Ontario High School Diploma: Every Requirement, and What Changed in 2024

The short answer

Thirty credits, forty hours of volunteering, and the literacy requirement. That is the whole diploma in one line. Everything below is the detail — and the detail matters more than it used to, because there are currently two versions of the Ontario diploma running side by side.

Which one applies depends on one thing only: the year your teenager started Grade 9. If you have a Grade 12 and a Grade 10 in the same house, they are working towards different requirements.

Which set of rules applies to your teenager

• Started Grade 9 in 2023 or earlier: 18 compulsory credits, 12 optional.
• Started Grade 9 in 2024 or later: 17 compulsory credits, 13 optional — plus a technological education credit and a STEM group credit that the older rules never asked for.

Fewer compulsory credits does not mean easier. The new list is more prescriptive: maths is pinned to Grade 9, Grade 10 and one senior credit, and two of the slots are spoken for by technology and STEM.

The 18 compulsory credits — Grade 9 in 2023 or earlier

• 4 — English. One per grade.
• 3 — Mathematics. At least one in Grade 11 or 12.
• 3 — Group 1, 2 and 3 courses. One from each group — the lists are below.
• 2 — Science.
• 1 — Canadian history. Grade 10.
• 1 — Canadian geography. Grade 9.
• 1 — The arts.
• 1 — Health and physical education.
• 1 — French as a second language.
• 0.5 — Career studies.
• 0.5 — Civics and citizenship.

The three group credits

Three of those 18 come from three separate lists, one each. This is the part parents find confusing, and it is also where the flexibility hides.

• Group 1: English or French as a second language, Native languages, First Nations, Métis and Inuit studies, classical and international languages, social sciences and humanities, Canadian and world studies, guidance and career education, co-operative education, American Sign Language, Langue des signes québécoise.
• Group 2: Health and physical education, the arts, business studies, French as a second language, co-operative education, American Sign Language, Langue des signes québécoise.
• Group 3: Science (Grade 11 or 12), technological education, French as a second language, computer studies, co-operative education, American Sign Language, Langue des signes québécoise.

Two limits worth knowing: a maximum of two French-as-a-second-language credits can count across the groups, and a maximum of two co-operative education credits.

The 17 compulsory credits — Grade 9 in 2024 or later

• 4 — English. One per grade.
• 3 — Mathematics. Grade 9, Grade 10, and one in Grade 11 or 12 — tighter than the old rule.
• 2 — Science.
• 1 — Technological education. New. Grade 9 or Grade 10.
• 1 — Canadian history. Grade 10.
• 1 — Canadian geography. Grade 9.
• 1 — The arts.
• 1 — Health and physical education.
• 1 — French as a second language.
• 0.5 — Career studies.
• 0.5 — Civics and citizenship.
• 1 — STEM-related course group. New. One from business studies, computer studies, co-op, or an extra maths, science or tech credit.

The STEM group credit can be business studies, computer studies, co-operative education, or an additional credit in maths, science or technological education beyond the compulsory ones.

The three requirements that are not credits

Forty hours of community involvement

Volunteering, and it can start the summer before Grade 9. Boards publish their own lists of what qualifies, so check before your teenager commits forty hours to something that turns out not to count. This is the requirement most likely to be left to the last minute and the easiest one to enjoy — the Serve First projects we run exist partly because a young person doing something visibly useful in their own town is worth more than forty hours of anything.

The literacy requirement

For most students this is the OSSLT, the provincial literacy test. Students who do not pass have other routes, including the literacy course — the principal is the person to ask, and asking early is better than asking in Grade 12.

Two online learning credits

For anyone who started Grade 9 in 2020-21 or later. Students who were in Grade 9 during the April-to-June 2021 closure can count one credit earned then. Opting out exists but is narrow.

New this year: the financial literacy requirement

Students who began Grade 9 in 2025-26 or later must earn at least 70% on financial literacy modules inside the Grade 10 Career Studies course. It is worth 5% of the final mark in that course, there are two attempts, and it takes effect in the 2026-27 school year — which is this one.

It is worth saying plainly what this means for a Grade 9 or 10 parent: the half-credit Career Studies course, which used to be the one nobody thought about, is now the course carrying a graduation requirement. If your teenager finds money and business abstract, that is the course to pay attention to, and it is the exact ground Business 101 covers — free, and built for this age.

What this all adds up to, for a parent

The diploma is a floor, not a plan. Thirty credits is what the province requires; it says nothing about whether your teenager is heading somewhere they will be glad of. The two questions worth asking alongside the credit count are which optional credits are being spent well, and whether anyone has asked the student what they actually want.

• Optional credits are the real choice. Twelve or thirteen of the thirty are theirs to spend. Spent on courses that open a pathway — a trade, a co-op, a senior science — they are worth more than the compulsory ones.
• Co-op is the underrated move. It counts, it can fill compulsory slots, and it puts a teenager near real work, which is the single thing that makes a career decision concrete.
• Grade 10 is earlier than it feels. Course selection in Grade 10 sets what is possible in Grade 11 and 12. By the time it is obvious, some doors have quietly shut.

If your teenager has no idea what they want yet — which is normal and not a problem — the free career test takes ten minutes and stores nothing, and the guide to what comes after high school lays out every real option with what it costs and how to change your mind. If it has gone past reading and into worry, this is what one-to-one coaching involves.