High School Graduation Requirements

The Ontario Ministry of Education has mandated that students must meet the secondary school literacy requirement to earn their high school diploma. Students can meet this requirement either through the successful completion of the EQAO Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT), or by successfully completing the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Course (OSSLC).

The Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) is administered to grade 10 students province-wide to determine if they can successfully demonstrate the reading and writing skills that apply to all subject areas in the provincial curriculum up to the end of grade 9. The OSSLT is administered twice annually in the fall and again in the spring and is 2.5 hours in length. The OSSLT is designed, and its implementation is supervised, by the Ontario Education and Accountability Office (EQAO).

Students with special needs may be permitted accommodations provided they have an Individual Education Plan (IEP). Students enrolled in ESL/ELD programs may be permitted special provisions or they may be deferred so that they write the OSSLT once they have a reasonable chance of success. Policies and guidelines regarding accommodations, deferrals, and exemptions are established and provided by EQAO.

Students who are not successful on the OSSLT are able to attempt it again, in a future administration, or enroll in the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Course (OSSLC).*

*Note: Enrolment in the OSSLC is limited to students who have written and have been unsuccessful on the OSSLT at least once.

Beginning with students that entered Grade 9 in the 2020-2021 school year, students must earn at least two online learning credits to obtain their Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD).

The online learning graduation requirement also applies to adult learners that will be entering the Ontario secondary school system starting in the 2023-2024 school year.

Credits Earned During COVID-19

Students can count 1 high school credit that was earned during the province-wide school closures (from April 2021 to June 2021) towards the two online learning credits that they need to graduate. This applies to all Grade 9 students who were learning remotely due to the province-wide school closures.

Opting Out

Parents/caregivers who wish to opt out or exempt their student from the online graduation requirement must complete the opt-out form. Exemption from the online learning graduation requirements may be requested by:

• the parent or caregiver of the student
• students who are 18 years of age or older
• students who are 16 or 17 years of age and have withdrawn from parental/caregiver control

As part of the high school diploma requirements, each student must make a positive contribution to the well-being of the community. The community involvement consists of student self-directed activities of at least 40 hours which must be completed before graduation. The activities must occur outside normal instructional hours.

The purpose of the community involvement is to promote community values by:

• helping students understand how they can make a positive difference in their environment
• having students contribute to their community
• increasing student awareness of community needs
• discovering the role students can play in making their communities better places in which to live and work
• developing a positive self-image and a greater sense of identity in the community
• providing a possibility for exploring career opportunities

Students are eligible to start accumulating community involvement hours in the summer before they enter grade 9. In order to ensure that activities are on the OCDSB list of eligible activities, the student should consult the following websites to ensure that the chosen activity conforms to the OCDSB guidelines for suitable and acceptable community involvement.

For further information, please visit the Community Involvement Hours webpage.

The Ontario Secondary School Certificate (OSSC) will be granted on request to students who leave school before earning the Ontario Secondary School Diploma provided that they have earned a minimum of 14 credits distributed as follows:

7 Required Compulsory Credits

• 2 credits in English
• 1 credit in Mathematics
• 1 credit in Science
• 1 credit in Canadian Geography or Canadian History
• 1 credit in Health and Physical Education
• 1 credit in the Arts, Computer Studies or Technological Education

7 Required Optional Credits

• 7 credits earned by the student from available courses.

Students who leave school before fulfilling the requirements for the Ontario Secondary School Diploma or the Ontario Secondary School Certificate may be granted a Certificate of Accomplishment (COA). The Certificate of Accomplishment may be a useful means of recognizing achievement for students who plan to take certain adaptive programs, or other kinds of additional training, or who plan to find employment after leaving school.