By the top of September, attendance was down with the affected college students by 38 per cent and by the top of November, 49 per cent of these college students had been lacking college.
THUNDER BAY — Adjustments to pupil busing eligibility this college yr have led to a regarding decline in attendance, says the chair of the Lakehead District College Board.
By the top of November, almost half of scholars who misplaced entry to bus service had worse attendance than they did with bus service, in line with a current report.
The Ontario authorities modified the funding method for pupil transportation earlier this yr, doubling most distance necessities for college kids to be eligible for busing.
Lakehead District College Board trustees will vote Tuesday on sending a letter to Jill Dunlop, the minister of schooling, expressing the board’s issues about how the eligibility standards is affecting entry to schooling and elevating potential weather-related dangers.
Within the letter, the board states the common distance normal fails to account for regional realities.
“Since implementing the universal transportation framework in the province in Ontario, we implemented it in September, our staff has noticed a very alarming trend with the data,” stated Leah Vanderwey, chair of the board. “They took a look at students that had access to transportation last year and then the same students that don’t have access to transportation this year and what they’re noticing is a decline in attendance at school.”
By the top of September, attendance was down with the affected college students by 38 per cent and by the top of November, 49 per cent of these college students had been lacking college.
Of the scholars with declining attendance, almost 52 per cent determine as First Nations, Metis or Inuit.
Within the letter to the minister, the board stated “this is both a human rights and an equity of access to education issue.”
The varsity board can also be fearful about weather-related dangers with college students strolling 20 to 40 minutes to high school within the chilly.
Vanderwey stated in line with the Thunder Bay District Well being Unit, there are a median 18 days of temperatures under -25C within the metropolis the place Toronto solely had 0.7 days with temperatures that low.
The Canadian Pediatric Society and the Montreal Youngsters’s Hospital advise caregivers to restrict kids’s time outdoor in these temperatures as kids lose warmth from their our bodies sooner than adults and the chance of frostbite will increase.
“It’s important to keep the attendance up because the more days that you’re at school, the more that you are part of the whole school community and students achieve better,” stated Vanderwey, noting the info is simply from the autumn.
“We haven’t actually even hit winter yet, so that’s a trend that’s not going in the right direction.”
If the letter is accepted by the trustees, the board will ask the province to do a regional evaluate of the transportation framework and embody enter type northern and rural college boards in addition to ensuring the funding stays according to inflation.
