Contracts covering more than 255,000 Ontario teachers and education workers expired August 31, 2026. Students are going back to school without new ones, and special education is at the centre of the dispute. We stand with the educators and school boards fighting for the supports our children depend on — and we hold one line alongside them: those children are never the cost of the fight.
Public status
No completed strike vote reported
Contracts
Expired August 31, 2026
Updated
September 3, 2026
Strike status: no strike called as of September 3, 2026
No strike calledStatus as of September 3, 2026 · contracts expired August 31, 2026 · open the live tracker
This week
Students are back. The contracts are not.
What changed in the last days, straight from the record, and the one thing a parent of a disabled student can do about it today.
OLRB mediation on scope ends without agreement
CUPE-OSBCU attends a mediation session at the Ontario Labour Relations Board on the central-versus-local scope dispute. The parties do not reach agreement; OSBCU says the matter now proceeds to a full Board hearing, with a decision expected "this fall." No hearing date has been set.
Five union presidents issue a joint statement
The presidents of AEFO, ETFO, OECTA, OSBCU and OSSTF/FEESO jointly state that teachers and education workers will welcome students back without new contracts, and describe the government as trying to move historically local bargaining items to the provincial table. The statement responds to the Minister of Education’s earlier reported remark that he was "optimistic" deals could be reached before Labour Day. It announces no strike vote and no job action.
Central agreements expire
The 2022-2026 central agreements expire without replacement. Expiry alone does not permit a strike - conciliation and a no-board report must come first, and a labour-relations expert quoted by CBC notes there cannot be job action until there is actual bargaining. Existing terms and conditions continue to apply in the meantime.
Do this now
Get your child’s continuity plan in writing before conciliation starts.
Job action cannot lawfully begin until bargaining resumes and conciliation follows. That is the window. A written request now creates the record you would need later, and it asks only for planning the Human Rights Commission already expects boards, unions and the government to do.
Five unions representing more than 255,000 teachers and education workers served notice to bargain on June 3, 2026. Their central agreements expired August 31, 2026, and students are returning to school without new ones.
The central agreements expired on August 31, 2026, and students are returning to school without new contracts. On September 2, 2026, a mediation session between CUPE-OSBCU and the province at the Ontario Labour Relations Board ended without agreement on bargaining scope; the dispute now goes to a full Board hearing, which OSBCU says should be decided this fall, and no hearing date has been reported. No official public source we reviewed reports a completed strike vote, a request for conciliation, or a scheduled strike. Four of the five central tables remain paused or stalled over which issues belong at the central table. Under Ontario law there can be no lawful job action until bargaining resumes and conciliation and a no-board report follow. A strike pledge is not a strike vote.
We stand with the educators. Their demands — smaller classes, more staffing, real special education supports — are the conditions the Auditor General of Ontario’s May 12, 2026 special report found missing, and the conditions a disabled child needs to attend school at all.
We stand with the school boards absorbing the shortfall: they spent $398M more on special education than the province funded in 2023/24, while the Financial Accountability Office reports real per-student funding at a ten-year low ($14,504).
If there is a work stoppage involving educational assistants, your child’s right to accommodation does not pause. Government, school boards and unions each have a duty to plan for continued access.
Interference with a collective agreement is not undue hardship under the Ontario Human Rights Code.
For union research and bargaining teams
The privatization risk inside this round
Our sourced briefing connects special-education underfunding, board takeovers, direct funding, outsourced delivery and bargaining scope to six contract defences.
The analysis separates official findings from inference and states what the record does not prove. It is written so unions can use the evidence without inheriting an overstated claim.
Before anything else: what has happened, and what has not.
Status as of September 3, 2026: there is no Ontario teachers strike.
No official public source reports a completed strike vote or a scheduled strike. On June 3, 2026, five unions representing more than 255,000 teachers and education workers served notice to bargain, and their central agreements expired August 31, 2026. Expiry alone does not permit a strike — bargaining must resume, then conciliation, a no-board report, a countdown, and a strike vote must all come first, under Ontario law. As of September 3, 2026, four of five central tables are paused or stalled over which issues belong at the central table, a question now before the Ontario Labour Relations Board with no hearing date reported. A strike pledge is not a strike vote. If a strike does happen, your autistic child’s right to accommodation does not pause: government, school boards and unions each have a legal duty to plan for continued access. This page explains that duty, what to do now, and the record from Ontario’s last education dispute.
