Hagersville Complex - Sprucedale School

• Hagersville Complex - Sprucedale School

• Sprucedale School (Simcoe, Ont.)

Able to accommodate up to 90 boys, this regional school accepted boys from Southwestern Ontario. A full school program was highly individualized with special emphasis on remediation of diagnosed special learning disabilities. The Sprucedale program was built around a shift away from individual counselling into the development of small groups that lived together and work with mutual problem solving. Family therapy was conducted for those boys and their parents who wish to participate.

The facility became co-educational in 1977, and moved to Simcoe, Ontario, in 1978. In 1987, the Sprucedale Youth Centre became a correctional facility for young offenders age 16-17 charged under the federal Young Offenders Act. These offenders fell under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Correctional Services, although the facility continued to take 12 to 15 year old young offenders, who fell under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Community and Social Services.

Also known as the Ontario Training School for Boys, Hagersville Senior School, this facility opened in Hagersville, in 3 January 1966 as a training school for boys aged 12 to 17 years. Training schools are facilities for youth placed under the wardship of the Ontario government. After 1978, the government's policy was to place youths in training schools only when they posed a danger to themselves or to others.

No authorizing agent has been identified for this agency.

RAD: Rules for Archival Description, 2nd edn (2008)

2026-11-16: migrated to AtoM

Government of Ontario Telephone Directory, 1998. Ministry of Correctional Services Annual Report, 1987. Ministry of Correctional Services Annual Report, 1991.

Archivist(s):
McIlroy