Provincial Power
The children in these classrooms
School-age children make up the majority of families waiting for OAP services.
Registered
89,799Children registered
Total in the Ontario Autism Program queue
MCCSS FOI · Mar 2026
Funded
20,633Have active funding
Only 23% of registered children
MCCSS FOI · Mar 2026
Waiting
69,166Still waiting
Registered. Diagnosed. Un-funded.
MCCSS FOI · Mar 2026
Verified , MCCSS FOI · Mar 2026
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Children registered | 89,799 |
| Have active funding | 20,633 |
| Still waiting | 69,166 |
Every major decision affecting Ontario school governance, tracked with plain-English family impact.
The Ministry placed the York Catholic District School Board under provincial supervision, citing depleted reserves and the absence of a realistic financial recovery plan. York Catholic was the eighth Ontario board placed under provincial supervision since 2025 — the most extensive use of these powers in the province's recent history.
For families
Eight boards under supervision means eight communities where the democratic accountability structure for school decisions has been suspended. For families navigating special education disputes, the loss of trustee accountability compounds existing challenges in systems that were already difficult to navigate.
The Ministry of Education placed the Peel District School Board under provincial supervision, appointing supervisor Heather Watt and transferring the elected trustees' powers to her. The Ministry cited five consecutive years of deficit and governance concerns; the order halted a planned mid-year reduction of classroom teachers. The board chair publicly characterised the takeover as a "smokescreen" for chronic underfunding. (This 2026 financial order is separate from Peel's 2020–2023 supervision over anti-Black racism, which was lifted in January 2023.)
For families
About 155,000 students attend Peel DSB, where binding governance now rests with an appointed supervisor rather than elected trustees. SEAC continues in an advisory capacity, but its recommendations reach a supervisor with no electoral accountability to parents, and the trustee step in the IEP escalation pathway is disrupted.
The Ontario Legislature passed Bill 33, the Supporting Children and Students Act, 2025, on November 19, 2025, with royal assent the next day (S.O. 2025, c. 12). The Act lets the Minister of Education investigate and place a school board under supervision over any "matter of public interest" — a far broader and more subjective standard than the previous grounds — and lets the Minister, rather than Cabinet, impose that supervision directly. It also removes a board's ability to apply to the Divisional Court to have a supervision order revoked (s. 230.17), and provides that the Minister's takeover decisions are not open to review by any court.
For families
Bill 33 makes it easier and faster for the province to remove the elected school board trustees families vote for — and, by eliminating the Divisional Court appeal, removes the main legal check on those takeovers. When trustees lose power, the escalation pathways parents rely on for IEP disputes and special education advocacy are disrupted, and there is now no court a community can turn to to reverse a supervision order.
The Ministry placed Canada's largest school board, the Toronto District School Board, under provincial supervision, appointing supervisor Rohit Gupta over growing in-year deficits and depleted reserves. A PwC investigation attributed the deficits to structural causes — pandemic-era enrolment decline, staffing pressures, and school-renewal costs — and found the board's executive compensation to be a "bona fide restructuring," i.e. it did not find financial misconduct.
For families
With roughly 238,000 students, any disruption to TDSB governance has outsized impact on the disability community. Special education budget and policy decisions now sit with an appointed supervisor rather than elected trustees, making IEP advocacy and escalation less predictable for families.
Ontario Regulation 374/23 introduced new rules governing how school boards can sell, lease, or declare surplus school properties. The regulation expands ministerial oversight of board property decisions and creates new requirements for boards to offer surplus properties to provincial entities before selling on the open market.
For families
School closures and property sales affect communities with children who need stable, accessible school placements. For families of disabled students, school closures can mean longer transportation times, loss of familiar routines, and disruption of established support relationships. The regulation gives the province more control over which schools stay open.
The Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act (Bill 98) passed in June 2023. It expanded the Ministry's authority to intervene in school boards beyond financial distress, adding student achievement and governance concerns as grounds for appointing supervisors. Procedural timelines were shortened, making it faster for the Minister to act.
