How to earn the OSSD, in five steps
Have your previous schooling assessed through Ontario's equivalency process.
Complete the courses the principal determines remain.
Meet Ontario's literacy graduation requirement.
Complete the community involvement hours the principal sets.
Sit the supervised final assessments, then receive the Ontario Student Transcript and the diploma.
Each step is detailed below, with the provincial rule behind it.
What the Ontario high school diploma is
The Ontario Secondary School Diploma, usually shortened to OSSD, is the secondary school diploma awarded in Ontario. It is what an Ontario student receives at the end of Grade 12, the last year of secondary school in that province. Ontario secondary school runs from Grade 9 through Grade 12, so a student who has finished Secondary V in Quebec has already covered a comparable stretch of schooling, organised differently.
The diploma itself is not issued by a ranking body or an association. Ontario is explicit about this:
“The Government of Ontario is the only authority that can determine the courses of study that a student must complete to obtain the OSSD.”
Ontario Ministry of Education, Private schools
That single sentence is the most useful thing a parent can carry into a conversation with any school, public or private.
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Ontario graduation requirements, in plain language
Ontario publishes its graduation requirements openly, and they are shorter than most people expect. What the province asks of a student is grouped into four things.
Track your four
0 of 4 met
Tick each requirement as you confirm it applies to your file.
A full program of courses
Ontario requires a total of thirty courses, split between required subjects and courses the student chooses. For students who began Grade 9 in 2023 or earlier, that means eighteen required and twelve chosen; for those who began Grade 9 in 2024 or later, seventeen required and thirteen chosen. The required list covers the subjects you would expect a secondary school to insist on: English in every year, mathematics, science, Canadian history and Canadian geography, the arts, health and physical education, French as a second language, and two half-year courses in career studies and in civics and citizenship (Ontario.ca).
A language requirement
Every student must meet Ontario's literacy graduation requirement. For most, that means passing the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (Ontario.ca). The test is set by EQAO, Ontario's provincial assessment agency, and measures reading and writing across all subjects up to the end of Grade 9. Students normally write it in their second year of secondary school, and EQAO notes that this expectation “also applies to students who entered Grade 10 from out of province, unless a deferral is granted by the principal”. Where the test is not the right route, Ontario provides an alternative: a Grade 12 literacy course, which a student becomes eligible for after two opportunities at the test, or earlier at the principal's discretion (EQAO).
Forty hours of community involvement
Ontario requires at least forty hours of volunteer activity in the community, and hours can begin accumulating in the summer before Grade 9 (Ontario.ca). School boards publish which activities qualify, following the Ministry's own guidelines (PPM 124).
Two courses completed online
Students who began Grade 9 in 2020–21 or later must complete at least two of their courses through online learning. Adult learners who entered the system in 2023–24 or later are covered by the same rule, and an exemption process exists (Ontario.ca).
One more requirement is phasing in. Students who began Grade 9 in 2025–26 must meet a financial literacy graduation requirement, delivered inside the Grade 10 career studies course and taking effect in 2026–27 (Ontario.ca). It matters here for one reason, covered further down: Ontario has written a specific carve-out for students who arrive from outside the province in Grade 11 or Grade 12.
How Ontario high school credits are counted
Ontario's official documentation counts progress toward the diploma in credits, and that vocabulary is worth thirty seconds of your attention and then no more.
In Ontario, one course equals one credit toward the diploma. The province defines that unit by time and result: a course scheduled for at least 110 hours, completed with a final mark of 50 per cent or higher, and recognised by the school principal on behalf of the Minister of Education. A half-year course, such as career studies or civics, is a 55-hour block, and two of them count as one full course (Ontario Schools).
That is the whole mechanism. Thirty courses, each roughly 110 hours of scheduled learning, each passed. A Quebec student does not need to learn Ontario's internal accounting vocabulary to make a good decision. What matters is which courses you take, how well you do in them, and what remains on your file after your previous schooling has been assessed.
Everything a student completes is recorded on the Ontario Student Transcript, described by the Ministry as “a comprehensive record of all course work and diploma requirements achieved by a student” (Student records). This is the document universities read. It is established and maintained by the school, and copies are obtained from the school or school board (OST Manual).
Ontario secondary diploma requirements when you arrive in Grade 12
Here is where a Quebec family's situation stops looking like a generic Ontario student's, and where most of the confusion online comes from.
Ontario does not expect a student arriving from another province to start over. The province has a formal process for this, and it has a name: prior learning assessment and recognition. The Ministry describes it as covering “the knowledge and skills students have acquired, in both formal and informal ways, outside of Ontario's secondary school system,” and it applies to students transferring into Ontario secondary schools, including inspected private schools. The process has two halves, and Ontario names them plainly: a challenge process, for assessing learning against Ontario's own curriculum, and an equivalency process, which “involves assessing credentials from other jurisdictions” (Ontario Schools).
