Absenteeism among school support staff across Quebec’s 72 school boards has surged over a five-year period, with CNESST-recognized work stoppages doubling and sick leave nearly doubling between 2020 and 2025. Driven by severe workplace violence, intense workloads, and hiring freezes, the shortage has emptied replacement lists and heavily impacted daily student services.
Public School Support Staff Absenteeism Surges Across Quebec Classrooms
Operational Risk Takeaways
- Work Stoppages Double: Labor board-recognized work stoppages for educational support staff have risen over a five-year window, outpacing the sector’s 11% workforce growth.
- Exhaustion Hits Early: Labor unions report that burnout and sick leaves are no longer concentrated at year-end, with staff going on leave as early as September and October.
- Structural Gridlock: Ongoing hiring freezes on administrative support staff, paired with empty substitute lists, leave schools with limited operational buffers.
Analyzing the Five-Year Rise in School Absenteeism Metrics
Data obtained through access-to-information requests from the Ministry of Education details a sharp divergence between labor force expansion and employee attrition. While total support staff headcounts across Quebec’s 72 school boards grew by 11%, the utilization of sick leave, disability days, and occupational injury claims rose. Disability leave alone expanded by nearly 40% over the same timeframe.
Here is the math: worker absences are scaling at a rate faster than overall personnel growth. The data encompasses crucial front-line and operational roles, including daycare educators, specialized education technicians (TES), class aides, school secretaries, and janitorial personnel. However, the Ministry of Education has not broken down these metrics by specific job categories, leaving the exact distribution between administrative and classroom-facing staff opaque.
| Leave Category | Observed Increase (5-Year Trend) | Baseline Context |
|---|---|---|
| CNESST Work Stoppages | Doubled | Outpaces overall 11% staff growth significantly |
| Sick Leave Days | Nearly Doubled | Compiled via FPSS-CSQ and Radio-Canada data (2020–2025) |
| Disability Leave | +40% | Spanning all 72 Quebec school boards |
Escalating Workplace Violence and Surcharge Driving Early Burnout
Labor organizations, including the Fédération du personnel de soutien scolaire (FPSS-CSQ) and the Fédération des employées et employés de services publics (FEESP-CSN), attribute the crisis to mounting workloads and escalating physical and verbal violence inside schools. According to Éric Pronovost, president of the FPSS-CSQ, “On peine à avoir des remplaçants parce qu’il n’y a plus personne sur les listes de remplacement.”
The timing of these departures has also shifted. Annie Charland, president of the school support sector at FEESP-CSN, notes that leaves are hitting much earlier in the academic calendar. “Avant, les gens étaient en surcharge à la fin de l’année. Là, on voit nos gens tomber avant Noël, même parfois fin septembre ou octobre,” Charland states.
Front-line workers bear the brunt of these conditions. Rose, an educator and class aide with over two decades of experience in the school system, points to an influx of students with severe behavioral difficulties, violence, opposition, and pervasive developmental disorders who lack proper professional support services. Last spring, Rose suffered a cervico-dorsal sprain and concussion after a student threw a block of ice at her head—an injury that required emergency hospitalization and current compensation through the CNESST.
Administrative Constraints and the Impact on Institutional Stability
The operational disruption extends far beyond individual classrooms. Francis Côté, president of the Fédération québécoise des directions d’établissement d’enseignement (FQDE), emphasizes the systemic friction: “L’absentéisme amène beaucoup d’instabilité dans les établissements. Ça a un impact sur l’ensemble des services qui sont donnés aux élèves.”
Compounding the labor shortage is an administrative hiring freeze that has been enforced since 2024 by the outgoing government. By blocking the recruitment of administrative support staff, the directive restricts institutional adaptability.
Simon Viviers, a professor at the Faculty of Education Sciences of Université Laval whose research focuses on work and mental health among educational personnel, stresses that these systemic metrics require attention. With replacement lists effectively empty, administrative teams face constrained operational capacity.
Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
