Every day, dozens of students in Ontario’s public and Catholic schools die of suicide. Research by the Telethon Kids Foundation estimates that in the province, nearly 300 children and youth are diagnosed each year with depression or anxiety.
That is why the OCS, backed by the Mental Health Commission of Canada, launched a new tool: COVIDs. It enables children and their parents to check a database to see how many times a school has been investigated for missing or bullying prevention training, referrals or complaints.
“OCS is pleased to offer parents an additional resource to help them determine how many COVIDs at each school in the province, how they’re reported, who’s investigated, and the outcomes of each investigation. The tool offers more detail and context for parents’ questions,” reads a statement from the OCS.
You can start searching the database by name (or go directly to your school’s name to search), by location (Do you live in York?), by school (Academy, not private).
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If you search a school by name, COVIDs should return a map of that school. Using the map brings up a number of features:
Is the school in the report? If there is a report on a specific location, you will see the red dot indicating that a school is in that report
If the school is not in the report, the dot will be gray. The information in the report will also appear in a box on the map
If you hover over the perimeter of the map, you can see where each of the dots on the map are located, which reflect reports on a specific location within the school district.
If you have questions or would like to use the COVIDs database you can email [email protected]
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