ knowledge and strengths.

The classroom teacher and other OCT certified educators supporting French-language learners and newcomer students, are responsible for planning initial and ongoing assessments, and for planning and providing the required support to students, as needed. The support will also be delivered in the kindergarten classroom collaboratively by OCT certified teachers. Regular communication must be maintained with parents as outlined in this memorandum.

Temporary Support Plan for Inclusive Education

This policy requires schools to create a Temporary Support Plan that builds on students' prior knowledge and strengths if the initial assessment indicates that additional temporary intensive or sustained support is required (see Appendix A). This plan ensures all students have access to the same high standards of support. It will be elaborated using unmodified curriculum expectations corresponding to the student’s age and incorporate the latest research-based approaches. The Temporary Support Plan is implemented by homeroom teachers during regular hours, in collaboration with qualified school support personnel, as per board practices. It is expected that the Temporary Support Plan be reviewed regularly after reassessment of emerging learning to determine if the support provided is having the desired positive impact on student well-being and learning outcomes, and to inform next steps. Schools shall continue to communicate with parents for awareness of their child's progress, next steps and for ongoing consent.

The temporary support measures must be determined by using different sources of data, including the student’s learning portrait, academic history, information provided by parents, conversations with the student, and other relevant information provided by knowledgeable individuals or specialists. Teachers, with the support of a team of school personnel, will use recommendations from the initial assessments to create inclusive and responsive classroom learning across subjects, which will be communicated to parents. Programs and services must be flexible due to the evolving nature of student emerging learning; therefore, teachers will adapt the instructional program when required.

The implementation of any Temporary Support Plan designed under this memorandum should focus on equity of access and actively support and preserve students’ post-secondary opportunities. School personnel should direct students to courses that meet their needs and support their preferred pathway aspirations. All decisions taken will prioritize the student’s well-being.

School personnel will use ongoing assessment and their professional judgement to determine when a student is able to learn autonomously, and therefore no longer requires a Temporary Support Plan.

Communication with Parents

All communication with parents shall be respectful and culturally responsive, and provide parents an opportunity to raise questions or provide feedback. Boards should provide interpretation/translation supports for families, as needed. School personnel must communicate with parents and students to ensure understanding about the initial assessment and Temporary Support Plan process from the outset. After completing the initial assessment, school personnel must obtain parental consent before implementing a Temporary Support Plan for the student, if one is needed. School boards must also inform parents on the ways in which data is collected, who has access to the data, and how it is used to inform next steps.

It is essential that the school explain clearly to parents how the initial assessment will be conducted. This explanation should be given in advance to ensure the process is transparent, and done in a safe, welcoming, and caring manner. Parents should know that these assessments will not affect their child’s access or ability to learn at the grade level with peers of the same age.

Additionally, the school must communicate with parents on the Temporary Support Plan at the official reporting periods. Furthermore, schools will share the student’s progress at other times throughout the year to provide observations, successes, challenges, or any other updates that could be helpful to provide insight to parents.

This requires the school to develop communication strategies which help parents understand the intended objective of the services and interventions delivered by qualified personnel in the classroom. Parents should also be apprised of the ways in which they, as partners, can contribute to their child’s learning at home and at school.

Assessment, Evaluation, and Reporting

Provincial report cards have been updated to reflect the retirement of the ALF and PANA curriculum documents. After receiving parental consent, schools will indicate in the Ontario School Information System (OnSIS) if a Temporary Support Plan has been created and implemented for a student.

The addendum Supporting Multilingual French-language Learners including Newcomer Students, Grades 1-12 (see Appendix B) replaces any references to ALF and PANA in Growing Success: Assessment, Evaluation, and Reporting in Ontario Schools, Kindergarten to Grade 12 (2010). School boards shall refer to the addendum to learn about the expectations and guidelines for assessing, evaluating, and reporting for students referenced in this policy.

Progress reports and report cards continue to be used to report on student achievement based on curriculum expectations and the development of learning skills and work habits. Schools use these formal reporting periods to inform parents of the student’s progress related to their Temporary Support Plan. The school should also communicate regularly with parents, between progress reports and report cards, to describe the services and interventions planned as part of their child’s Temporary Support Plan and to renew their consent.

Homeroom teachers, in collaboration with personnel members who assisted in implementing the Temporary Support Plan should collectively draft report card comments that accurately reflect students’ strengths and articulate their development, progress and next steps. This collaboration ensures the reporting is clear, comprehensive and supports the students’ growth.

The Ministry of Education expects French-language school boards to include current research-based in-service training on inclusive teaching practices such as language acquisition pedagogy and multitiered support systems and the use of digital tools, including emerging technologies like artificial intelligence.

Qualifications for Teachers

Existing OCT accreditations for Actualisation linguistique en français and Programme d’appui aux nouveaux arrivants (Part 1, Part 2, Specialist) will continue to be recognized. Updates on these courses will be provided by the OCT, as required.

Teachers in support roles assigned to programs providing temporary intensive or sustained support at the elementary and secondary school levels, as outlined in this memorandum, must hold the OCT certified additional qualification, Part 1, or its replacement as determined by the OCT.

