Page 5 - CARING and SAFE SCHOOLS in ONTARIO

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1 Introduction
The Purpose of This Resource Document
he Ontario Ministry of Education recognizes that all students require a caring and safe environment and individualized support in order to learn, develop their potential, and stay in school. Over the years,
the ministry has taken a number of initiatives to assist schools in meeting these requirements. The present document is intended to serve as a practical resource for superintendents, principals, and vice-principals, to help them address issues of student behaviour both through instruction and interventions tailored to individual student needs and through ongoing efforts to build and maintain a caring and safe school culture.
The document sets out a framework that system and school leaders may use to strengthen schools’ ability to provide a caring and safe environment, in which responses to behaviour issues are shaped by informed consideration of students’ needs and circumstances. While the ideas and strategies outlined here are appro- priate for use with all students, the focus of this document is on the particular circumstances of students with special education needs.
More specifically, this resource document is intended to:
✦ assist system and school leaders to promote and support a caring and safe school culture;
✦ provide information about appropriate strategies and resources to help system and school leaders address behavioural challenges for students, in particular students with special education needs.
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