Last year, when she ran to the school bathroom crying uncontrollably after months of things in her classroom only getting worse, a Toronto teacher said she knew she couldn’t go back.
Soon after, she decided to take a leave of absence for this school year, said the teacher, whom The Globe and Mail is not naming to protect her from reprisals from her employer.
A homeroom teacher for 10 years in Toronto, the woman said she had been struggling to deal with a student who had severe ADHD.
“There were some weeks when he was okay, and some weeks it was just total chaos,” the teacher said.
“Throwing objects, climbing on furniture, incessant yelling or running around the room shoving classmates.”
Her principal had been supportive, but when he took a sick leave, a series of replacement principals followed, some of whom were dismissive of the problem, the teacher said.
After a stretch of several days of asking for help and none coming, with the student acting out worse than ever, the teacher said she broke down.
“When the kids went out for lunch I went to the bathroom and I just started crying for an hour. I couldn’t stop. That’s never happened to me before,” she said. “That’s when I knew, okay, I can’t just keep going like this.”
Teacher and educational assistant absences are up in Ontario compared with before the pandemic – owing, many say, to illness, burnout and workplace stress.
In addition to creating significant deficits for many school boards in Ontario, the absences also raise concerns about the quality of student learning, which can be disrupted by teacher absences.
In the 2023-24 school year, the most recent year for which data are available, secondary-school teachers took an average of 13.07 sick days, up from 11.05 days in 2018-19. Elementary teachers took 15.36 sick days, up from 12.79.
Educational assistants, who assist with managing classroom behaviour and often work with students with exceptional needs, took the highest number of sick days in 2023-24, at 22.01 days, up from 18.19.
The costs in Ontario to cover both elementary- and secondary-school teacher, educational assistant and early-childhood educator sick days with supply staff amounted to $658,116,241 in the 2018-19 school year. By the 2023-24 school year, those costs had risen by more than 50 per cent, surpassing $1.018-billion.
Teachers, their unions and some academics say the rise in absences is owing to classroom conditions that have been exacerbated since the pandemic: violence, stress and a lack of supports chief among them.
At the same time, Workplace Safety and Insurance Board claims, which cover everything from slip and falls to teachers who have been physically injured by students or have suffered mental stress, have also risen dramatically at some school boards in Ontario.
The total value of WSIB claims from Ontario’s 72 school boards more than doubled between 2018 and 2025, to $58.1-million, with the number of claims increasing by 13 per cent.
With the government and unions expected to begin negotiations over new collective agreements for teachers and education workers this summer, sick leave will likely be a major topic of contention, said David Mastin, president of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, a union that represents more than 80,000 education workers. The province will likely make curtailing sick leave provisions a top priority, Mr. Mastin said. “Absolutely, we think they’re going to go after sick leave,” he said. “There might be efforts to put in place programs that intimidate and scare our members from using their sick day allotment.”
In 2024, the province mandated that all school boards must create attendance support programs to be implemented by the end of this school year. These programs, which are supposed to be non-disciplinary, require boards to record and track employee attendance, establish attendance thresholds for when an employee may enter the support program and offer assistance, such as accommodations, among other factors.
Up until 2012, teachers at most school boards in Ontario could take 20 sick days a year, and bank unused sick days. Those banked days, up to a limit of 200, could be paid out at retirement. Liberal premier Dalton McGuinty’s government decided those bankable days posed too much of a financial liability for the province. The changes the province made resulted in one-time savings of $1-billion.
Now, teachers are allotted 11 non-bankable sick days at full pay each school year and have access to 120 days of short-term leave days at 90 per cent of their regular salary. When a teacher uses up their 11 sick days they may access their short-term leave days.
The previous system incentivized teachers to not use their sick days, Mr. Mastin said. But the change in policy is only part of the story. Classroom conditions have deteriorated significantly over the past eight years, leading to high levels of teacher burnout, he said.
“Whether you’re in downtown city centres, very densely populated city centres, we’re seeing the same thing: violence, unmet student needs, declining availability for specialized educators, barriers to accessing essential programs, insufficient resources, lack of early interventions,” Mr. Mastin said. “Our members are saying, ‘I can’t take this any more.’”
