- A Guide to Privacy and Access to Information in Ontario Schools
- Introduction
- Ontario’s Access and Privacy Legislation
- Collecting personal information
- Using and disclosing personal information
- Consent to collect, use and disclose personal information
- Safeguarding and retaining information
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Access to information
- How do students and parents access personal information?
- Do individuals have a right to access general records from a school board?
- Do students need to reach a certain age before they can exercise their access rights?
- How does a child’s age affect the parent’s right of access to personal information?
- Do non-custodial parents have a right to access a child’s school records?
- Correction of Personal Information
- Special Topics
- Back to Information for Individuals
When can records be destroyed or removed from the OSR?
Principals can remove information from the OSR folder if it is no longer “conducive to the improvement of the instruction of the student.”52 The information can either be given to the parents or to the student, if aged 18 or older, or destroyed.
Similarly, a parent, guardian or student aged 18 or older, may request that personal records be removed from the OSR, if the information is not “conducive to the improvement of the instruction of the student.”53 If the principal refuses to do so, the student, parent or guardian who made the request may require the principal to refer the matter to a supervisory officer of the school board and ultimately, the parent may request a hearing before a person designated by the Ministry of Education.
Personal information will also be removed from the OSR and destroyed at the end of the retention period.
In all cases where personal information is destroyed, it must be done securely, in a way that ensures the complete destruction of the record.54 This applies not only to personal information in the OSR, but to any type of personal information held by the school board.