Private schools

Overview

Private schools are businesses or non-profit organizations that must meet requirements set by the Education Act but are independent of the Ministry of Education.

We do not provide any of the following for private schools:

• funding or financial support
• regulation
• licensing
• accreditation
• oversight of operations

You must do your own research if you wish to send your child to a private school. Find out what to ask before enrolling your child.

Not all private schools can grant students the Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD), or credits toward the OSSD.

Principals and teachers in private schools don’t need to be certified by the Ontario College of Teachers. Search a teacher’s name to find out if they are certified by the Ontario College of Teachers.

Private school requirements

Private schools must:

• provide instruction at any time between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. on any school day
• have 5 or more students at or over the required school age
• offer elementary or high school courses

All private schools must meet the same general requirements.

Private schools that are authorized to grant the OSSD and related credits must meet additional requirements.

Do your research before enrolling

Do your research before registering your child for a private school.

Contact the school directly to get information on its:

• educational program
• how long it has been operating
• business practices

Before entering a contract with a private school, you should ask:

• Is your school inspected and can it issue an Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD)?
• Does your school follow the Ontario curriculum?
• Do you conduct criminal reference checks on staff?
• Does your school have a code of conduct or other discipline policy?
• Do you employ teachers who are members of the Ontario College of Teachers?
• Do you publish your Ontario Secondary School Literacy test (OSSLT) results?
• Do you publish your admissions policy?
• Do you enter into contracts with parents regarding fees, refunds and other policies?
• Do you have a procedure for resolving complaints by parents and students?
• Do you have a policy about access to a student's records, such as the Ontario Student Transcript (OST) or Ontario Student Record (OSR)?
• Do you publish the number of years your school has been in operation?
• Do you have liability insurance for accidents involving students?

Role of the province

We require that a private school has:

• a principal in charge of the school
• control of quality of instruction and evaluation of student achievement
• control of content of the program or course of study
• a common school-wide assessment and evaluation policy
• a common procedure for reporting to parents
• a common school-wide attendance policy
• a central office for the maintenance of student records

The Government of Ontario is the only authority that can determine the courses of study that a student must complete to obtain the OSSD.

Learn more about high school graduation requirements in Ontario.

We also:

• ensure that a list of private schools is available online
• collect a notice of intention to operate for all private schools every year
• inspect private high schools seeking to grant credits in courses leading to the OSSD

Find a private school

We do not endorse private schools. Do not read these lists as endorsements.

Private schools operating in Ontario

Find a list of all private elementary and secondary schools currently operating.

This list has general information about each school, such as its religious affiliation and if it offers credits toward the OSSD.

International schools offering credits towards the OSSD

There are currently 19 international schools under agreement with the Ministry of Education that have authority to grant credits towards the OSSD. Find a list of schools operating internationally. 

This list has general information about each school, such as its location and contact information.

Inspections

There are 2 types of private schools:

• non-inspected private schools
• inspected private schools

Non-inspected private schools

We do not inspect:

• private elementary schools
• private high schools that don’t offer OSSD credit courses

Schools that we don’t inspect do not need to follow the official Ontario curriculum. However, they should offer general elementary or secondary subjects such as mathematics, science, language and social studies.

Inspected private schools

We inspect all private high schools seeking (or approved) to grant course credits towards to the OSSD. Schools pay a fee each time we inspect them.

We make sure that the standard of instruction in these courses meets our:

• curriculum requirements
• assessment and evaluation practices

We do not inspect or approve items such as:

• the condition of premises
• health and safety practices
• staffing

Inspectors have thorough discussions with principals and school staff.

They also collect information by:

• reviewing the school course calendar
• examining course of study outlines for all OSSD credit courses that the school will teach
• doing onsite reviews of materials such as daily lesson plans
• conducting classroom visits
• reviewing of students' work
• reading teacher assessments and evaluations of students' work
• studying school policies/procedures and examination of school records

We only allow private high schools to grant credits after a successful inspection.

We may also revoke this right after an inspection.

A private school must list on their website if they can grant credits toward the OSSD.

Inspection timing

We conduct recurring inspections to find out if the school continues to meet our requirements.

How often we inspect a school depends on the outcome of its prior inspection reports. Our inspectors may recommend that a school be inspected:

• in 2 years
• the next school year
• within the same school year

Inspections may be scheduled or without notice (unscheduled).

We may need to inspect a private school without notice, for example, if there are concerns or complaints about the standard of instruction or credit integrity.

We inspect new schools as early as possible during their first year of operation.

After an inspection, our inspectors:

• make recommendations
• report outstanding issues
• state if the school can grant OSSD credits

Reporting

All private schools, whether they are inspected or not, must give us statistics when we ask for them.

These can be about:

• school enrolment
• staff
• courses of study
• other information we specify

Request student records

We have student records from closed private schools that transferred records to us.

If you require a student transcript from a closed private school, please email student.records@ontario.ca.

If the private school is still operating, please contact the school directly.

Contact us

You can contact the Private Schools and International Education Unit of the Ministry of Education if you need more information:

•  fsb.psie@ontario.ca
• 416-325-1981