School Doctor's Notes for Children in Canada: A Parent's Guide to Excused Absences

Short Answer (school doctor's note Canada)

school doctor's note Canada: There is no single Canadian school note. Excuse rules come from your province, territory, and school board. Match the absence to its type first, then send the document that type and your board require, including absence dates, participation limits, and a return or review date.

There is no single Canadian school note, because excuse rules are set by your province or territory and your school board, not by one national form. This guide covers school doctor's note Canada in detail. A parent's job is to match the absence to its fork first, ordinary sick days, chronic illness, a sports injury, a mental health day, or a long absence, and then send the document that fork and your board's policy require.. Borrowing a neighbouring board's number of days, or another province's return rule, is the fastest way to have an absence marked unexcused even when a provider was involved.

30-second check: is this article for you?

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), proper medical documentation is essential for protecting your rights.

Read on if any of these fits:

1. Your child missed school, the school asked for a note, and you are not sure what the note needs to say.
2. Your child keeps missing days for the same recurring reason, and a new short note every time is not solving it.
3. Your child was injured in sport and you do not know who clears a return to class, to practice, or to a game.
4. Your child needed a day at home for a reason that was not a fever or a stomach bug, and you do not know how to explain it to the school.
5. An absence is going to last weeks, not days, and a short note will not cover it.

If the absence is yours, not your child's, this pillar is not the right map. Work documentation follows a different decision maker, the employer, and is covered in the work-documentation cluster.

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Grace's term, and the note that worked once and failed four times

According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), proper medical documentation is essential for protecting your rights.

Grace Liu is the mother of an 8-year-old in British Columbia. In one school term, her child missed school for five different reasons, and Grace sent the same short note for every one of them. The note said, in substance, that her child had been seen by a provider, should rest, and would return soon. It had no absence dates written as a range, no participation limits written for school, and no return or review date written as a calendar date.

The first absence was two fever days in September. The school office accepted the note, marked the days excused, and Grace thought she had found the template. The second absence was a recurring condition that had already kept her child home twice that term, and the school asked for a different process, not another short note. The third absence followed a fall in soccer practice that left her child with a possible head injury, and the school would not clear a return to class activities or to sport on a rest note alone. The fourth absence was a morning when her child could not face school, was distressed before leaving home, and could not take part in a normal school day even though there was no fever. The school recorded that morning as unexcused, because the note did not match any category the school office recognised and did not state a participation limit or a return date. The fifth absence was a planned procedure with a recovery period that would keep her child out for three weeks, and the school told Grace that a short note would not cover it at all and that a separate long-absence process was required.

Grace's problem was not that she lacked a provider, or that she failed to report the absences. Her problem was that she used one document for five different school processes, and that she had picked up one of her numbers from the wrong place: a relative in Ontario had told her how long a child should stay home after vomiting, and Grace assumed that number would work for her child's school in British Columbia. It did not, because return guidance differs by health authority and by school board, and because the document that controls an excuse is her own school board's attendance policy, not a relative's province, not a neighbouring board, and not a template that worked once in September.

This pillar is the map Grace needed before she sent anything: five forks, each with one positioning sentence and one sub-article reference by title, and a rule for choosing the fork before choosing the form. The sub-articles, not this pillar, carry the school-board policy detail for each fork. This pillar does not expand any fork's forms, deadlines, or board rules, because those details belong to the sub-article and to your school board's policy, not to a national map.

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The controlling document: your school board's attendance policy

Before the forks, one document must be named, because it decides every fork that follows. That document is your school board's attendance policy, together with your school's own absence-reporting procedure. It is the policy that states which absences your board counts as excused, how an absence must be reported, what documentation the school office requires, who receives that documentation, and by what deadline it must be submitted for your child's school. No other board's policy, no other province's guide, and no national template can replace it, and this pillar deliberately does not name a board, invent a number of days, or invent a deadline, because any number invented here would be wrong for most readers.

