Mandatory Online Learning

E-Learning Information

About the Mandatory Online Learning Graduation Requirement

Students are required to earn two online learning credits to graduate from secondary school, beginning with every student who entered Grade 9 in the 2020-21 school year. Adult learners entering the Ontario secondary school system in 2023-24 or later will be required to meet this graduation requirement and may opt themselves out of the requirement. The graduation requirement is intended to support students in developing familiarity and comfort with working and learning in a fully online environment, as well as developing digital literacy and other important transferable skills that will help prepare them for success after graduation and in all aspects of their lives.

Meeting the online learning graduation requirement should not pose a barrier to graduation for students. As with all learning, students taking online courses will have access to the support they need through their school, (e.g., guidance, nutrition programs, extra-curricular activities and services for English-language learners). If a student in a publicly funded school has an Individual Education Plan, the plan should be shared, when appropriate, with an educator instructing an online course delivered by another publicly funded school board, with the necessary consent.

Parents/guardians may choose to opt their child out of the mandatory online courses required for graduation. Students aged 18 years of age or older or students who are 16 or 17 years of age and have withdrawn from parental control can also opt out of the graduation requirement. School boards must also allow for students and parents/guardians to opt back into the online learning graduation requirement should their decision change.

PPM 167 Opt Out Form.pdf