A Quebec transcript goes through the equivalency side. Three points from the provincial policy are worth knowing before you speak to any school.
The decision belongs to the principal, not to a formula
For a student transferring in from a school outside Ontario, provincial policy assigns to the principal of the receiving school the determination of how much of the student's previous learning is recognised as equivalent, and of how many required and optional courses remain to be completed. The province adds that final placement decisions are made by the principal in consultation with the student, staff and family, and that the reasoning must be communicated to the family and recorded in the student's file (Student records). If a family disagrees with a placement decision, Ontario provides for a review by the appropriate supervisory officer (PPM 129).
The amount of school you have already completed changes what remains
Ontario publishes a transfer framework that principals use, and it scales: the more secondary school a student has successfully completed elsewhere, the fewer Ontario courses are left to earn (Student records). The figures in that framework are provincial minimums, not a promise about any individual file. What applies to your file is what the principal determines after reading your record.
The language requirement does not transfer, and community hours are set case by case
Ontario's transfer framework marks the literacy graduation requirement as required for every incoming student, whatever they have completed elsewhere. For community involvement, the principal determines how many hours an incoming student must complete (Student records). And on the newest requirement, Ontario is explicit: a student who enrols in an Ontario school in Grade 11 or Grade 12 from outside the province is not required to complete the financial literacy graduation requirement if the principal recognises their Grade 9 and Grade 10 work through the equivalency process (Diploma requirements).
Read together, those provisions say something reassuring and something demanding at once. Ontario is built to receive students from elsewhere and has written the rules to do it fairly. But nobody can tell you what your year will contain until someone qualified has actually read your relevé de notes.
Coming from Secondary V: what an Ontario Grade 12 year adds
Quebec is one of two places in Canada where secondary school ends before the final pre-university year. The CEGEP carries that year, and it carries it well. What an Ontario Grade 12 year does is put that same year into the format the rest of the country and most of the world uses.
Three concrete differences tend to matter to families.
The document you graduate with
A Grade 12 student finishes with an Ontario Student Transcript and an Ontario Secondary School Diploma. Admissions offices outside Quebec treat that combination as the standard end-of-secondary record.
The timing of applications
Grade 12 applicants apply to university in the same cycle as every other Grade 12 student in Canada, on results from a single year of coursework. For a student with a fixed deadline in front of them, an athlete in a recruiting window, a family relocating, a student who wants to be in a university lecture hall next September, the calendar is the point.
The way the year is graded
Grade 12 courses are assessed continuously, with a final assessment at the end. Ontario requires the final assessment of a course to be supervised, and schools implement this with in-person or video proctoring; NPU sets out its own supervision arrangements on its programme page.
Does this route fit you?
Tick what applies. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Nothing ticked yet. Tick what applies to you.
Have my record read →What a Grade 12 year does not do is replace the CEGEP for every goal. Some routes genuinely run through the collegial network, and some Quebec programmes are built around the DEC. NPU says so on its own FAQ: the Grade 12 programme “constitutes a separate pathway and is not a substitute for technical programs or preparatory tracks for pre-medical or law studies”. That is the honest framing. Two functioning routes, different shapes, and the right one depends on where the student is trying to end up.
If your target is a Quebec university, one detail deserves a direct conversation with the registrariat rather than a number from a blog post: applicants entering without a DEC may have additional courses to complete inside the undergraduate degree, and the amount varies by university and by programme. NPU's own programme page carries university-by-university notes for Quebec students, including programmes where restrictions apply. A fuller comparison of the two routes is set out separately.
Can you earn high school credits online for free in Ontario?
This question gets typed into Google constantly, and it deserves a straight answer rather than a sales pitch.
Yes, free and near-free routes exist in Ontario. They are real, they are public, and they come with conditions.
Publicly funded schools charge no tuition to residents
Ontario's own guideline on school fees states that “in general, there should be no fees charged for day school programs, other than tuition fees for non-resident students subject to the Education Act” (Ontario.ca). Publicly funded Ontario school boards deliver courses online as well as in person, and for a student who is a resident pupil of a board, that is the least expensive route that exists.
The adult route is free, with eligibility rules
Ontario runs a diploma pathway for adult learners, and the province states plainly: “This program is free. International visitors may have to pay a fee.” To qualify, “you must be a resident of Ontario and one of the following: refugee claimant; permanent resident; Convention refugee; Canadian citizen”. Through prior learning assessment for mature students, this route can recognise up to twenty-six of the thirty required courses (Ontario.ca).