Ontario's parent guide illustrates why the board, not a national rule, is the right place to look, and it is used here as an Ontario example only, not as a British Columbia rule and not as a Canadian rule. That guide states that a child may be excused from attending school in cases that include being sick or having an unavoidable reason, including a mental health concern, and it directs parents to contact their school for more information (Government of Ontario: Your Child's Education, A Parent Guide to Our School System). The same guide states that school boards can have their own policies on matters such as assignment to schools, and that parents should visit their school board website or contact their school for the rules in their area. That structure, a provincial guide that points back to the board, is the structure to expect in your own province as well, with your own board's policy filling in the details. If you cannot find your board's attendance policy on its website, ask the school office for it in writing, and keep the reply with its date. That written policy, not a neighbour's memory of it, is the document to file against.

A short note, for any fork in this pillar, follows the same format as a short work note, adapted for school: dates missed, participation limits during those dates, and a return or review date, with provider identification, and without a full history, a medication list, or a diagnosis narrative the school office did not ask for. The work-documentation cluster explains that format for adults, and the same subtraction test applies here: if a line does not excuse a date, schedule a return, or close the note on a date, it does not belong in the note. For the adult version of that format, see the cluster article on doctor's notes for work in Canada. A parent's work note and a child's school note are two documents, for two decision makers, and neither one excuses the other.

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The fork, in five questions

Do not start with the note. Start with the fork. Answer these five questions in order, and stop at the first one that fits.

Question 1: Is this a short, ordinary illness of a few days, with a clear return point? If yes, you are on Fork 1, ordinary sick days.

Question 2: Does the same reason keep recurring, term after term, even when each episode is short? If yes, you are on Fork 2, chronic illness, and a repeated short note is the wrong tool.

Question 3: Did the absence or the restriction come from a sports injury, including a possible head injury? If yes, you are on Fork 3, sports injuries, where return to class and return to sport are two different clearances.

Question 4: Is the reason for the day not a fever, vomiting, or injury, but a day when the child cannot take part in a normal school day for another health-related reason? If yes, you are on Fork 4, mental health days, where the note must state participation limits and dates, not a full history.

Question 5: Will the absence last weeks, or will it need makeup work, home learning, or a phased return? If yes, you are on Fork 5, long absences, where a short note cannot carry the process and the school's long-absence procedure must be started in writing.

If none of the five fits, for example a family trip, a religious observance, or a court date, you are not on a medical-note fork at all. Ask the school which non-medical excuse process applies under your board's policy, and do not dress a non-medical absence up as a medical note. That mismatch is a separate problem, and it is not solved by a better medical form.

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Fork 1: ordinary sick days, a few days, with a clear return point

Ordinary sick days are the fork most parents know, and the fork where a short note, when one is required at all, actually fits. A short note for this fork states the dates missed, the participation limits during those dates, and the return date, in the same format described above, with no diagnosis, medication list, or full history attached. The sub-article for this fork, titled "Ordinary Sick Days: What a Short School Note Needs to Say," carries the school-board policy detail: how many days your board allows a parent note, what counts as an excused versus unexcused absence in your board's policy, and what to do when a note is requested for a single day. This pillar does not state those board numbers, because they are board numbers, not national numbers.

Return guidance is where parents most often borrow the wrong number, so this fork names two Canadian local examples side by side, each labelled with its own health authority, to show why borrowing is unsafe. Ottawa Public Health advises parents to keep a child home until the child is fever-free without the help of fever-reducing medication and symptoms have been improving for 24 hours, and to keep a child home for 48 hours after the last symptom of vomiting or diarrhea (Ottawa Public Health: Should I Keep My Sick Child Home From School?). Vancouver Coastal Health, by contrast, advises that children with fever, cough, a runny nose, diarrhea, or vomiting should stay home until they are well enough to participate in regular activities, and that if a child has diarrhea or vomiting, they can return to school when they no longer have any symptoms (Vancouver Coastal Health: Kindergarten).

Those two Canadian examples do not agree on a single vomiting or diarrhea return window, and that disagreement is the point. Ottawa's 48-hour window is Ottawa's guidance. Vancouver Coastal Health's "no longer have any symptoms" wording is Vancouver Coastal Health's guidance. Neither one is a national Canadian return rule, and neither one can be copied into a British Columbia school file, an Ontario school file, or any other board's file without checking the health authority and the school board that actually govern your child's school. The Ottawa document also advises parents to wait until the child feels better and can take part in all regular school activities without extra support, or to follow advice from a health care provider, and to let the school know the child's symptoms when reporting an absence. That reporting advice, tell the school office the symptoms when you report, is useful in any province, but the return window itself must come from your own health authority and your own board. If your school asks for a note for a short fever absence, ask the school office, in writing, which board policy sentence requires it and by what date it must be submitted, rather than assuming every absence needs a provider visit or that a neighbour's return window applies.

