The Toronto District School Board has announced trustees voted unanimously to expunge all “discretionary” suspensions from the records of students between kindergarten and Grade 3.
In a statement released on Thursday, the most recent data showed 312 TDSB students between kindergarten and Grade 3 were suspended during the 2018-19 school year. That number represents approximately eight per cent of all suspensions.
Board officials said mandatory suspensions for serious offences at all grades will continue to remain in place, as will the records surrounding those incidents.
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The statement also highlighted a direction to staff to look at the schedule of retaining records related to suspensions and expulsions.
In a statement to Global News Thursday afternoon, the Ontario advocacy group Parents of Black Children praised the move by the TDSB. However, it called the announcement a “first step in remedying past harms for students, particularly Black students who are disproportionately impacted by school disciplinary measures.”
The organization called on all school boards across Ontario to adopt a similar policy change. It also called on the provincial government to conduct an investigation into the protocols and practices leading to suspensions and expulsions.
“Report after report has indicated that Black children are suspended at higher rates and receive harsher discipline than other students,” the statement said
This decision by the TDSB follows an announcement by the Ontario government earlier this year. As of September, discretionary suspensions of students in kindergarten to Grade 3 have been banned.
In July, Education Minister Stephen Lecce said the decision, in addition to ending academic streaming, is necessary to address long-standing imbalances.
“It is clear there is systemic discrimination built within the education system, whether it be streaming of racialized students, suspensions overwhelmingly targeting Black and Indigenous kids, or the lack of merit-based diversity within our education workforce,” he wrote.
— With files from The Canadian Press