Language: English and French

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Purpose:This guide offers school boards support with interpreting the information sharing guidelines provided by the Youth criminal Justice Act. The guide provides an outline of the legislation, lists issues that school boards need to address when developing an information sharing policy, and provides ideas for developing community prevention and reintegration partners. A sample policy is provided. Supporting workshops are available.

In March, 2003, CSBA released a revised version of The Need to Know: A Guide for Timely and Ongoing Information Sharing Between School Officials and Justice System Personnel with the Youth Criminal Justice Act. This guide is intended to support school boards as they create or modify their policies regarding information sharing. It was produced before the legislation's passing in order to allow enough time for policy preparation. The revised guide reflects changes that were made to the Youth Criminal Justice Act
prior to its coming into force on April 1, 2003.

With the new, community-based approach to youth justice comes a greater need for school boards to have timely information about the young people involved with the justice system. The safety of students and staff is a vital responsibility of school boards and school boards need to know if a young person is a potential safety concern. In order to serve the needs of these students, school boards have to know the nature of each student's needs before that student is in crisis. As a significant part of the young person's community, school boards also need to have enough information to plan, support and participate in prevention strategies. Additionally, school boards may require information to be able to support extra-judicial measures and court orders. For all these reasons, it is crucial that a strong information sharing policy is in place and that school boards form and maintain strong ties with justice system