Children and Youth in a Digital World

On January 1, 2020, Part X of the Child, Youth, and Family Services Act comes into force, creating a new access and privacy framework for Ontario’s child and family services sector. The Information and Privacy Commissioner will oversee these new rules for the collection, use and disclosure of personal information.

To raise awareness of access and privacy rights among, children, youth and families, the IPC has prepared a brochure, poster and quick reference card. In the coming months, we’ll continue to update our website with additional materials for youth and answers to frequently asked questions.

If you have not done so, check out our resources for service providers. These include a guide to Part X, a guide to tracking and submitting annual statistics to the IPC and reporting privacy breaches to the IPC. Your first annual statistics report is due to the IPC on March 2021, so it is essential that you begin your tracking program as soon as Part X takes effect in January 2020.

Sign-up for our newsletter and follow us on Twitter to stay up to date with the latest Part X information and guidance.

With the new school year on the horizon, the IPC is educating the educators about their obligations when handling students’ confidential information.

School boards, educators, and administrators in Ontario’s public and separate school system are responsible for making sure their students’ personal information is secure and protected at all times. To help manage this responsibility, the IPC has released a series of resources to raise awareness about access and privacy within the education sector.

A Guide to Privacy and Access to Information in Ontario Schools provides a comprehensive explanation of the privacy rules that school boards, principals, teachers, and administrators must follow under Ontario’s municipal access and privacy law.

A series of handy fact sheets give an overview of popular subjects and frequently asked questions.  Protecting Your Students’ Privacy Online, Privacy in the School, and the more detailed, Privacy and Access to Information in Ontario’s schools: A Guide for Educators, explains the steps that educators can take to protect student privacy. Your Child’s Privacy in School was produced with parents in mind to explain how their children’s personal information is collected, used, and disclosed, and what to do if they think personal information was handled improperly.

We are here to help. IPC staff are available for Professional Activity days to discuss Ontario’s information and privacy laws with educators and staff. For more information, or to request hard copies of the guides and brochures, email @email.

There are more than two million students enrolled in Ontario’s public and separate schools. School boards, teachers and administrators are required to keep each student’s personal information secure and confidential.

Today the IPC released A Guide to Privacy and Access to Information in Ontario Schools, a resource for teachers, students and parents. The goal is to provide Ontario’s school board officials and education professionals with an understanding of their rights and obligations in relation to privacy and access to students’ personal information.

A series of fact sheets have also been developed to provide teachers and parents with general information about popular subjects such as the appropriate use of online tools, Do’s and Don’ts for collecting personal information and access to student records.

The IPC is committed to raising awareness with school boards and educators about access and privacy. To help meet this commitment, every Tuesday starting on January 15, we will tweet best practices and facts geared toward educators that focus on their obligations under the MFIPPA.