THUNDER BAY – The Ministry of Education decided student safety requires all educational staff, including educators, support staff and volunteers, to get a regularly updated police record check.
Carlos Santander-Maturna, president of the Lakehead District Labour Council, says the new regulation doesn’t make sense.
“It’s going to create more problems with recruiting volunteers in the school to comply with what the school needs to fulfill, and also, it’s going to be costly to teaching candidates who have to do a practicum in the school, Santander-Maturna told Newswatch in an interview.
He said the regulation might add to the teacher shortage across Ontario because the additional costs might discourage people from getting into the profession.
He highlighted that the regulation will add a level of stress for volunteers, such as parent volunteers and community coaches who “have a great deal of investment in the operation of the school.”
According to the Ontario Regulation Act 298/25, as of Dec. 5, every public school board will collect a police record check every five years for every person who is, or will be, an employee of the board, a service provider at a school site, a volunteer, and a student on an educational placement.
Individuals who last provided a records check before Sept. 1, 2021, now have staggered deadlines to complete the checks throughout 2026 and 2027, based on birth month.
Individuals who provided a records check after Sept. 1, 2021, have a five-year renewal cycle from the date of an individual’s most recent check, with the deadline falling on the last day of an individual’s birth month (or June 30 for July and August birthdays).
Santander-Maturna said the system before the new legislation was “very transparent.”
In the case of the Lakehead Public School Board, employees would get the records check. Then, once a year, sign a declaration that they weren’t involved in any criminal activity. It would be up to the school board to do the background checks, he said.
“It’s another level of bureaucracy,” Santander-Maturna said. “This government is big in cutting red tape, but they are introducing another level of controlling of who is going to be working in the school and with no justification whatsoever.”
Both unionized and non-unionized staff will also be affected.
The type of police record check requried is determined by whether or not the employee is in a position of authority over the students.
A vulnerable sector check will be for employees who are in direct contact with students, such as teachers, administrative staff, and volunteers. A criminal record and judicial matters check will be mandated for service providers such as maintenance and janitorial staff, cafeteria workers, and contractors.
All three levels of record checks cost $67.80 for employees, according to the Thunder Bay Police Service.
Santander-Maturna said the Ministry of Education has allotted no new money to pay for the records checks unless it’s covered under their current collective agreement.
At this time, the school boards will not reimburse fees for a vulnerable sector check.
“In the current collective bargaining climate, it’s not going to be a big priority for the teacher federation trying to figure out, ‘OK, how we are going to offset the cost of the criminal record check when there are some more impending issues that they need to solve.’ So, basically, I think it’s going to be that, every five years, members have to pay an extra amount of money in order to have a criminal records check,” Santander-Maturna said.