Jaime Sauvé, president of the Sudbury Secondary Unit of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association, says many teachers are missing school days because of classroom violence.Cory Wright/The Globe and Mail
Many teachers are missing school days because of classroom violence, said Jaime Sauvé, president of the Sudbury Secondary Unit of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association. “We’ve seen people attacked with scissors, chairs thrown around the classroom, water bottles and different weapons smashed into peoples’ heads,” she said.
At the same time, the waits for specialized supports for students who are struggling are often painfully long, Ms. Sauvé said. “To wait for a counsellor or a crisis management individual you’ll be waiting six months to a year,” she said.
A survey conducted by the Canadian Teachers’ Federation and released last summer found 45 per cent of teachers had considered leaving the profession in the past year. Only 50 per cent of respondents from across the country agreed they had a safe working environment.
Given this combination of burnout and concern over violence, it is perhaps not surprising that 39 per cent of teachers reported considering taking a sick leave, while 38 per cent said they had considered taking a personal leave.
“The number of people who go on extended sick leave has catapulted,” said Lynn Scott, who was chair of the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board when it was put under provincial supervision last June.
Prior to that, a report found that replacement costs for absent staff were one of the board’s largest underfunded expenses for the 2024-25 school year. While the Ministry of Education provided the board with approximately $14.7-million to cover replacement costs, the board had to spend $31.5-million to replace absent staff.
Lynn Scott is a former chair of Ottawa's largest school board, one of several across the province that recently fell under the Ministry of Education's direct control.Dave Chan/The Globe and Mail
While teachers and teacher assistants are now more frequently absent than prior to the pandemic, so, too, are principals, vice-principals and others who work at schools, said Jeff Maharaj, president of the Ontario Principals’ Council. “We’ve seen increases in staff absences across the board,” he said.
Some students may be more apt to act out with a supply teacher in charge, and student achievement can suffer, Mr. Maharaj said. “They’re not as familiar with their learning needs, and so the learning is not happening at the level we need it to be at,” he said.
Jeff Maharaj is president of the Ontario Principals’ Council.Stef & Ethan/ OPC
Teacher absences have been a persistent problem for years, and pose harmful disruptions to student learning, says David Green, who was chair of the Peel District School Board, the second-largest school board in the province, until it was put under supervision in January.
“Stability in the classroom is important,” he said. “You get more out of the students because the students build that relationship and that respect that they have for that teacher.”
Mr. Green says boards need more funding from the province for smaller class sizes and more educational assistants.
As for safety concerns, earlier this year a study published by researchers at the University of Ottawa concluded that current levels of violence and harassment that teachers are experiencing should classify Canadian schools as hazardous workplaces.
The survey of 4,000 education workers found that during the 2022-23 school year, 78 per cent of respondents had experienced at least one “act, attempt or threat of physical violence.” A large majority – 84 per cent – had experienced 30 incidents of harassment a year on average, while 26 per cent reported PTSD-like symptoms. And almost 80 per cent of respondents said workplace violence damaged their mental health.
Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra promised $30.6-billion in core education funding for the upcoming school year, up from $30.3-billion this year.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
The Ontario Ministry of Education did not respond to a request for comment.
But the government has made investments in response to school violence. For example, in 2023 it announced it was spending $24-million to reduce violence and improve student safety, with funding the delivery of a Respect in School workshop; anti-hate initiatives; and more funding for psychologists, social workers and educational assistants.
It has also mandated that schools must implement School Resource Officer programs, which see police officers in schools on a regular basis to build relationships with students and prevent crimes there, wherever police forces offer such a program.
And earlier this month, the province announced $30.6-billion in core education funding for the upcoming school year, up from $30.3-billion this year. Those funds can cover anything from staffing to special education.
Mr. Mastin said much more funding is needed to hire more teachers and educational assistants, as well as investments in special education and student well-being to make schools safe.
The Toronto teacher on leave this year after her breakdown in the school bathroom said she is considering looking for a job at a private school, where she believes there is more support in classrooms and less stress.
She would prefer to teach at a public school, but she said she is not optimistic that classroom conditions will improve. “It’s just so hard to hope that it’s ever going to get any better,” she said.
Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
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