TVO's Independent Learning Centre is subsidised, not free
ILC courses count toward the Ontario diploma (Ontario Schools). ILC states that “course fees are partially subsidized for most Ontario residents” and that a $40 per course administrative fee applies, with proof of Ontario residency and of Canadian citizenship among the required documents (ILC).
Now the part that a Quebec family needs stated without hedging. Every one of those routes is built for Ontario residents. Residency, and in some cases citizenship or permanent residence, is the gate. A student living in Quebec generally does not walk through it. That is not a marketing line; it is what the eligibility pages say.
NPU Canada, the school itself, is private and it is not free. Registration and course fees are published in full on its programme page.
What a family is paying for is a fee-paying school's version of the same provincial diploma: a school that reads your Quebec record and builds a plan around it, courses scheduled to fit an athlete's or a relocating family's year, and academic support through university applications. If cost is the deciding factor and a free public option is genuinely available to you, take the free option. If it is not available to you, or if the flexibility is the reason you are reading this, compare private schools on the criteria in the next section rather than on their marketing.
How to check that an online Ontario school can actually issue the diploma
Ontario's guidance to parents here is unusually blunt, and it is the most valuable paragraph in this article.
The Ministry states that private schools “are businesses or non-profit organizations that must meet requirements set by the Education Act but are independent of the Ministry of Education,” and that the Ministry does not provide “funding or financial support; regulation; licensing; accreditation; oversight of operations”. It also states that not all private schools are able to award the Ontario Secondary School Diploma or the coursework that counts toward it (Ontario.ca).
What the Ministry does do is inspect. It inspects every private high school that seeks, or has been approved for, the authority to deliver coursework counting toward the OSSD, and it permits a private high school to do so only after a successful inspection. It can revoke that authority after an inspection, and a private school is required to state on its website whether it holds it (Ontario.ca). Any inspected private school delivering diploma courses must meet the same requirements on course integrity, assessment and reporting as a publicly funded school (Ontario Schools).
The checklist, in four questions
- Ask the school directly whether it is inspected and can issue the OSSD, which is the first question Ontario itself tells parents to ask.
- Verify it yourself against the Ministry's public list of operating private schools, which indicates whether a school offers courses toward the diploma.
- Be sceptical of the word “accredited”, since Ontario says it does not accredit private schools.
- Ask who issues the transcript, because that is the document a university will read.
For NPU, the answers are on the site. NPU Canada describes itself as an Ontario Ministry of Education government-inspected school with the Ministry identification number BSID 882700, and states that all official transcripts and Ontario Secondary School Diplomas are issued by NPU Canada, a private secondary school inspected by the Ontario Ministry of Education and authorised to deliver coursework toward the OSSD, located in Toronto (NPU FAQ). The school operates from 88 Queens Quay West, Suite 2500, in Toronto. Ask any school you are considering for the equivalent, in writing.
What a Grade 12 year actually looks like
Stripped of jargon, the year has four moving parts.
Course selection
Ontario Grade 12 courses come in streams, and university-destination courses are the ones that matter for a student heading to a bachelor's degree. Course choice is not neutral: prerequisites and university programme requirements both flow from it. NPU groups its Grade 12 courses into science, commerce and liberal arts study profiles, and a companion guide decodes Ontario's course-code system, the four-character labels like MCV4U and ENG4U that appear on every transcript.
Scheduled hours
Ontario's 110-hour definition is the reference point (Ontario Schools), and NPU states that each of its courses carries 110 instructional hours, with a full-time student completing 800 to 900 instructional hours across the year (NPU programme).
Assessment and supervised exams
Coursework is assessed as the year progresses, and each course ends with a supervised final assessment. NPU requires a qualified proctor and offers on-site and video-supervised options, with the applicable fees listed on its programme page.
The literacy requirement and community hours
Both need to be planned rather than discovered in May. Ontario's literacy requirement applies to incoming students (Student records), and NPU lists the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Course among its Grade 12 minimum requirements, alongside community service hours pro-rated by grade level. Ask, at your first conversation, exactly which literacy route the school intends for you and how many community hours the principal will require. Both answers should be specific.
One practical note for Quebec students: NPU states that its courses are offered in English and in French (NPU FAQ). For a student whose academic vocabulary is French, that is worth raising early, because it changes which courses are realistic in year one.
Frequently asked questions
What are the Ontario graduation requirements?
Thirty courses in total, split between required subjects and courses the student chooses; Ontario's literacy graduation requirement; forty hours of community involvement; and at least two courses completed online for students who began Grade 9 in 2020–21 or later. A financial literacy requirement is phasing in for students who began Grade 9 in 2025–26 (Ontario.ca).
