Page 20 - Ontario Schools: Kindergarten to Grade 12

1.4.1.1 School Councils and Parent Involvement Committees (PICs)
Ontario Regulation 612/00 mandates school boards to establish school councils and parent involvement committees (PICs) to engage parents and benefit from their advice at the school and board levels.
The purpose of school councils is, through the active participation of parents,
to improve student achievement and enhance the accountability of the education system to parents. A school council’s primary means of achieving its purpose is to make recommendations (in accordance with Ontario Regulation 612/00) to the principal of the school and to the board that established the council.
The purpose of parent involvement committees is to support, encourage, and enhance parent engagement at the board level in order to improve student achievement and well-being. A parent involvement committee of a board will achieve its purpose by providing information and advice on parent engagement to the board, communicating with and supporting school councils of schools of the board, and undertaking activities to help parents of students of the board support their children’s learning at home and at school.
O. Reg. 612/00, “School Councils and Parent Involvement Committees”
www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/regs/english/elaws_regs_000612_e.htm
1.4.2 Student Voice
The term student voice refers to expressions of the students’ point of view about decisions that affect their learning. A variety of strategies and practices are employed by schools and school boards to enable students to provide input into such decisions. Like parent engagement, student voice is an essential component of Ontario’s equity and inclusive education strategy.
Schools and school boards consult with students when developing local policies and procedures to implement ministry policies, such as those outlined in Acting Today, Shaping Tomorrow: A Policy Framework for Environmental Education
in Ontario Schools (2009) and the Ontario First Nation, Métis, and Inuit Education Policy Framework (2007).
In addition, school boards are required under the Education Act to have at least one, and may have up to three, elected student trustees who work with their boards to represent the interests of students in the last two years of the intermediate division and in the senior division. Student trustees are not board members
but do have many of the same rights and responsibilities.
18 OntariO SchOOlS, Kindergarten tO grade 12