On June 3, 2026, five unions — ETFO, OSSTF/FEESO, OECTA, AEFO, CUPE-OSBCU — each served notice to bargain. Together they represent more than 255,000 teachers and education workers. Once notice is served, the parties must meet within 15 days.
Their central agreements expired August 31, 2026. That date mattered, but not in the way most headlines implied: the terms of the old agreements continue to apply, and expiry does not permit a strike. Under the School Boards Collective Bargaining Act, 2014, central and local bargaining run as separate rounds, and each has its own statutory steps before any lawful withdrawal of services: conciliation first, then a no-board report, then a countdown, then a strike vote and notice.
As of September 3, 2026: The central agreements expired on August 31, 2026, and students are returning to school without new contracts. On September 2, 2026, a mediation session between CUPE-OSBCU and the province at the Ontario Labour Relations Board ended without agreement on bargaining scope; the dispute now goes to a full Board hearing, which OSBCU says should be decided this fall, and no hearing date has been reported. No official public source we reviewed reports a completed strike vote, a request for conciliation, or a scheduled strike. Four of the five central tables remain paused or stalled over which issues belong at the central table. Under Ontario law there can be no lawful job action until bargaining resumes and conciliation and a no-board report follow. A strike pledge is not a strike vote.
There is also a live scope dispute. After four days at the central table, CUPE-OSBCU rejected a Ministry proposal to move historically local items — leave, layoff and recall language, allowances — to the central table, and referred the question to the Ontario Labour Relations Board. OSBCU says this could delay bargaining by several months. A delay is not de-escalation; it pushes any possible disruption deeper into the school year.
We are publishing the status honestly, and updating it weekly, because the alternative is what parents are getting everywhere else: a countdown clock to an event that has not been called.
This is not a wage dispute with a special education footnote. The system was already failing before anyone served notice.
The unions’ joint statement lists growing student needs, violence in schools, inadequate supports for students with special education needs, large class sizes and insufficient staffing. Set that alongside what Ontario’s own Auditor General found.
The Auditor General’s special report on special education, released May 12, 2026, examined 2019/20 - 2024/25. Across the boards sampled, educational assistant absences went unfilled 49-72% of the time. Boards spent $398M more on special education than they received. The audit made 15 recommendations — 13 agreed · 2 disagreed.
That is the baseline. Not the crisis scenario — the ordinary operating state of the system on a day when nobody is on strike. Every parent of a disabled student in this province already knows what an unfilled EA absence means, because they have already lived it: the phone call, the early pickup, the shortened day that quietly becomes permanent.
So when bargaining is described as a fight over class size and wages, understand what is actually on the table. The staffing levels being negotiated are the staffing levels that determine whether a disabled child can attend school at all.
Both sides argue about funding, so it is worth going to the one body that answers to neither. The Financial Accountability Office is an independent, non-partisan officer of the Legislative Assembly. In its Ministry of Education: 2025 Spending Plan Review, it reported that real per-student provincial operating funding in 2024-25 was $14,504 — the lowest level over the last 10 years. It projects a further fall to $14,111 by 2027-28.
Real per-student provincial operating funding to Ontario school boards, 2024-25 constant dollars. Source: Financial Accountability Office of Ontario.
School year
Real funding per student
Actual or projected
2015-16
$14,862
Actual
2016-17
$15,132
Actual
2017-18
$14,776
Actual
2018-19
$14,923
Actual
2019-20
$14,539
Actual
2020-21
$15,296
Actual
2021-22
$14,640
Actual
2022-23
$14,620
Actual
2023-24
$14,866
Actual
2024-25
$14,504
Actual
2025-26
$14,521
Projected
2026-27
$14,685
Projected
2027-28
$14,111
Projected
Real provincial operating funding per student, 2024-25 constant dollars. Solid line is reported; dashed is the FAO’s projection. Source: Financial Accountability Office of Ontario, Ministry of Education: 2025 Spending Plan Review, October 23, 2025.
Read the chart carefully, because the honest version is less tidy than either side would like. Funding did not fall every year. It rose in 2020-21 and again in 2023-24. What the FAO identifies is a decade low reached in 2024-25 — $792 per student below the 2020-21 peak, in constant dollars — and a projection that it falls again. The dashed portion of the line is a forecast, not an outcome, and should be read as one.
