About
Our work in education, student mental health, wellness, and suicide prevention, and disability inclusion focuses on bringing students, educators, families, professionals, and communities together to better understand the complex causes of school absence and chronic absenteeism. By sharing knowledge, research, and lived experience, we aim to identify effective, inclusive, and compassionate responses.
Through collaborative, whole-school approaches, we seek to address the interconnected challenges of student attendance, mental health, and youth suicide prevention. Our goal is to support schools in developing environments where every student feels understood, included, and able to access and succeed in their education.
About YMHC
Youth Mental Health Canada is a registered charitable non-profit organization, focused on mental health education, support, advocacy, and change.
YMHC focuses on evidence-based, strength-focused, trauma-informed, and culturally sensitive tools for wellness that are proactive, practical, and empowering.
About Sheryl
Sheryl Boswell is the Executive Director and Founder of Youth Mental Health Canada and an educator, career counsellor, and life skills coach.
Sheryl’s presentations, workshops, and courses consolidate her background in education, mental health and wellness, human rights and equity, and disability awareness and support.
Sheryl started her teaching career as a Special Education teacher in Zimbabwe, Africa, where she lived for three years. Sheryl brings broad teaching knowledge from working with elementary, secondary, postsecondary, and adult education students in various educational institutions and facilities. She is a passionate educator and lifelong learner.
Her work in the school attendance field as a Stay-in-School Coordinator began over thirty years ago. Since then, she has contributed to provincial and national educational change to support students with mental health disabilities and school attendance challenges by training education and mental health professionals, providing resources to support students, school staff, and mental health professionals, and contributing to policies, practice, and guidelines for accessible education and cultural and systemic change in education.
She has presented information to the media on school attendance challenges: CBC, Toronto Star, TVO’s The Agenda.
Sheryl has written Tier 1 resources for universal student support: five mental wellness journal workbooks, five booklets/printables, and an online course, the Youth Wellness Action Plan.
She has written Tier 2 and 3 resources for early intervention and targeted support: a guidebook on supporting students with school attendance challenges, a student workbook for upstream prevention, a comprehensive handbook, and an online course on school-wide strategies to support students.
She is the author of four evidence and strength-based, peer-reviewed resources on school attendance challenges:
- Guidebook on Supporting Students
- Handbook on School Attendance Challenges: Addressing Barriers to Education
- Student Workbook: “My Experience of School: Upstream Chronic Absenteeism Prevention”
- School-Wide Strategies to Support Students Online Course
Sheryl is a member of the International Association of Youth Mental Health,the International Network for School Attendance, the International Association for Suicide Prevention, and other organizations focused on youth mental health, suicide prevention, and school attendance.
About our commitment
We are committed to education equity, disability inclusion, trauma and culturally sensitive approaches, and schooling models that fit the needs of all students.
Our Vision of Student Well-Being and Educational Equity and Access Includes:
- Equitable and universal access to education and learning opportunities
- Barrier-free learning environments with an awareness of potential barriers and action to respond and reduce learning challenges.
- Strength-based education focused on students' interests, motivators, and passions to increase engagement, relevance, and motivation for learning.
- Inclusive education systems
- Needs-based and accessible education supports
- Safe, supportive, and inclusive learning environments that recognize the impact of trauma and promote students' emotional well-being, resilience, and ability to engage in learning.
About the scale of the problem
About 25% of students experience school attendance challenges at some point during their schooling years, often related to anxiety or other mental health challenges.
A study of Greater Toronto schools found a 600% increase in extreme absenteeism (missing more than 50% of classes) in 2021, affecting almost 9,000 students.
A CBC investigation reported around 50% of elementary students chronically absent in one Maritime school board in 2022–2023.
New Brunswick example: In the Anglophone West School District, about 70% of secondary students were chronically absent in 2023.
In a national analysis of Canadian attendance data covering more than 740,000 students across 11 regions, researchers found that absenteeism rates increased significantly after COVID-19, reaching the highest recorded levels.
School attendance is considered a key social determinant of child health, meaning consistent attendance is strongly connected to long-term well-being.
Canada does not currently have national public data on school absenteeism, making it difficult to track trends or develop coordinated strategies.
Canada has no national system for tracking school attendance, meaning attendance data is fragmented across provinces and school boards.
In Canada, we have a public health crisis involving young people. The statistics are clear: we have a school attendance, youth mental health, and suicide crisis.
- There are thousands of children struggling to attend school.
- We challenge the rigid education system that excludes, fails, and ignores students, denies needs-based education, increases suicide risk factors, and turns a blind eye to the suffering of so many young people.
- We champion every student and family with lived experience of school attendance challenges. We see you. We hear you, and we validate your experiences. You have suffered for far too long.
- We value every education and mental health professional working to make a difference for students who face many barriers to education and learning. Students with these challenges and barriers need many champions.