Fork 2: chronic illness, where a repeated short note fails

Fork 2 looks like Fork 1 on any single day, and that resemblance is the trap. Grace's recurring absence, on its own day, looked like an ordinary sick day. Across a term, it was a pattern, and a pattern needs a plan, not a stack of short notes. A short note excuses one set of dates. It does not tell the school what to do the next time the same reason keeps a child home, how makeup work will be handled, or which classroom supports apply on days when the child is present but limited. Sending a fifth short note for the same recurring reason, without asking for a plan, guarantees a sixth short note, and a sixth attendance conversation, for the same reason.

The school process for this fork is a school support plan, built by the school with the parent, that sets out supports and accommodations for the school setting, and it is the document that governs recurring absences and limited participation days. The exact name of that plan, the form that starts it, and the team that writes it vary by province and by board, so this pillar deliberately does not name a single national plan name or form. A provider's letter can support a school support-plan process by stating functional limits and dates, but the letter alone does not create a school plan, and a school plan alone does not excuse every future absence without the school's attendance procedure being followed. The sub-article for this fork, titled "Chronic Illness at School: From Repeated Notes to a School Support Plan," carries the detail: how to request a school support-plan process in writing, what documentation the school asks for, and how attendance, makeup work, and classroom supports are written into the plan. This pillar's job is only to tell you that a recurring reason belongs on Fork 2, and that the first action is a written request for a plan process or a plan review, not another short note.

For the adult parallel, where a recurring condition at work also needs a plan rather than repeated short notes, see the cluster article on short-term disability and return to work in Canada. That article is about work, not school, and it is linked here only to show the same pattern in a different setting: a recurring reason needs a plan, in whichever setting it occurs.

Fork 3: sports injuries, where return to class and return to sport are two clearances

Fork 3 is the fork where parents most often send one clearance and expect it to cover two decisions. A child who is cleared to sit in class is not automatically cleared to practice, and a child who is cleared to practice is not automatically cleared for full contact or competition. Those are separate clearances, made by separate people, on separate timelines, and a note that says only "cleared" or "rest" answers neither question precisely enough for a teacher, a coach, or a school office to act on.

For a possible head injury, the national Canadian framework is Parachute's Canadian Guideline on Concussion in Sport, which states that it was developed to ensure athletes with a suspected concussion receive timely and appropriate care and proper management to allow them to return to their sport, that it is based on a review of current scientific evidence and expert consensus for athletes in Canada, and that it is intended for use by athletes, parents and caregivers, coaches, officials, teachers, trainers, and licensed healthcare professionals (Parachute: Canadian Guideline on Concussion in Sport). That guideline addresses head injury recognition, onsite medical assessment, medical assessment, concussion management, interdisciplinary concussion care, and return to sport. This pillar does not copy a step count or a day count from that guideline into a school file, because the guideline is a framework and your child's school and sport will implement it through their own concussion protocol, with their own return-to-school and return-to-sport steps and their own clearance holder. Ask the school and the sport, in writing, which protocol applies, who holds the medical clearance, and what a written clearance must state, before assuming that a class clearance is also a sport clearance.

A note for Fork 3 must therefore name two things separately: the return-to-school date and participation limits for class, and the return-to-sport step and clearance holder for sport. A note that clears a child for school on Monday does not, by itself, place that child in a later return-to-sport step on Tuesday, and a coach who reads it as a full sport clearance is reading a second clearance into a document that never gave it. The sub-article for this fork, titled "Sports Injuries at School: Return to Class, Return to Practice, Return to Play," carries the detail: who holds the clearance in your school and sport, what a written clearance must state, and how a return to class is phased when reading, screens, or testing still need limits. This pillar does not expand that protocol, because the protocol's steps and the school's clearance holder are the sub-article's subject, not the map's.