The unions put a cumulative figure on this. The Globe and Mail reported the education unions’ estimate of $6.4 billion in cumulative underfunding since 2018; the Ontario School Board Council of Unions puts it at $6.5 billion. Those are the claimants’ own numbers, they do not agree with each other, and we have not independently verified either. We publish them as what the unions say, next to what the budget office found, and leave the reader to weigh them.
Chapter three
What the law requires if there is job action
This is the part almost nobody reports, and it is the part that matters most.
The Ontario Human Rights Commission publishes a fact sheet specifically about equal access to education for students with disabilities during strikes. Its position is not ambiguous.
Students with disabilities have a Code-protected right to equal treatment in education under section 1 of the Ontario Human Rights Code, and the duty to accommodate under section 17 continues to apply during a work stoppage. Responsibility is shared: government, school boards and unions are each expected to take an active role as accommodation partners, and to work cooperatively to put contingency plans in place so that students with disabilities can continue to attend school and receive appropriate accommodation.
Summarising the Commission’s guidance
Under the Code, undue hardship can only be established on three grounds: cost, health and safety, and outside sources of funding. Interference with a collective agreement is not undue hardship.
Read that twice, because it disposes of the answer most parents will be given. “We can’t, because of the collective agreement” is not a lawful reason to stop accommodating a disabled child. Neither is “everyone is affected equally.” Withdrawing supports that only disabled students rely on does not affect everyone equally — that is the entire point.
None of this is an argument against the right to strike, which is constitutionally protected. It is an argument that the duty to accommodate runs alongside it, and that all three parties already know this.
Every claim on this site carries a document. Here is the documented record going into this round of bargaining.
Ontario has been here before, and the record of how the province handled the last education dispute is a matter of public legislative history rather than interpretation.
In November 2022, the province passed the Keeping Students in Class Act, which imposed a contract on education workers, prohibited a strike, and pre-emptively invoked section 33 of the Charter — the notwithstanding clause — while also overriding the Human Rights Code. It was repealed within two weeks and deemed never to have been in force. Bill 124, which capped public-sector compensation, was found to infringe the Charter in Ontario English Catholic Teachers Assoc. v His Majesty, 2022 ONSC 6658, upheld in part on appeal in 2024 ONCA 101, and repealed in full in February 2024.
We are not predicting a repeat. We are noting that a Human Rights Code override has been used in this province, in this sector, within living memory of the families reading this page — and that the accommodation rights described above were among the things overridden.
We are not a union and we are not the government. We represent families whose children are the subject of this dispute. But the evidence about what is happening in Ontario classrooms is not evenly balanced between the parties, and we will not pretend that it is.
Our position has four parts, and we hold all of them at once:
We stand with the educators and education workers. The people being asked to hold a class together with fewer hands are the same people who keep a disabled child in the room — the educational assistant, the resource teacher, the early childhood educator. Their central demands are smaller classes, more staffing, and real special education supports. The Auditor General’s May 12, 2026 report found exactly those things missing. When they bargain for staffing, they are bargaining for the conditions our children need to attend school at all.
We stand with the school boards absorbing the shortfall. Boards are not the villain of this story. They spent $398M more on special education than the province funded in 2023/24, while the Financial Accountability Office reports real per-student funding at $14,504 — the lowest in ten years — and projects it to fall further. Boards are covering a gap the funding formula leaves behind.
The government made choices, and choices leave a record. The unions asked in March to begin bargaining early, to head off a September disruption; the request was not taken up. And within living memory, in this same sector, the province legislated a Human Rights Code override — the 2022 Keeping Students in Class Act — and capped compensation under Bill 124, which the courts struck down. Both were repealed. We record these as what happened, attributed and sourced. We do not claim to know anyone’s intent.
Disabled students are not the cost of the dispute — from anyone. Standing with educators does not mean signing away our children’s rights during job action. If there is a work stoppage, the duty to accommodate does not pause, and government, boards and unions are each an accommodation partner under the Human Rights Code. Solidarity and that guardrail are not in tension — they are the same commitment.
Everything we publish on this file will carry its source. Where a figure is a party’s claim rather than an established finding, we will say so — including when it is a claim we are sympathetic to.