For families
Before Bill 98, the province could only take over a school board that was financially failing. After Bill 98, the Minister can intervene based on subjective measures of governance or student outcomes — criteria that have no fixed definition. This means democratic oversight of your school board can be suspended for reasons families have little ability to anticipate or challenge.
From the 1990 Education Act to eight boards under supervision, the progression of provincial power in Ontario schools.
Every IEP concern, SEAC interaction, and communication with board staff should be in writing with dates.
School advocacy guideDuring supervision, file complaints with the Ministry's Special Education Branch. HRTO is available for rights violations.
Special education rightsMPPs can raise board supervision issues in the Legislature and with the Minister's office directly.
Write to your MPPContinue putting concerns on the public record, even when trustee authority is limited, these records matter.
SEAC guideEvery entry in this tracker is sourced from primary government records, Ontario legislation, ministerial orders, the Ontario Newsroom, Hansard, or official board documents. Where primary sources are unavailable, entries are clearly marked and attributed to secondary sources. We flag unverified URLs and update sources when official records become available.
Written by Spencer Carroll
Founder & Autism Advocate
Evidence 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)
89,799
children are registered in the Ontario Autism Program
1 in 50
According to the 2019 Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youth, about children and youth aged 1 to 17 in Canada had an autism diagnosis
According to the FAO (2020 report), OAP funding covers less than one-third of estimated need at 2018-19 service levels
23%
Only 20,633 children have active funding agreements — less than one in four
$965M
Ontario allocated to the Ontario Autism Program in 2026-27
Ontario's Education Act (R.S.O. 1990, c. E.2) has long permitted the province to investigate a board's financial affairs and vest its powers in a supervisor (Part IX, Division D, ss. 257.30–257.42). These powers underpin every financial takeover in the 2025–26 wave.
Bill 98 (S.O. 2023, c. 11) expanded the Minister's authority to intervene in school boards beyond financial distress — adding student-achievement and governance concerns — and shortened procedural timelines for acting.
The province vested the powers of the Thames Valley board in a supervisor following a PwC investigation into its finances. The investigation's scope expressly did not include a determination of serious financial mismanagement.
On June 27, 2025 the province placed four more boards under supervision over financial deficits: the Toronto DSB, Toronto Catholic DSB, Ottawa-Carleton DSB, and Dufferin-Peel Catholic DSB. The PwC review of the TDSB attributed its deficits to structural causes and found executive compensation to be a bona fide restructuring.
Bill 33 (S.O. 2025, c. 12) lets the Minister investigate and supervise a board over any "matter of public interest," lets the Minister rather than Cabinet impose supervision directly, and removes a board's ability to ask the Divisional Court to revoke a supervision order — leaving the Minister's takeover decisions outside court review.
Near North became the first board supervised under the broadened Bill 33 powers. Unlike the financial takeovers, the Ministry cited governance — non-compliance with binding ministerial directions — while the board was operating with a surplus. The Minister acted as interim supervisor until a permanent supervisor was appointed in April 2026.
The province placed the Peel District School Board under supervision, citing five consecutive years of deficit; the order halted a planned mid-year teacher reduction. The board chair publicly called the takeover a "smokescreen" for underfunding. This is separate from Peel's 2020–2023 supervision over anti-Black racism, which was lifted in January 2023.
The York Catholic District School Board became the eighth Ontario board placed under provincial supervision since 2025, the most extensive use of these powers in the province's recent history.
Disability and autism advocacy organizations have documented how supervision orders affect Special Education Advisory Committees (SEACs): recommendations that once went to a trustee vote now reach an appointed supervisor with no electoral accountability to local families.
Education-law and disability-rights advocates have called for assurances that students' special education rights under the Education Act and Ontario Human Rights Code are preserved during supervision periods, and that SEAC and consultation standards are maintained at the level elected boards must meet.