The number of people in Ontario who were prescribed stimulants to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder skyrocketed more than 150 per cent between 2015 and 2023, a new study has found, with the greatest increases among women.

The prescriptions spiked from the beginning of the pandemic onward, increasing nearly four times faster each year from 2020 to 2023 compared with 2015 to 2019.

More than one-third of children in kindergarten in British Columbia are struggling with core areas of development, including their cognitive development and physical well-being, representing the highest number since researchers began collecting data, according to a new study from the University of British Columbia.

The research shows that young children are doing worse in almost every category of core development compared with pre-pandemic levels.

Half of Grade 6 students and 42 per cent of students in Grade 9 in Ontario did not meet the provincial standard for math in the 2024-25 school year, according to the latest standardized test scores.

Those figures are from students in English-language schools; students in French-language schools fared relatively better.

The Ontario government has taken over another school board, bringing the total number of boards placed under supervision this year to six.

Monday’s announcement that the province is taking over the Near North District School Board is the first under expanded powers the Minister of Education now has under a controversial bill that passed just two weeks ago.

Jordan Fortis sat in the conference room of a waterfront hotel in Kingston, Ont., pondering the question displayed on a large screen at the far end of the space: Are you a world-class deal-maker?

The other 150 or so conference attendees were no doubt also mulling it over.

The fire that destroyed St. Anne’s Church in Toronto, a national historic site beloved for its murals painted by members of the Group of Seven, is now being treated as a suspected arson, police and church officials say.

The four-alarm fire broke out in June, 2024, gutting the century-old church and damaging or destroying its artworks, including elaborate frescoes considered among the few religious works by the collective famed for their Canadian landscape paintings.

The Alberta government released a report on aggression and complexity in schools on Friday that echo what the teachers’ union and others have spent years calling for, prompting critics to accuse the government of dragging its heels.

The report from the Aggression and Complexity Action Team, created in June, addresses issues that were top considerations for the Alberta Teachers’ Association during its bargaining with the province in the lead up to the teacher strike last month.

Ontario’s Education Minister says he is withholding the results of provincewide standardized tests to better understand the data and make changes to the system, as critics push the province to reveal the numbers publicly.

Paul Calandra said he has purposefully held back the Education Quality and Accountability Office results, which are usually released in September or early October, in order to take a “very deep dive” into the numbers.

Ontario has passed sweeping new legislation that critics say gives the government too much power over education.

Bill 33 has been a lightning rod among parents, teachers’ unions and other groups since it was introduced at Queen’s Park in May.

The students at Walkerton District Community School walked into the school cafeteria last month to a scene that might open their eyes to a future they haven’t considered.

Instead of rows of tables and chairs, they were met with something more like an interactive science museum: hands-on stations introducing them to more than 10 skilled trades.

There was an excavator to dig up dirt and a virtual welding station. At the electrical station kids could strip wires and set up an outlet. Another station focused on measuring, where students learned to use a tape measure and practise their fractions by stacking coloured pieces of wood. At the next stop, they could do dexterity tests to figure out what trades they might be best at, moving coloured checker pieces to test how quick their movements are and using pliers to move small pegs to different holes across a board.

Ontario has signed a one-year extension of its child-care agreement with the federal government, the province’s Education Minister says.

Paul Calandra said in a letter addressed to parents and guardians that the funding would keep fees at their average of $19 a day until at least Dec. 31, 2026, with a maximum of $22 a day. The funding had been set to expire at the end of March.