New rules govern how English-language school boards prepare, adopt, and get approval for annual budget estimates

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

A new regulation sets out a structured process that English-language district school boards must follow when preparing and adopting their annual revenue and expense estimates. The chief executive officer (CEO) is responsible for preparing the estimates and must attach a signed compliance attestation confirming the estimates meet specific criteria, including alignment with provincial education priorities, fiscal responsibility, and generally accepted public-sector accounting principles. If the board's estimates were prepared by a qualified Chartered Professional Accountant on staff, that person must review them before the CEO presents them to board members. Board members may adopt or reject the estimates, but the back-and-forth process has defined steps and time limits, and if the board fails to adopt estimates by the Minister's deadline, the Minister may step in to approve or require new estimates. Boards that already adopted 2026-27 estimates before this regulation took effect have 15 days to submit those estimates to the Minister with either a compliance attestation or an explanation of why the estimates fall short. If no ministerial approval is obtained before the fiscal year starts, the submitted estimates are automatically treated as approved on a temporary basis.

Who this affects: English-language district school board CEOs · school board members and trustees · senior and business officials who are Chartered Professional Accountants · Ontario Ministry of Education