Frequently asked questions
Not at this time. Central agreements covering more than 255,000 Ontario teachers and education workers expired August 31, 2026, and students are returning to school without new contracts. five unions served notice to bargain on June 3, 2026. As of September 3, 2026, no official public source reviewed reports a completed strike vote, a request for conciliation, or a scheduled strike; four of five central tables are paused or stalled over which issues belong at the central table, a question now before the Ontario Labour Relations Board. Union leaders have said publicly that job action is not off the table. Contract expiry by itself does not permit a strike — bargaining must resume, then conciliation and a no-board report must come first.
It depends which union takes job action and which duties are withdrawn. What does not change is your child’s right to accommodation. The Ontario Human Rights Commission states that government, school boards and unions each have an active duty to put contingency plans in place so that students with disabilities can continue to attend school during a work stoppage involving educational assistants.
No. Under the Ontario Human Rights Code the only factors that can establish undue hardship are cost, health and safety, and outside sources of funding. The Ontario Human Rights Commission states expressly that interference with a collective agreement is not undue hardship.
The five unions list growing student needs, violence in schools, inadequate supports for students with special education needs, large class sizes and insufficient staffing. The Auditor General of Ontario’s May 2026 special report on special education found that funding has not kept pace with need, that most teachers surveyed could not meet the special education needs in their class, and that a large share of educational assistant absences go unfilled.
Ask your school, in writing, for its written continuity of accommodation plan for your child — what supports continue, who delivers them, and who to contact. Ask before conciliation begins rather than after. A written request creates a record you can escalate to the superintendent, the board, SEAC, and if necessary the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.
Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario • 2026-06-03
Joint release of the five central unions. Source for the June 3 notice date, the 255,000+ combined figure, the joint list of bargaining priorities, and the five presidents’ names.
Ontario School Board Council of Unions • 2026-07-22
Source for days at the central table, the Ontario Labour Relations Board scope dispute over centralizing historically local items, and OSBCU’s own statement that the dispute could delay bargaining by several months.
Source for the 15-day meet requirement, union leaders’ statements that they are preparing for strike votes, and the 6.4-billion-dollar underfunding figure as characterized by the unions in this report (not an independently verified accounting).
The statute governing two-tier central and local bargaining in Ontario school boards, including the Crown’s role and the conciliation route into a lawful strike position.
The governing human-rights guidance for work stoppages involving educational assistants. Sets out the shared duty on government, school boards and unions to put contingency plans in place, and confirms that interference with a collective agreement does not constitute undue hardship.
Ontario School Board Council of Unions • 2026-08-06
Source for the August 6 filing of the formal OLRB scope application ("today we filed an application with the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) asking it to determine which issues belong within the scope of central bargaining"), for OSBCU’s statement that it cannot say how long the OLRB process will take, and for OSBCU’s account of the employer’s condition for returning to the table. Also the source for locals being asked to sign strike pledges - a pledge is not a strike vote, and no strike vote is reported.
Ontario School Board Council of Unions • 2026-08-06
OSBCU president Joe Tigani’s written request that bargaining proceed on items both sides already agree are central, while the OLRB decides the disputed items. Indexed on the OSBCU news listing.
Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation • 2026-03-02
OSSTF mirror of the March 2 joint call, and the source for the statement that the Minister of Education has authority to allow bargaining to begin up to 180 days before the agreements expire.
Association des enseignantes et des enseignants franco-ontariens
AEFO public bargaining-status page. Confirms a temporary pause while the Ontario Labour Relations Board decides the central-versus-local scope question, and states that current working conditions remain in place until a new collective agreement is signed.
Source for ETFO president David Mastin’s statement that job action is under consideration but not imminent ("one step at a time"), OSSTF president Martha Hradowy’s "Let us bargain", and the Ministry of Education’s statement that it remains ready to continue discussions on the scope of central versus local issues. No hearing date is given.
Source for the table-by-table picture on August 19: ETFO and OSSTF not currently bargaining, and OECTA the only major union still engaged in negotiations. Also the source for the unions’ characterisation that the government is seeking to move historically local items, such as staff transfers and surplus decisions, to the central table.
Source for ETFO and OSSTF talks being stalled on the central-versus-local scope dispute, Martha Hradowy’s estimate that the Labour Board process could take "weeks, if not months", the Ministry spokesperson’s statement that it is "at all times ready to continue discussions on local versus central issues before proceeding to the next stage", and a labour-studies expert’s observation that there cannot be job action until there is actual bargaining. No hearing date had been scheduled.
