Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) Graduation Requirements

At St. Louis, we offer courses for credit, using teacher-delivered instruction, online self-study, hands-on and cooperative experience, as well as a blend of any and all of these approaches.

Attended any high school (even for 1 credit) before June 1999?

Please contact Guidance for a Mature Student Assessment via the Guidance Intake Form.

Attended High School anytime from June 1999 to present?

If you entered Grade 9 at an Ontario high school at any time since July 1999, you would be pursuing the current OSSD requirements. The current OSSD requires you to achieve 30 Secondary School credits. Please contact St. Louis Guidance online via Guidance Intake Form to speak with a counsellor to:

determine if you are eligible for PLAR,
review how many credits you actually need and
find the pathway that is for you to reach your next goal.

Courses / Credits

Check the Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) Requirements webpage to see the courses and credits needed for graduation.

Community Service Hours

Even as an adult, you are required to complete and submit records of community involvement. Once you have registered for a credit course at St. Louis and are working toward your high school diploma, guidance counsellors will review with you how many hours you still need to complete this graduation expectation. Don’t let this important record stand between you and your Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD)!

For your convenience, here is a link to the Volunteer Waterloo Region where you can search for volunteer opportunities. You can manage your volunteer hours using this Community Involvement Record Tracking Sheet.

For more information on this graduation requirement, please see your guidance counsellor.

Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT)

The Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) is a compulsory standardized test for ALL secondary school students in Ontario who wish to obtain the Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD).

The OSSLT is not offered at St. Louis. We offer the OLC4O course (Ontario Literacy Course) which replaces the need for the test, and fulfills the literacy requirement of the OSSD. This OLC course is available through St. Louis online or remote learning day classes.

Exception notice: For students who entered Grade 9 in 1999–2000, successful completion of the test is not a graduation requirement. However, for those students who took the field test of the OSSLT in 2000–2001, failed the test, and chose to retake the OSSLT in October 2001, successful completion of the provincial literacy graduation requirement became a diploma requirement. This test is administered by the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO).

Report Cards and Transcripts

Report cards can be picked up at the Main Office 2 weeks after the end of a course. ID is required.

Transcripts and Credit Counselling Summaries from St. Louis can be ordered by contacting Mary.Germann@wcdsb.ca

Ontario Secondary School Diplomas are issued only once a year (Fall after the previous school year) and signed by the Minster of Education. In order to receive your OSSD, you must meet all the diploma requirements and submit an completed Intent to Graduate form.

Program Integrity and Plagiarism

At St. Louis, we hold a high standard of integrity to ensure that the Secondary School Credit (SSC) you earn with us follows the same Ontario Ministry of Education curriculum guidelines as any Secondary School or Adult Education facility in Ontario. To maintain the integrity of earning a Secondary School Credit (SSC), a student must:

have a recorded 90-110 hours of instruction, self-study or cooperative hours (depending on the program format);
complete all assignments and evaluations
and achieve a minimum grade of 50%.

If any of these are in question, students are encouraged to discuss concerns in-person with their instructor and the school Principal or Vice-Principal.

What is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is a serious offence.

Plagiarism is commonly defined as “the practice of copying work or ideas from another source and passing them off as one’s own”. This includes cutting and pasting from internet sources or another student’s work.

Plagiarism is an act of dishonesty, cheating and diminishes academic standards and is subject to disciplinary action.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) could be considered plagiarism. Please follow your teacher’s direction about the use of AI.

Teachers who suspect or identify plagiarism will assign a mark of zero for that lesson, part of that lesson or completed assignment and report it to a school Administrator. Continued plagiarism can result in removal from the course or program area.

For more information on the steps to avoid plagiarism, please consult any St. Louis teacher.