For centres and agencies · 7 min

Serious occurrences: what counts and the 24-hour rule

The short answer

A serious occurrence is a child’s death, abuse or neglect (or an allegation of either), a life-threatening injury or illness, a child missing or left unsupervised, or an unplanned disruption that puts children at risk. The licensee reports it to the Ministry within 24 hours of the licensee or supervisor learning of it, posts a summary for at least 10 business days and keeps that summary for three years.

Checked against e-Laws on Oct 27, 2026. Section numbers are O. Reg. 137/15 unless another instrument is named.

A serious occurrence is one of five things: the death of a child; abuse, neglect or an allegation of abuse or neglect of a child while in care; a life-threatening injury or illness; a child who goes missing or is temporarily unsupervised; or an unplanned disruption of normal operations that poses a risk to children. The licensee reports it to the Ministry within 24 hours of the licensee or supervisor becoming aware, posts a summary of the report and the action taken for at least 10 business days, and keeps the summary for three years (s. 38).

The definition (s. 1)

The death of a child who received child care at the centre or home.
Abuse, neglect, or an allegation of abuse or neglect of a child while receiving child care.
A life-threatening injury to, or life-threatening illness of, a child in care.
An incident in which a child in care goes missing or is temporarily unsupervised.
An unplanned disruption of the normal operations of the centre or home that poses a risk to the health, safety or well-being of the children.

Two points trip people up. An allegation is a serious occurrence whether or not it is later substantiated. And “temporarily unsupervised” is a serious occurrence even when the child was found in minutes and unharmed: the test is the lapse, not the outcome.

The 24 hours

The report goes to an inspector or program advisor within 24 hours of the licensee or supervisor becoming aware of the occurrence (s. 38(1)(b)). Licensees file it through the Ministry’s Child Care Licensing System (CCLS); the Licensing Manual describes the form. The clock starts at awareness, not at the incident, which is why the time someone first learned of it belongs in the record.

The posting

A summary of the report, and of any action taken as a result, is posted in a conspicuous place at the centre or home for at least 10 business days (s. 38(1)(c)). Neither the Act nor the regulation defines a business day: KeepCount counts the weekdays that are not holidays under the Legislation Act, 2006 (s. 88), so two full weeks, longer when a holiday falls in them, and it does not let the summary come down sooner. A posting that comes down the following Friday is short. Days the centre or home is closed still count; keeping the summary up for those days too is the cautious choice, since no family could read it then. The summary is then kept in accordance with s. 82, that is, for at least three years.

The policy

Every licensee must have written policies and procedures on serious occurrences that cover, at a minimum, how to identify one, how to respond and how to report (s. 38(1)(a)). Like every policy, it has to be implemented and covered by the licensee’s own monitoring policy (s. 6.1(1), (7)), and the Licensing Manual recommends, as a best practice, reviewing it with every employee, volunteer and student before they interact with children and suggests keeping track of when and by whom it was reviewed.

The daily written record is different (s. 37)

Separately, the licensee keeps a daily written record summarizing any incident affecting the health, safety or well-being of a child or of staff, with the parent notified when a child is involved. Most entries in it are not serious occurrences: a scraped knee, a bump, a child sent home with a fever. The two records should agree where they overlap; an inspector usually reads the daily record looking for anything that should also appear in the serious-occurrence file.

From January 1, 2027

The missing-child policy and drills added by s. 68.2 sit alongside s. 38: the drill is practice for the response, and a real missing child remains a serious occurrence to report. See the 2027 changes.

Sources

O. Reg. 137/15 as consolidated on e-Laws (consolidation from July 1, 2026; last amendment O. Reg. 197/26). This guide explains the regulation in plain words; it is not legal advice, and the Ministry’s program advisors decide compliance.