Hour 1 of Ottawa Now for Wed. June 3rd, 2026

School may be out for summer, but for a considerable number of students that won’t make a huge difference to the time spent in classrooms. Chronic absenteeism, defined by experts as missing more than 10 per cent of school days, or about two instructional days per month, rose sharply during the pandemic but has stubbornly refused to come down, a trend seen throughout the Western world. To combat the problem, the Ontario government announced a plan in April that would tie attendance to grades — in secondary schools only, so far. Paul Calandra, the province’s education minister, said...