Ontario School Board Council of Unions • 2026-08-24
OSBCU’s call for members to rally across Ontario on August 29, 2026 to "defend public education". Participant numbers are not published. No strike vote is announced.
Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (joint release of the five central unions) • 2026-09-01
Signed by the presidents of AEFO, ETFO, OECTA, OSBCU and OSSTF/FEESO. Source for the statement that teachers and education workers will welcome students back without new contracts, and for the unions’ characterisation of the Minister of Education’s earlier remarks ("optimistic" that deals could be reached before Labour Day; "relative peace"). It is one side’s statement: the Minister’s remarks are recorded here as the unions’ characterisation, not as verified quotations. It announces no strike vote and no job action, and does not mention special education. Mirrored at osbcu.ca.
Official enacted text and status. Bill 101 received Royal Assent as S.O. 2026, c. 4. It changes the employer bargaining agency for English public and Catholic boards to the Council of Ontario Directors of Education and adds provisions limiting personal liability, causes of action and remedies in specified circumstances. The enacted text preserves judicial review and constitutional remedies in specified provisions and preserves Crown vicarious liability under section 17.2.
Official record of Opposition Leader and Davenport MPP Marit Stiles asking why the Minister of Education needed immunity in Bill 101, and the Minister describing the restructuring of employer-side bargaining.
Ontario School Board Council of Unions • 2026-09-02
Source for the September 2 mediation session at the Ontario Labour Relations Board on the central-scope dispute ending without agreement ("It was clear very early in the day that there was no way that we could reach agreement on central scope"), for the dispute proceeding to a full Board hearing with a decision OSBCU says "should be issued this fall," and for OSBCU’s planned September 16 province-wide day of action, a leadership conference running September 18 through September 20, and October 24 rallies. No strike vote is mentioned.
Source for OECTA president René Jansen in de Wal’s statement that a strike vote is not a strike and that "98 per cent of labour disputes get settled without a strike," and for schools returning September 8 without new contracts.
Source for Education Minister Paul Calandra’s quoted statement "I still remain very optimistic" and that the school year "will start as scheduled," for OECTA having completed ground rules without finalizing central scope, and for ETFO president David Mastin’s statement that an OLRB scope ruling could take weeks or months.
Official clause-by-clause record. MPP Chandra Pasma challenged the accountability and liability provisions and objected to boards covering supervisor legal expenses, including for criminal proceedings.
Financial Accountability Office of Ontario • 2025-10-23
Source for the full real per-student provincial operating funding series in 2024-25 constant dollars, 2015-16 through 2027-28, and for the finding that 2024-25 was the lowest level over the last 10 years. The FAO is an independent, non-partisan officer of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives • 2023-04-18
Ricardo Tranjan. IMPORTANT: published April 2023, so its 2023-24 figures were a projection made at the time, not an outcome. Retained for the board-level TDSB estimate, which the FAO series does not provide. For province-wide actuals the FAO series supersedes it.
Last verified: 2026-08-12
Citable facts from this page(3)
What did the 2026 Ontario Auditor General find about special education?
Verified
Tabled May 12, 2026, the Auditor General's Special Report on Special Education Needs found 65% of placement decisions had no written rationale, 90%+ of IEP goals lacked measurable criteria, education assistants absent on 18% of school days (49-72% unfilled), and only 21% of inclusive-classroom teachers could meet most students' needs. It made 15 recommendations; the Ministry disagreed with 2.
Source: Auditor General of Ontario, Special Report on Special Education Needs (May 12, 2026) · Open source record
What rights do autistic students have in Ontario schools?
Verified
In 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.
Schools have a legal "Duty of Care" to ensure student safety. For autistic students who elope (wander), this means schools must have safety plans, supervision, and protocols in place. Failure to prevent elopement resulting in harm can be a breach of this duty.
Source: Ontario Education Act / Legal Precedent
Related Resources
Next Steps
Get the continuity plan in writing before conciliation starts
It takes about three minutes. You leave with a letter addressed to your principal, superintendent, board chair and SEAC, citing the Code sections that apply.
Key claims are paired with their source, evidence tier, and verification date so readers can inspect the public record directly.
Facts1
Sources1
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)