After an incident in which a student’s disappearance went unreported for hours, the Toronto District School Board has told staff that parents and guardians must be notified “no later than 75 minutes” after the start of school if a child is absent.
“As we have witnessed in the events that unfolded last week, delays in taking and reporting attendance can have serious consequences for student safety,” director of education John Malloy wrote Monday in an emailed message to families of secondary school students.
“In the weeks ahead, we will be reviewing the TDSB’s student attendance and safe arrival procedures to determine how the procedures can be further strengthened and will be working with schools to better understand current practices as part of this process,” wrote Malloy.
The email follows an incident in which a 14-year-old Grade 9 male student failed to arrive at Newtonbrook Secondary School last Wednesday after he was seen being forced into an SUV near his home.
The school did not issue a morning absence alert and only informed the boy’s parents after 6 p.m. that he had not shown up that day. An Amber Alert was issued around midnight, and the teen was discovered “dishevelled” but safe on Thursday night. Police have yet to make arrests, but said the boy’s stepbrother owed a large debt in relation to a cocaine ring.
Read Full Story: School board reinforces absence notification policy in wake of teen’s abduction | The Star
