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Know before you sign
Most of the machinery that protects a disabled student in Ontario is built into the public system. It does not follow your child through a private school’s front door. One thing does.
Read time
About 6 minutes
For
Parents considering private school
Updated
August 2026
In brief
The short version
Families arrive at private school for good reasons. Usually it is because the public system has already failed their child — an unfilled educational assistant absence that became a shortened day, a placement that never suited, a year of asking. We are not going to pretend that system works well. Our own coverage of the Auditor General’s findings says otherwise.
But it is worth knowing precisely what you are trading. Almost all of the process that protects a disabled student in Ontario is attached to the public system. It is in the Education Act and the regulations under it, and it binds school boards. A private school is not a school board.
So the identification disappears, the written plan disappears, the committee disappears, the appeal disappears. What does not disappear is the Human Rights Code. That is a real protection and it matters — but it works differently, and slowly.
Side by side
Publicly funded board
The Identification, Placement and Review Committee (IPRC) process identifies a student as exceptional and decides placement, with written reasons and a right to appeal.
Private school
No IPRC. There is no statutory identification process and no placement decision to appeal.
Publicly funded board
An Individual Education Plan (IEP) is required for every identified student, must be reviewed each reporting period, and parents must be consulted.
Private school
No requirement to write an IEP at all. Some private schools write one voluntarily; that is a service commitment, not a legal duty, and it can change.
Publicly funded board
Every board must have a Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC), with parent representation, that reviews the board’s special education plan.
Private school
No SEAC. No equivalent oversight body, and no seat for parents.
Publicly funded board
Identification and placement decisions can be appealed to the Ontario Special Education Tribunal. Suspensions and expulsions carry appeal rights.
Private school
No tribunal. No statutory appeal from any decision the school makes about your child.
Publicly funded board
A publicly funded school must educate a resident student. Exclusions, suspensions and expulsions are governed by the Education Act and can be challenged.
Private school
The tuition contract governs. A private school can decline to re-enrol, or end the placement mid-year, on the terms of that contract — with no statutory process to challenge.
Publicly funded board
The Ontario Human Rights Code applies. Failure to accommodate to the point of undue hardship is actionable at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.
Private school
The Code still applies. A private school provides a service under section 1 of the Code, so refusing or ending a placement because of disability remains actionable — but the remedy is individual, slow, and comes after the harm.
The part nobody mentions
Most families worry about admission. Admission is a single conversation, and if it goes badly you find out immediately and keep looking.
That does not mean admission is unprotected. As the table above sets out, refusing a child because of their disability may itself be discrimination in the provision of a service, and is actionable.
But the harder problem is the exit. A private-school placement rests on a tuition contract, and a contract can end. If a school decides in November that your child’s needs have grown beyond what it can manage, there is no identification to revisit, no placement decision to appeal, no tribunal, and no obligation on any other private school to take your child instead. You return to your home board mid-year, and start the identification process you never began.
That is the asymmetry worth understanding: in the public system a bad decision is slow, procedural and appealable. In a private school it can be a phone call.
This is also why a funding entitlement, if Ontario ever created one, would not by itself help. Money that follows a child to a school which need not admit them, need not keep them, and need not write a plan for them is not a placement. It is a subsidy. We looked into who is proposing that, and what we found →
For context on scale: of roughly 1,445 independent schools in Ontario, 57 emphasize special education — about 3.9% of the sector, on the count published by an organization that supports funding them. Some of those 57 schools are excellent, and this page is not an argument against them. It is an argument about what a family can enforce.
Before you sign
A school that supports disabled students well will answer all of these readily. Hesitation on the last two is the signal worth paying attention to.
Ask for the answers by email rather than in a meeting. A written answer is what you will need later if the placement goes wrong.
If it goes wrong
This section explains what the law allows in general. It is not an assessment of your situation and it is not legal advice.
The Human Rights Code is the protection that follows your child. If a private school refused your child, or ended a placement, because of disability — rather than for a reason unrelated to it — that may be discrimination in the provision of a service, and it can be taken to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.
Two practical notes. Keep the record: emails, the contract, what you were promised about supports and by whom. And get advice early rather than late — the Human Rights Legal Support Centre and ARCH Disability Law Centre both provide free assistance, and there are time limits on applications.
If your child is returning to your home board, the identification process starts there. Start with the IPRC guide →
This page is general information about how Ontario’s education and human rights systems are structured. It is not legal advice, and it is not a comment on any particular school or any individual case.
No. The requirement to write and review an Individual Education Plan applies to publicly funded school boards. A private school may choose to write one, and many do, but it is a service commitment rather than a legal duty and it can change.