Fork 4: mental health days, a participation question, not a history

Fork 4 is the fork where the note most often fails by saying too much or too little. A day when a child cannot take part in a normal school day for a health-related reason that is not a fever, vomiting, or injury still needs a note that states dates and participation limits, not a narrative history, not a diagnosis label, and not a list of treatments. The school's attendance question is the same as on Fork 1: which dates, what limits, and when does the child return or get reviewed. The difference is that the limits may be about participation, such as a shortened day, rest breaks, or reduced screen or testing load on return, rather than about lifting or running, and the note must state those limits in school terms, not in medical history terms.

Ontario's parent guide, used here as an Ontario example only, lists being sick or having an unavoidable reason, including a mental health concern, among the examples of reasons a child may be excused from attending school, and directs parents to contact their school for more information. That example shows that a mental health concern can be an excuse reason in a provincial guide, but it does not set a national number of mental health days, a national form, or a national deadline, and it does not make an Ontario guide the rule for a British Columbia board. Your board's policy decides how a mental health day is reported, what documentation it requires, and whether a single day is handled as a short absence or as part of a support-plan process.

A single difficult morning, handled with a short note that states the date, the participation limit, and the return date, belongs on Fork 4 as a short absence. A pattern of difficult mornings, week after week, belongs on Fork 2, where a school support plan, not a repeated short note, governs support and attendance. That boundary is the fork decision for this scenario, and it is the decision parents miss when they treat every difficult morning as an isolated sick day. If the pattern is recurring, the written request is for a school support process or plan review, with a provider letter stating functional limits, not for another one-day note. The sub-article for this fork, titled "Mental Health Days at School: How to Write a Note Without Over-Disclosing," carries the detail: how to word a mental health day note without over-disclosing, who at the school receives it, and when a single day becomes a pattern that needs a plan. This pillar does not expand that wording, because the wording and the recipient are the sub-article's subject, and because a mental health day note that includes a full history creates the same privacy problem as a work note that includes a diagnosis and medications: a document the school must store and protect for a question it never needed to answer in that form.

Fork 5: long absences, where a short note cannot carry the process

Fork 5 is the fork where a short note is not merely insufficient, it is the wrong document entirely. A three-week recovery, a planned procedure with a phased return, or an absence that will need makeup work scheduled across weeks cannot be covered by a note that states three dates and a return date, because the school also needs to plan instruction, assignments, attendance coding, and a return schedule, and those plans require a school process, not a provider's signature alone. Grace learned this when the school told her, for her child's three-week stretch, that a separate long-absence process was required. The school was not asking for a longer note. It was asking for a different process to be started.

The first action on Fork 5 is therefore a written message to the school, not a note to a provider. Ask the school office, in one message, which long-absence, home-learning, or phased-return procedure applies under your board's policy, which form starts it, who must sign it, and by what date it must be submitted for the absence to be coded correctly. Those answers vary by board, and this pillar deliberately does not state a national deadline, a national form name, or a national home-learning rule, because inventing one would mislead a parent whose board uses a different form and a different deadline. The sub-article for this fork, titled "Long Absences From School: Starting the School's Long-Absence Process," carries the detail: how to request the procedure, what a phased return looks like in school terms, and how makeup work is scheduled so that a long absence does not become a second problem on return. This pillar's job is only to tell you that a long absence belongs on Fork 5, and that the clock that matters is the school's procedure deadline, not the date on a short note.

For the provincial picture that sits behind all five forks, including how sick leave and related laws differ across Canada, see the cluster article on sick leave laws in Canada by province and territory. That article is about the provincial landscape, not about your board's attendance policy, and it does not replace the board policy that controls your child's excuse.

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The one pit: borrowing a neighbouring board's number, or another province's rule

The pit this pillar concentrates on, and the only pit it develops in depth, is applying a neighbouring school board's or another province's number of days to your own child's school. It feels reasonable to borrow a number, because the number sounds official, because it came from a relative, a friend, a forum, or a public health page, and because it worked for someone else's child. For school absences, that reasonableness is false, for three reasons that compound across a term.

First, return guidance differs by health authority, and the two Canadian examples in Fork 1 prove it without any invented number. Ottawa Public Health advises 48 hours after the last symptom of vomiting or diarrhea. Vancouver Coastal Health advises a return when a child no longer has any symptoms of diarrhea or vomiting. Both are Canadian, both are public health guidance, and they do not state the same window. A parent who copies Ottawa's 48 hours into a Vancouver Coastal Health school file, or who copies Vancouver Coastal Health's wording into an Ottawa school file, has not followed public health guidance. That parent has followed the wrong health authority's guidance, and the school office, which follows its own board and its own health authority, will code the absence by its own rule, not by the borrowed one. The borrowed number does not become correct because it is Canadian. It becomes incorrect because it is not yours.

