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For the first time since 2020, Toronto’s kids are walking back into school zones that have no automated speed cameras watching over them. The province ordered every municipal camera in Ontario switched off on November 14, 2025, and the early data on what happened next is not comforting.
A City of Toronto report released in June found that in the months after the cameras came down, the number of drivers travelling 16 km/h or more over the limit in school and community safety zones rose by 380 per cent. Drivers going 11 to 15 km/h over were up 270 per cent. Two of the road deaths recorded between December and the end of May happened within 100 metres of a former camera location. Research from The Hospital for Sick Children and Toronto Metropolitan University had previously found the cameras cut speeding in school zones by roughly 45 per cent, and that drivers went right back to their old speeds once the cameras were gone.
The province has promised large flashing signs and a $210-million fund for speed bumps and raised crosswalks. The city says a full rebuild of school-zone safety will cost about $52 million and take 13 years. Toronto has 636 school zones and about 900 crossing guards. Every September, Toronto police run a back-to-school enforcement blitz that targets speeding, distracted driving, and illegal stopping around schools, and they wrapped a two-week micromobility campaign in late August specifically to get ahead of the school year.
So the enforcement gap is real, the city knows it, and police are trying to fill it with officers. In the meantime, the law itself has not changed. Every parent and every driver in the city should know what it says.
The Rules Every Driver in a School Zone Needs to Know
Community safety zones double the fines. Most Toronto school zones are also designated community safety zones under the Highway Traffic Act. Inside those zones, set fines for speeding and most other traffic offences are doubled. A ticket that would be an annoyance on Eglinton becomes a serious hit outside a school on a residential side street and the demerit points follow you onto your insurance record.
Stopping for a school bus is not optional. When a chrome-yellow school bus has its upper red lights flashing and its stop arm out, every driver approaching from either direction must stop at least 20 metres back if you are behind the bus, unless the road is divided by a physical median. Under Ontario’s school-bus stopping law, a first offence carries a fine of $400 to $2,000 and six demerit points. A second offence within five years carries $1,000 to $4,000, six more points, and up to six months in jail. If the driver cannot be identified, the vehicle’s registered owner can be fined instead.
Crossing guards and crossovers. At a pedestrian crossover or where a school crossing guard is holding up a stop sign, drivers must stop and wait until the pedestrian and the guard have completely cleared the roadway before proceeding. Rolling through once the child is “mostly across” is an offence.
Distracted driving. Holding a phone at a school pick-up, even at a full stop in traffic, is a distracted driving offence. A first conviction brings a fine of up to $1,000, three demerit points, and a three-day licence suspension.
What the Law Expects of the School
Once a child is inside the building or on the playground, a different body of law applies. The Supreme Court of Canada set the standard more than 40 years ago in Myers v. Peel County Board of Education: school authorities must supervise and protect students with the care of a “careful or prudent parent.” That standard flexes with the circumstances: the age of the students, the activity, the equipment involved, and the level of supervision a prudent parent would consider reasonable.
Two other pieces of Ontario law sit underneath that standard. The Education Act requires teachers to maintain order and ensure reasonable safety procedures are followed while on duty. And because a school board owns and controls the school property, it is an “occupier” under the Occupiers’ Liability Act, which requires it to take reasonable care to keep the premises reasonably safe for the people on them, including the playground equipment, the stairwells, and the ice on the front walk in January.
None of this makes a school responsible for every scraped knee. Children fall, and courts recognize that. The question in any school injury case is whether the harm was foreseeable and whether reasonable supervision or reasonable maintenance would have prevented it. Diamond and Diamond’s guide to who you take action against when a child is seriously injured at school explains how liability can reach a teacher, a principal, a school board, or a third party such as an equipment supplier or a bus operator, depending on the facts.
When a Child Is Hit on the Way to School
If a child is struck by a vehicle walking or cycling to school, the claim usually looks like a motor vehicle case rather than a school case, and Ontario law gives young pedestrians and cyclists a significant advantage. Under the Highway Traffic Act, when a motor vehicle collides with a pedestrian or cyclist, the burden shifts to the driver to prove the collision was not caused by their negligence. That “reverse onus” means the child’s family does not start from zero.
Courts also hold children to the standard of a child of similar age and experience, not to the standard of an adult. Very young children are generally not found to have contributed to their own injuries at all. That matters when an insurer argues that a seven-year-old “should have looked.”
A child’s claim also works differently from an adult’s in procedure. The lawsuit is brought by a parent or guardian acting as litigation guardian, and any settlement on behalf of a minor must be reviewed and approved by a judge before it is final. The law treats the timing of a child’s claim differently as well, Diamond and Diamond has a separate explainer on how Ontario’s Limitations Act applies to claims by injured children.
A Back-to-School Checklist for Toronto Parents
Knowing the law is one thing. Using it is another. Here is what actually moves the needle:
Before the first bell
- Walk the route together, at school-day times. Traffic at 8:15 a.m. on a Tuesday looks nothing like a Sunday afternoon stroll. Choose crossings with a guard or a marked crossover, even if it adds two minutes.
- Assume the cameras are gone, because they are. If your route passes a location that used to have a camera, treat it as a higher-risk crossing this year, not a lower-risk one.
- Phones in pockets, both directions. Teach kids that a phone is put away before stepping off the curb, and model it yourself in the car.
- Helmets are the law under 18. Any child riding a bicycle in Ontario must wear an approved helmet. If your teen is on an e-bike or e-scooter, check the City of Toronto’s current rules before September, Toronto has not opted in to the province’s e-scooter pilot, and police have been ticketing riders across the city.
If your child is hurt
- Get medical attention first, and get it documented. Even for an injury that seems minor. Concussion symptoms in children often surface hours or days later.
- Ask the school for its written incident report. Schools are required to record serious incidents. Request a copy in writing and note the names of any supervising staff and witnesses.
- Photograph everything. The equipment, the surface, the location, the weather, and the injury. If a vehicle was involved, get the driver’s name, licence plate, and insurance details, and call police to the scene.
- Do not sign anything from an insurer without advice. A quick release offered in the first week can close the door on a claim that should have covered years of a child’s recovery.
- Speak with a lawyer who handles child injury claims. Diamond and Diamond’s child injury lawyers can help families understand who may be responsible and what a claim on behalf of a minor involves.
Talk to a Lawyer Who Knows Ontario’s Rules for Children
Toronto’s school zones are more dangerous this September than they were a year ago, and the people most affected are the ones least able to protect themselves. When a driver, a school, or a property owner falls short of what the law requires, a child should not carry the cost of that failure into adulthood.
The team of lawyers at Diamond and Diamond have experience handling child injury claims throughout Ontario, from playground and school-supervision cases to collisions involving young pedestrians and cyclists. Call our 24/7 injury hotline at 1-800-567-HURT or visit diamondlaw.ca to speak with someone now. We offer free consultations and case evaluations, and represent families throughout Ontario.
About Jeremy Diamond