Students should have the right to go to schools in their community

Attendence Area boundaries cut through midtown communities
Josh Matlow, Trustee for St. Paul's

In Toronto, your child may not be allowed to go to school with friends who live in the same neighbourhood, even if they live across the street from one another. I think that it is high time that the Toronto District School Board review its’ attendance areas so that they can better reflect and support communities rather than simply supporting the system.

Currently, TDSB policy states that a child has the right to attend a school in the TDSB if he or she is a resident of the attendance area around the school building. There is a possibility of enrolling your child in a school outside of your given attendance area through a process called “optional attendance”. Meaning, that if there is space in a school, once the school is certain that all children from within it’s attendance area have all been admitted, the school can accept students from every corner of the city through a lottery.

The TDSB has drawn these lines, creating these attendance areas, in order to flow students on pathways towards maximizing enrolment in all of it’s schools. This is understandable as the Province currently funds the school board by the number of students it has in the system. However, I question the wisdom of drawing lines through the middle of some of Toronto’s communities, just to ensure that the system receives more revenue.

The communities of Cedarvale and Forest Hill are experiencing the direct consquences of having an attendence area cut through their neighbourhoods. Currently, some of their children have Forest Hill Collegiate institute as their home school and others are flowed to Vaughan Road Academy, which is geographically further away from many in the community, without the option of sending their children to both schools. As a result of this, many residents complain that their children are not provided the right to attend secondary school with the friends who they grew up while optional attendence provides an opportunity for students from Scarborough, Etobicoke, and those from anywhere else in the city, to attend either of those schools.

I suggest that there should be a more balanced approach. Might we consider a three-phase attendance area policy in which we create zones which maximize enrolment while reflecting Toronto’s communities and neighbourhoods? There could be a home attendance area, accompanied then by a zone created for several city blocks in every direction of each attendance area. Within this zone, those who live closest to an attendance area outside their own may have first option to send their children to a neighbouring school. Then, if there is still space in a school, optional attendance could be made available for residents in other areas of the city. This may not apply to specialized schools which rely on enrolment from across the city.

Like Cedarvale and Forest Hill, there are many cases throughout our city, where current attendance boundaries seem arbitrary and where students are forced to attend schools which are further geographically than one much closer to their home. Some parents even go so far as to use relatives’ addresses or even rent an apartment in a neighbouring attendance area so that they can prove residence there. This quiet practice is rarely discussed, but if discovered by the school, will result in their student being asked to leave.

In our city’s communities, generations of families have grown up together, have gone to school together, worked and played together and have attended the same place of worship together. I believe that school is a place where communities begin and are strengthened, and where many life- long friendships begin.

The TDSB correctly claims that our schools are the hub of communities. Let us now tell parents in Cedarvale and Forest Hill that we support the communities we serve.

For information about optional attendance, or about any other matters, please feel free to email me at josh@joshmatlow.ca or call me at 416 397-3094.

You can also email the TDSB’s planning department at planning@tdsb.on.ca, or call 416-394-7526.