Second, excuse rules differ by board, and a board's policy is the document that codes an absence as excused or unexcused. A neighbouring board may allow a parent note for a number of days that your board does not allow, may require a provider note sooner than your board requires, or may code the same absence differently for attendance, makeup work, or grading. Grace's September note worked once, and that single success made the template feel board-approved, when in fact the September absence happened to fit her board's short-absence process, while the later absences did not. A template that worked once is not a board policy, and a neighbour's template that worked in another board is even less of one. The only number that codes your child's absence is the number in your board's policy, for your child's school, for that fork.

Third, borrowing a number hides a fork change from the parent as well as from the school. When every absence is submitted with the same borrowed window, the parent does not see that a recurring absence has moved from Fork 1 to Fork 2, that a sports absence has moved from a class clearance to a sport clearance, or that a long absence has moved from a short note to a long-absence procedure. The borrowed number smooths over those fork changes, because it gives every absence the same answer, and the school office must then correct the fork, the form, and the coding after the fact, when a correct fork choice before submission would have avoided the correction. The pit is therefore not only a wrong number. It is a wrong process, chosen by a borrowed number, and corrected only after the absence has already been coded.

The fix is a board-first check, done before any note is written, in writing. Find your school board's attendance policy, read the section that matches your fork, and write down, from that policy, the reporting method, the documentation required, the recipient, and the deadline for that fork, for your child's school. If the policy does not answer a question, ask the school office that question in writing, and keep the reply with its date. If a relative, a friend, or a public health page from another health authority gives you a different number, treat that number as a question to ask your board, not as an answer to file. That single check prevents the most common Canadian school-note failure, which is not a missing provider, but a right-sounding number from the wrong board, province, or health authority, filed against the wrong policy.

Privacy: send the school an attendance answer, not a medical file

Privacy for school notes follows the same subtraction rule as for work notes, with one school-specific addition. A school note should state dates, participation limits, and a return or review date, and should not include a full history, a medication list, or a diagnosis narrative the attendance decision does not require. The school-specific addition is that a note, once filed, becomes part of a school record, and school records have their own handling rules under your province and your board. Sending a short school note that contains only dates and limits gives the school an attendance answer to file, while sending a full history gives the school a medical file to protect, share carefully, and store under rules the parent did not choose.

Send the note to the recipient the fork names, and keep a copy with the date you sent it. If a teacher, coach, or other staff member asks for medical detail beyond dates and limits, refer them to the school office, which holds the school's attendance records, rather than forwarding a fuller note to every adult who asks. That referral is not refusal. It is the privacy rule working as intended: one attendance answer, filed in one place, shared only with the people the school's procedure names. Check your board's policy for how student information is handled at your child's school, because handling rules, like excuse rules, follow your board and province, not a neighbour's.

Where a Rillmont evaluation fits, and where it does not fit

Rillmont serves people in Canada. This article covers Canadian schools only. The process is: you complete an online evaluation, a licensed provider reviews it, and if appropriate, a note is issued to your account. That process fits a short school note when the assessment can establish dates, participation limits, and a return or review date, as on Fork 1 and on a single Fork 4 day. It does not, by itself, create a school support plan, clear a return to sport, or start a long-absence procedure, because each of those processes has its own school form, its own decision maker, and its own deadline under your board's policy. Use a Rillmont document as supporting material for the fork you chose, ready to submit with that fork's school form, not as a substitute for that form. For the telehealth route that often produces such a note, including how an online evaluation and provider review work and how a school or other recipient checks the document, see the cluster article on telehealth medical certificates in Canada. A note that is ready to submit is not a filed excuse, and a filed excuse is not a school support plan, until each process is confirmed separately, in writing, by its own decision maker.

Your pre-submit action

Do not send a school note until you have written the fork down, and that written fork is the action this pillar leaves you with. Name your child's fork first, then write the dates, the school participation limits, and the return or review date on the school's own form, before you hand anything to the office.

