Switching Schools After a Move: A TDSB / YRDSB Transfer Playbook

Quick Answer

Find your new home school

Gather registration documents

Report shots to Public Health

Transfer the OSR

Settle before day one

Confirm which public school your new address is zoned for

Once you’re at the new address, your child’s default school is the one that address is zoned for — the designated, or home, school. Don’t rely on a neighbour or your agent; check it yourself on the board’s own tool:

• TDSB: use Find Your School and enter your address to see the assigned elementary and secondary schools;
• YRDSB: use the board’s school locator, again by address.

Why check it yourself? Attendance boundaries get redrawn, two sides of the same street can feed different schools, and a condo tower and the houses beside it may be split. Knowing the assigned school tells you where to register — and whether it’s worth looking at the out-of-area route below.

Gather the registration documents: proof of age + proof of address

When you register at the zoned school, two categories of document matter most.

1. Proof of age — TDSB accepts a birth certificate, Canadian passport, Canadian Citizenship card or certificate, or baptismal record; YRDSB accepts a birth certificate / Statement of Live Birth or passport. Newcomer families without Canadian documents use a passport plus immigration status documents (PR card, work/study permit, or the relevant IRCC document) to establish the child’s identity and legal status in Canada.

2. Proof of address — the one most often bounced back. The two boards ask for different numbers of documents (compared below). What they share: a driver’s licence, health card, credit-card statement and cell-phone bill are generally NOT accepted as proof of address. What works: utility bills, the property tax bill / MPAC assessment notice, an agreement of purchase and sale, a lease or deed. Renters are usually fine with a lease plus a utility bill.

Bring your child’s Ontario health card (OHIP) too, and bring originals — many schools won’t take photocopies.

💡 Same shape, different details: TDSB wants 2 address documents, YRDSB wants 3, and they report to different public health units. Match your set to the city you’re moving into — one pile won’t clear both boards.

Immunization: the only step that can keep your child out of class

This is the step I want to slow down on, because it’s the only part of a transfer that can actually stop your child from attending.

Under Ontario’s ISPA (Immunization of School Pupils Act), students under 18 in publicly funded or private schools must be immunized — or hold a valid exemption. The required shots cover nine diseases: diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), polio, measles, mumps, rubella, meningococcal disease, and varicella (chickenpox — required for children born in 2010 or later).

Here’s the trap: reporting the record is the parent’s job — the school and the doctor do NOT report it to public health for you. Move to a new board and the responsible health unit may change too: Toronto to Toronto Public Health, York Region to York Region Public Health. You report through Ontario’s ICON (Immunization Connect Ontario), or by mail/phone/email per the local unit; in Toronto you can report online at toronto.ca/studentvaccines or call 416-338-7600.

If the record is incomplete and unreported, public health sends notice; if it’s still not up to date by the deadline, the student can be suspended for up to 20 school days — though the suspension lifts the moment the record is complete and reported. So do this one early: have the full immunization card ready before you move, and report it the moment you land.

Get the old school to send the student record (OSR) — including any IEP

Every Ontario student has a file called the OSR (Ontario Student Record) holding grades, assessments and special-education documents. The good news: for a move within Ontario, the record transfers school-to-school directly — you don’t carry it, and no extra parental consent is needed. Per the Ontario Ministry of Education’s OSR guideline, the receiving school sends the old school a formal written request, and the old school mails the OSR over.

Your job is to make sure the handoff doesn’t stall:

• at registration, tell the new school where your child was enrolled so it can request the file;
• if your child has an IEP (Individual Education Plan) or other special-education support, the IEP is part of the OSR and travels with it — but keep your own copy and hand it to the new school in person at registration rather than waiting for the mailed file;
• if your child had ESL / ELL language support, that information is in the file too; the new school will typically run its own language assessment to set the right level of support.

Support handoffs fail on information gaps — telling the new school your child’s situation up front gets support in place faster than a file in the mail.

The week before school: settle actions

With registration, shots and records handled, a few things in the last week smooth the landing:

• Sort transportation: know whether your child walks, takes a bus, or is driven; busing has eligibility zones and sign-up — don’t assume it’s automatic;
• Confirm day-one details: class, teacher, start/end times, lunch (packed or ordered);
• Allergies / medication: if your child has allergies or needs meds at school, fill out the school’s forms ahead of time;
• Visit the school first: walk the route, see the yard — one dry run takes a lot of the edge off day one;
• Open a line to the teacher: a transferring child needs extra attention early, so let the teacher know you sooner rather than later.

For adults a transfer is a process; for a child it’s a whole new world. Getting the paperwork clean is how you free up your own bandwidth for the part that actually matters — helping your kid settle emotionally.

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