Personnel Responsible for Services and Programs at the System Level

Teachers appointed to supervise or coordinate subjects or programs or to act as a consultant for the teachers of the subjects or programs shall hold a specialist or honour specialist qualification, or its replacement as determined by the OCT, if such are available, in one or more of the subjects or programs in respect of which the teacher is appointed.

Data Collection

Kindergarten

Since initial and ongoing assessment of kindergarten students’ learning should adhere to guidelines in the kindergarten curriculum to ensure that they reflect research-based practices, Temporary Support Plans, as described in this PPM, will not be implemented with kindergarten students. Schools are therefore not required to enter any data points stemming from the initial assessment of knowledge and skills at the kindergarten level in OnSIS.

Grades 1-12

Schools will be required to indicate if a student is receiving temporary intensive support or temporary sustained support through their board-specific data collection tool using the appropriate prompts in OnSIS. This information should be found in the student’s Temporary Support Plan.

To ensure comprehensive monitoring and assessment of students’ progress, school boards will also report data to the ministry three times a year through OnSIS. The specific reporting count dates for data submission are as follows:

1. Count date: October 31
2. Count date: March 31
3. Count date: June 30

School boards will continue to leverage sociodemographic data collected to ensure measuring, monitoring, and responding to disparities across achievement and pathway outcomes using their Student Achievement Plans for all students including French-language learners and newcomer students.

Appendix A: Temporary Support Plans, Grades 1-12

School personnel will use ongoing assessment and their professional judgement to determine when a student is able to learn autonomously, and therefore no longer requires a Temporary Support Plan.

Appendix B: Addendum: Supporting Multilingual French-language Learners Including Newcomer Students in French-language Schools, Grades 1-12 (Growing Success Addendum)

Preface

Regular communication with parents on their children’s learning, progress and next steps promotes school-parent collaboration, partnership, and home support.

The summaries of a student’s performance communicated in their progress reports or report cards should be used to support other communications that take place between each reporting period.

Subsequent to the retirement of the ALF, Grades 1 to 8 and Grades 9 to 12 curricula and the PANA, Grades 1 to 8 and Grades 9 to 12 curricula, the following policy statement informs French-language school boards and the Centre Jules-Léger Consortium (CJLC) of their performance assessment and reporting obligations for students requiring language proficiency support or additional subject-matter support starting in the 2025–2026 school year.

Policy

This document serves as an addendum to the Ministry of Education policy entitled Growing Success: Assessment, Evaluation, and Reporting in Ontario Schools (2010). This addendum updates the policy on performance reporting for students requiring linguistic support to align with the modernized framework programs for Grades 1 to 12.

This addendum replaces the ALF and PANA policy set out in Growing Success, including any sections or references to these programs. The policy described comes into force in Ontario’s French-language schools and the CJLC as of the 2025-2026 school year.

Report cards

The ALF and PANA curriculum documents will be retired from Ontario’s curriculum as of September 2025. Consequently, report cards will be updated accordingly, and the ALF and PANA check boxes will no longer appear in the new versions of the report cards.

How to complete report cards: Supporting Multilingual French-language Learners Including Newcomer Students in French-language Schools, Grades 1 to 12

To promote a consistent teaching and assessment approach for all students, the performance of students requiring language proficiency support in each subject and discipline will be assessed following the same guidelines which apply to all students by assigning:

Grades 1 to 6

An overall grade with comments on each subject.

Comments:

• Must describe the student’s strengths.
• Must indicate next steps for improvement.
• Can describe learning development.
• May refer to particular topics, including but not limited to
  • observations on basic concepts of learning to read and write,
  • and basic concepts of mathematics.

Grades 7 to 12

A percentage grade with comments on each course.

Comments:

• Must describe the student’s strengths.
• Must indicate next steps for improvement.
• Can describe learning development.
• May include observations on fundamental aspects of learning or course specifics.

For more information on determining codes or percentage grades for report cards, see the “Evaluation” section on pages 38 to 46 of Growing Success.

Revised school report card templates are available on the Ministry website.

Appendix C: Assessment Support Tools for Multilingual French-language Learners and Newcomer Students

The use of diagnostic assessment and ongoing assessment for learning is recommended to support all students’ development and progress. The data collected using these tools is used to establish a student’s learning portrait and to determine support measures outlined in the Temporary Support Plan, based on their needs.

To establish a student learning portrait that reflects inclusive curriculum and assessment practices, school boards may use, select, or develop an assessment tool that:

• Sets specific objectives.
• Builds on the foundations of Ontario’s Français and Mathématiques curricula.
• Focuses on French-language skills and mathematics skills.
• Provides data that are valid, rigorous, and reliable.
• Uses language that is accessible and familiar to the student.
• Can be adapted to individual needs and contexts.
• Is accessible to all students.

School boards can access pre-designed tools for French-language schools in Ontario. The following tools can support school personnel in developing each student’s learning portrait:

• Trousse de progression des apprentissages langagiers en français de l’Ontario (TPALF)
• Trousse de précision des acquis en mathématique (TPAM)