How many high school credits do you need in Ontario, and how are Ontario high school credits calculated?
Thirty. Ontario counts one credit per course, and defines it as a course scheduled for at least 110 hours and passed with a final mark of at least 50 per cent. Two 55-hour half-year courses count as one (Ontario Schools). For students who began Grade 9 in 2024 or later, the split is seventeen required subjects and thirteen chosen ones (Ontario.ca).
I finished Secondary V in Quebec. How is my previous schooling recognised in Ontario?
Case by case, based on your academic record. There is no automatic conversion table between the Quebec and Ontario systems, and any school that quotes you a fixed number of courses before reading your file is guessing.
The process Ontario provides works like this. You submit your relevé de notes and any supporting documents from your Quebec school. The receiving school reviews the record through Ontario's equivalency process, which the Ministry defines as “assessing credentials from other jurisdictions” (Ontario Schools). The principal then determines how much of your previous learning is recognised as equivalent and how many required and optional Grade 11 and Grade 12 courses remain, makes the placement decision in consultation with you and your family, communicates the reasoning, and records it in your file (Student records). From that, you receive a personalised course plan for the year: which Grade 12 courses you will take, how you will meet the literacy requirement, and how many community involvement hours the principal requires. If you disagree with the placement, Ontario provides for a review by a supervisory officer (PPM 129).
What that means in practice is that the useful next step is not more reading. It is having someone qualified read your record.
Register, send us your relevé de notes, and have your record read. You will get back an assessment of where your Quebec schooling places you and what an Ontario Grade 12 year would contain for you specifically. Start here.
Can I get high school credits online for free in Ontario?
For Ontario residents, yes. Publicly funded school boards charge no tuition for day school programmes to resident students, other than fees for non-resident students (Ontario.ca), and Ontario's adult diploma programme is free to Ontario residents who are citizens, permanent residents, Convention refugees or refugee claimants (Ontario.ca). TVO's Independent Learning Centre is subsidised rather than free, at a stated $40 administrative fee per course, and requires proof of Ontario residency and Canadian citizenship (ILC). A student living in Quebec generally will not meet those residency conditions. Private schools, including NPU, charge fees (NPU programme).
Are online high school credits from Ontario recognised by universities?
What a university reads is the Ontario Student Transcript, and it does not distinguish courses by delivery method. Ontario requires inspected private schools delivering diploma courses to meet the same standards on course integrity, assessment and reporting as publicly funded schools (Ontario Schools). What matters is that the school is inspected and authorised to grant courses toward the diploma, which you can verify on the Ministry's public list. Admission decisions remain each university's own.
Do I have to meet the Ontario literacy requirement if I arrive in Grade 12?
Yes. Ontario's transfer framework marks the literacy graduation requirement as required for incoming students regardless of what they completed elsewhere (Student records). EQAO notes that the expectation to write the literacy test applies to students who entered Grade 10 from out of province unless the principal grants a deferral, and that the Grade 12 literacy course is available as an alternative route in defined circumstances (EQAO). Ask your school which route applies to you before you enrol.
How many community involvement hours will I have to complete if I transfer in?
Ontario's provincial requirement is forty hours (Ontario.ca). For a student transferring in, the principal determines how many hours are required (Student records). Get the number in writing at the start of the year, not at the end.
Does an Ontario Grade 12 year replace the CEGEP?
No, and it is not framed as a replacement. They are two working routes to university with different shapes. The CEGEP leads to the DEC and is the standard route inside Quebec, including for several programmes built around it. Grade 12 leads to the OSSD, which is the format universities outside Quebec are built to read, on a one-year application calendar. NPU's own FAQ states that its Grade 12 programme “constitutes a separate pathway and is not a substitute for technical programs or preparatory tracks for pre-medical or law studies”. Choose on where the student wants to end up, and confirm requirements with each university.
Can I take Ontario Grade 12 courses in French?
NPU states that many of its courses are offered in English and in French (NPU FAQ). Note separately that Ontario's required subject list for English-language schools includes English in every year of secondary school (Ontario.ca), so discuss the language of instruction and the English requirement together when you plan your year.
Where to go from here
If you finished Secondary V this year and an Ontario Grade 12 year is on your list of options, the sequence is short. Read Ontario's own requirements page so you are working from the source. Verify that any school you are considering appears on the Ministry's list as authorised to grant courses toward the diploma. Then have your record read, because that is the only step that turns a general guide into your plan.
Send your relevé de notes and get an assessment of what an Ontario Grade 12 year would look like for you.
