Ontario school boards get new 'Targeted Learning' spending category and several restricted-fund label updates

Plain-language summary · AI-assisted · not legal advice

District school boards now have a new restricted funding category called 'Targeted Learning' (section 5.11), which requires them to spend that allocation only on the specific initiatives for which the funding was calculated. Starting in a future school year, any unspent targeted learning money from a prior year can only roll forward for use on the initiatives covered by the most recent year's allocation. Several existing category names have been updated — 'Mental Health and Wellness' becomes 'Mental Health,' and the transportation and FSL components are relabelled — though the permitted uses remain substantively the same. The eligible-school list for rural and northern education funding has been updated to a July 2026 version, and the FSL areas-of-intervention guidance document now references a 2026-27 edition. Boards should confirm that any spending charged to these restricted envelopes aligns with the updated category names and, for targeted learning, maps to the specific funded initiatives listed in the grant regulation.

Who this affects: district school board administrators · school board finance officers · French-language and FSL program leads · mental health program coordinators · rural and northern school board staff