The tuition contract governs the placement, and a private school can decline to re-enrol a student or end a placement on the terms of that contract. There is no statutory appeal. However, the Ontario Human Rights Code applies to private schools as service providers, so ending a placement because of a child’s disability may be discrimination and can be challenged at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. That remedy is individual and comes after the fact.
Yes. Section 1 of the Ontario Human Rights Code guarantees equal treatment in services without discrimination because of disability, and a private school provides a service. The duty to accommodate to the point of undue hardship applies. What a private school does not have is the Education Act process around it — no IPRC, no mandatory IEP, no SEAC, and no Special Education Tribunal.
A funding entitlement is not a placement. Public money following a child to a school that is not obliged to admit them, not obliged to keep them, and not obliged to write a plan for them does not give the family anything they can enforce. Ontario does not currently provide direct public funding to private schools.
Education Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. E.2
Government of Ontario · Government source · Tier 1 · Ontario Government
Primary statute for Ontario’s publicly funded school-board duties and the separate private-school framework.
Ontario Regulation 181/98: Identification and Placement of Exceptional Pupils
Government of Ontario · Government source · Tier 1 · Ontario Government
Primary regulation governing IPRC decisions and IEP requirements in school boards.
Human Rights Code, R.S.O. 1990, c. H.19
Government of Ontario · Government source · Tier 1 · Ontario Government
Primary statute prohibiting disability discrimination in services.
Policy on accessible education for students with disabilities
Ontario Human Rights Commission · Government source · Tier 1 · Ontario Government
Official guidance on the duty to accommodate disability in education services.
Cardus · 2021-09-15 · Research source · Tier 2 · Advocacy Organization
Authors David Hunt, Anointing Momoh and Deani Van Pelt. Seven models, 21 cost estimates.
Funding Fairness for Students in Ontario with Special Education Needs
Cardus · 2019-03-20 · Research source · Tier 2 · Advocacy Organization
O. Reg. 498/01: Equity in Education Tax Credit
CanLII · 2001 · Government source · Tier 1 · Ontario Government
The 2001 tax credit as enacted, and its repeal.
Bringing School Choice to Ontario
Fraser Institute · 2020-09-08 · Community source · Tier 3 · Advocacy Organization
Author Derek J. Allison. Report text was not retrievable at time of writing; its specific recommendations and costings are deliberately not reproduced.
Naturally Diverse: The Landscape of Independent Schools in Ontario
Cardus · 2022-11-22 · Research source · Tier 2 · Advocacy Organization
Authors David Hunt, Joanna DeJong VanHof and Jenisa Los. Source for the composition of Ontario’s independent-school sector, including the count of schools emphasizing special education as of July 2022.
Waldman v. Canada, Communication No. 694/1996, CCPR/C/67/D/694/1996
United Nations Human Rights Committee · 1999-11-05 · Government source · Tier 1 · Other
Views of the Committee on Ontario’s funding of Catholic but not other religious schools. Not binding in Canadian law.
Alberta Schools: Two-thirds say education system is ailing
Angus Reid Institute, in partnership with Cardus · 2026-01-30 · Research source · Tier 2 · Parent Survey
What rights do autistic students have in Ontario schools?
VerifiedIn Ontario, students with autism have the right to an Individual Education Plan (IEP) and reasonable accommodations without a formal diagnosis, based on need. Parents can request an IPRC meeting to identify their child as 'exceptional', guaranteeing specific rights to support services.
Source: Ontario Education Act · Open source record
Can my child get an IEP without an autism diagnosis?
VerifiedYou do NOT need a formal medical diagnosis to get an IEP (Individual Education Plan) in Ontario schools. Write to your principal requesting an IPRC meeting, state you have a 'medical referral in progress,' and focus on identifying your child's needs rather than diagnostic labels.
Source: Ontario Education Act
Can autistic students get an educational assistant (EA)?
VerifiedSchools may assign EAs based on IEP needs, but 47% of families report insufficient supports. EA availability varies by board and often fails to match clinical needs, leaving many autistic students without necessary classroom support.
Source: Ontario Education Act & OAC · Open source record
Next Steps
Written commitments are what you can act on later. Verbal reassurance is not.
Sources on this page
Key claims are paired with their source, evidence tier, and verification date so readers can inspect the public record directly.
Under the Ontario Education Act, every student with special needs is entitled to an Individual Education Plan (IEP) and access to an Identification, Placement and Review Committee (IPRC)
See authorship, freshness, trust signals, and ways to stay current.
Founder & Autism Advocate