Transfer Schools within the HDSB

Last Week of November

• Elementary Schools designated as Open/Closed

• Administrative Procedure, parent/guardian letter (Appendix A) and listing of Open/Closed schools posted on Board website.

January – February 

• Applications received at home school - date stamped by home school, signed off and forwarded to receiving school 

• “Closed School” Principals deny requests and communicate to parents/guardians Appendix B and Appendix C 

March 

• Verify applications with school organizations, staffing and class size compliance

• “Open School” Principal and Superintendent will review applications and confer with home school Principal Mid April Parent/Guardian Notification 

• Decisions about all applications are made and communicated grades 1-8

May - 1st week 

• Appeals received and processed by requested school Superintendent

September - 3rd week

• Kindergarten and late application decisions after final school numbers are confirmed

• School is designated as an “Open School” 

• Compliance to Ministry Mandated Class Size* caps is achieved

• Availability of pupil spaces as per class size guidelines 

• School organization maintained (i.e., no new class would have to be created)

• Staffing maintained (i.e., no need to hire additional staff or increase instructional resources) 

• Program placement and options maintained (e.g., no displacing of students to an alternative class placement or the depletion of a program)

• Fiscally responsible (i.e., no additional costs to the Board)

• Rationale for request is not limited to child care arrangements 

*Note: The Halton District School Board is required to meet parameters set out by the Ministry of Education. The Board is required to ensure: 

• Kindergarten classes are staffed at a Board-wide average of 26:2 (Teacher and Early Childhood Educator)

• Primary (Grade 1 - 3) classes are at a ratio of 20:1 

• The regional average class size for Grade 4 - 8 is 24.5:1

Principals may not consider ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​out of area transfer requests​ in kindergarten and/or primary classes that have reached or are approaching primary class size cap.​​ 

Last week of November

• Schools designated open are posted on the Board website

• Applications are given out by the designated home secondary school  (refer to Appendix A in the Secondary ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​out of area transfer request​ administrative procedure below)

Prior to 2nd F​​​​riday in January

• Completed applications are returned to home secondary school

Last week of F​​ebruary

• Area meetings are held by Superintendent for grade 9 transfer of schools requests

• Decisions about all applications are made and communicated the first week of March 

Prior ​​​to end of June

• Appeal decision letter sent to parents by Superintendent of requested school