Ottawa student guide
How to get your 40 volunteer hours in Ottawa
Every Ontario student needs 40 hours of community involvement to graduate with an OSSD. Here’s exactly how the rule works in Ottawa, what counts, what each of the four Ottawa school boards wants before and after you volunteer, and how to make the whole thing painless.
The 40-hour rule, in plain English
To earn the Ontario Secondary School Diploma, every student must complete a minimum of 40 hours of community involvement — unpaid volunteer work that benefits the community. You can start the summer before Grade 9 and you have until the end of Grade 12 to finish. The requirement itself is provincial, so it is identical at all four Ottawa boards: OCDSB (English public), OCSB (English Catholic), CECCE (French Catholic) and CEPEO (French public). What differs is how each board wants the hours approved and handed in.
What counts
Eligible activities are a service you provide to meet a real community need, in a safe setting. That includes work with:
- Not-for-profit and charitable organizations
- Hospitals and long-term care facilities
- Public-sector institutions (libraries, the offices of local, provincial, or federal representatives)
- Religious, cultural, and community events
- First Nation, Métis, and Inuit communities and organizations
What doesn’t count
Some activities are specifically excluded by the Ministry. Avoid logging:
- Anything you’re paid for, or work normally done for wages
- A requirement of a course (e.g. co-op or experiential learning)
- Activities during your school’s instructional day
- Operating a vehicle or power tools, or administering medication
- Handling money/valuables at a bank, or duties needing a regulated tradesperson
- Chores normally done at home, or court-ordered programs
Each board keeps its own approved-activity list, so when in doubt, check with your guidance counsellor before you start.
Get it approved first — this part catches people out
Volunteering first and asking later is the single most expensive mistake you can make, because hours done without the approval your board requires can simply be refused. The four Ottawa boards do not treat this the same way.
| Board | Approval before you start? | Handing it in |
|---|---|---|
| OCDSBEnglish public | Only if the activity isn’t on the board’s approved list. Non-profits normally don’t need it; anything else needs written permission from your principal first. | Completion sheet to your guidance office. |
| OCSBEnglish Catholic | Only if the activity isn’t on the eligible list — and then it can’t start until permission is granted. | By the first week of January or June to land on that term’s report card. A non-parent supervisor must verify. |
| CECCEFrench Catholic | Always. Get the activity approved before you begin and pick up the Relevé du service communautaire first. | Within six months of finishing the hours. |
| CEPEOFrench public | Always. Your guidance counsellor validates the activity, and school administration approves it, before it runs. | Validation form to the guidance office once complete. |
If you’re at CECCE or CEPEO, treat the counsellor sign-off as step one, before you sign up for anything. Easy 40 proves you were there; it can’t retroactively approve an activity your school never agreed to. Rules change — your guidance office is always the final word.
How to submit your hours
The traditional path: the organization signs a paper form confirming the date and number of hours, and you hand that form to your school’s guidance office, which records it against your diploma requirements. Most of the time this works fine — you finish a shift, someone on site signs, done.
It fails in one specific way, and it is the way most students actually lose hours: you finish the shift, nobody is free to sign right then, you tell yourself you’ll sort it out next time — and you never go back. The volunteering happened. The proof never did. Losing the form is the recoverable version of this problem; never getting it signed is the one that costs you the hours.
Boards have noticed. OCSB now states plainly that parents and guardians can no longer sign off on hours, and asks for the contact details of a non-parent supervisor who can verify the activity. Being able to name a real, reachable person who confirmed you were there is becoming the standard, not a nice-to-have.
The easy way to do it
Easy 40 does two things. It shows you real Ottawa volunteer shifts that are actually looking for students — that part is useful on its own, and if you’d rather just get a paper form signed on site, do that. And when the organization tracks the shift here, they confirm your attendance afterwards, so there is nothing you have to remember to carry, catch someone for, or come back about. You export a dated record your counsellor can check against a live database in under a minute. You never mark your own hours — that’s the whole point.
Going past 40 hours
If you complete 50 or more hours, you may be eligible for the Minister’s Certificate of Recognition for Community Involvement — an official provincial credential (Bronze, Silver, or Gold) that strengthens job, scholarship, and university applications.
Common questions
When can I start earning my 40 hours?
You can begin counting community involvement hours the summer before you start Grade 9. They don’t have to wait until school starts — a summer volunteer shift before Grade 9 counts.
What is the deadline to finish?
You must complete all 40 hours by the end of Grade 12 to receive your OSSD. Most Ottawa students finish well before then; spreading the hours across all four years is far easier than scrambling in Grade 12.
Do hours I earned in another city count?
Yes. The 40-hour requirement is provincial, not city-specific. Hours volunteered anywhere in Ontario (or recognized by your school board) count toward your OSSD as long as the activity is eligible and properly documented.
I volunteered but never got my sheet signed. Are those hours gone?
Usually, yes — and this is how most students actually lose hours. Not by losing the form, but by finishing a shift, meaning to get it signed later, and never going back. Your best move is to contact the organization now and ask them to confirm the date and hours in writing; a dated email from a supervisor is worth far more than nothing, and many guidance offices will accept it. Going forward, get the signature before you leave, every time.
What if I lose my signed paper form?
Ask the organization to re-sign a copy — losing the form is annoying but recoverable, as long as someone there remembers you. It is easier if you never depended on the paper: when a shift is tracked on Easy 40, the hosting organization confirms your attendance directly, so your record can be re-exported any time and checked against a live database.
Does Ottawa have a separate deadline for submitting hours?
Submission is handled by your school board and your school’s guidance office, not by the province, and the four Ottawa boards differ. OCSB asks for hours by the first week of January or June so they land on that term’s report card. CECCE asks for them within six months of completing the activity. OCDSB and CEPEO set theirs through your school. Don’t sit on completed hours — hand them in as you go.
Do I need permission before I start volunteering?
It depends on your board, and it matters. At CECCE and CEPEO you need approval for every activity before you begin — CEPEO wants your guidance counsellor to validate it and school administration to approve it beforehand. At OCDSB and OCSB you generally don’t need prior approval for work with a non-profit, but anything off their approved list must be cleared first and cannot start until permission is granted. Ask your guidance office before your first shift, not after.
Sources: the Ontario Ministry of Education’s high-school volunteer hours guidance and the OCDSB community involvement requirements. Always confirm specifics with your own school’s guidance office.