Ontario's Education Ministry is promising action following NEWSTALK 1010's investigation into the rising problem of violence in the classroom.
The new initiative involves sending out enforcement teams to each of Ontario's 72 school boards to ensure they are complying with the obligations set out in the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
Ontario Education Minister Mitzie Hunter emphasized the importance of these new efforts to ensure safety for the community.
"We want to support our schools to make sure that they're places of well-being for all students and staff who work there."
Reporting requirements, which have been an ongoing struggle for students and staff alike, will also be improved, says Hunter. The aim is to simplify the process for collecting and tracking data on violent outbursts in the classroom.
"We're going to create an online tool and we're going to make sure everyone knows that it's safe to report if an incident occurs."
That tool will allow education workers and parents to report incidents of violence at school so that they can be investigated and catalogued.
The hope is that with better understanding of these isolated cases of aggression, school communities can prevent incidents from escalating into further violence down the line.
"We want to reinforce and build a culture of safety," Hunter says.
Another priority will be to increase access to information and training resources on students with special needs, enabling education workers to provide these students with proper support.
Hunter confirmed that these changes will come into effect as soon as September of this year.