Line one: the fork, in one sentence, for example "ordinary sick days, two days, fever, return Thursday" or "sports injury, return to class Monday, return to sport not yet cleared" or "long absence, three weeks, long-absence procedure needed." Line two: the dates missed, and the return or review date, as calendar dates. Line three: the participation limits, in school terms, such as a shortened day, rest breaks, no practice, or no full contact, with the dates those limits apply. Line four: the recipient and the deadline, taken from your school board's attendance policy, for example "school office, by the deadline stated in our board's policy for this absence."

Send those four lines, with the document that matches the fork, to the recipient the fork names, and ask in the same message for written confirmation of which form was received, how the absence was coded, and which board policy section that coding follows. That confirmation, kept with the date you sent it, is the record that prevents a later dispute about whether an absence was excused, unexcused, or never received, and it is the record that proves you filed under your own board's policy, not under a neighbour's number. If the school replies that a different form, a different recipient, or a different deadline applies, follow that reply, and keep it, because your board's written policy for your child's school outranks any general map, including this pillar.

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Frequently asked questions

Does Canada have one national rule for how many school days can be excused without a note?
No. Excuse rules follow your province or territory and your school board's attendance policy, not a national number of days. Check your board's policy for the reporting method, documentation, recipient, and deadline that apply to your child's school and to the fork your absence falls on.

What should a short school note say?
Dates missed, participation limits during those dates, and a return or review date, with provider identification. It does not need a diagnosis, a medication list, or a full history, because none of those answers the school's attendance question, and each adds a record the school must protect.

My friend in another province told me a child must stay home 48 hours after vomiting. Does that apply to my child?
Not automatically. That 48-hour window is Ottawa Public Health's guidance, as cited in this pillar, while Vancouver Coastal Health advises a return when a child no longer has any symptoms of diarrhea or vomiting. Those two Canadian examples differ, so the return window that applies to your child is the one from your own health authority and your own school board, not a neighbour's or another province's.

My child keeps missing days for the same reason. Is another short note enough?
No, not as a system. A short note excuses one set of dates. A recurring reason belongs on the chronic-illness fork, where the first action is a written request for a school support-plan process or plan review, so that attendance, makeup work, and classroom supports are governed by a plan, not by a stack of short notes.

Who clears my child to return to a sport after a possible head injury?
Return to sport is a separate clearance from return to class, held by the person your school and sport protocol names, and guided in Canada by Parachute's Canadian Guideline on Concussion in Sport as implemented through your school and sport protocol. A clearance for class does not, by itself, clear a child for practice, full contact, or competition. Ask the school and the sport, in writing, which protocol applies and what a written clearance must state.

How do I write a note for a mental health day without over-disclosing?
State the date, the participation limit in school terms, and the return or review date, and stop there. Do not include a full history, a diagnosis narrative, or a treatment list. If difficult days keep recurring, move to the chronic-illness fork and request a school support process or plan review, rather than repeating a one-day note.

What if the absence will last three weeks?
Do not rely on a short note. Start the school's long-absence procedure in writing, asking the school office which form starts it, who must sign it, and by what date it must be submitted for the absence to be coded correctly under your board's policy. A short note cannot plan instruction, makeup work, or a phased return across weeks.

Who should receive my child's school note?
The recipient the fork names, usually the school office, with the teacher, coach, or support team involved only through the school's procedure for that fork. Do not forward a fuller medical note to every adult who asks. Refer requests for medical detail to the school office, which holds the school's attendance records.

This article provides general information only and is not legal, tax, or medical advice. Rules vary by province, territory, school board, and school, so check your school board's attendance policy and the specific form that applies to your situation before you submit. If a child shows warning signs of a serious illness or injury, seek medical attention promptly.

Official Resources

• Government of Ontario, Your Child's Education: A Parent Guide to Our School System — https://www.ontario.ca/page/your-childs-education-parent-guide-our-school-system?share=VsOjxgupQRDUdh7ppCAWlEMVnpvkGaMN9_TDznwUGhM
• Ottawa Public Health, Should I Keep My Sick Child Home From School? — http://ottawapublichealth.ca/media/atxdn1ew/keeping-your-sick-child-home.pdf
• Vancouver Coastal Health, Kindergarten — https://travelclinic.vch.ca/en/health-topics/kindergarten
• Parachute, Canadian Guideline on Concussion in Sport — http://www.parachute.ca/guideline