Hagersville Complex - White Oaks Village

• Hagersville Complex - White Oaks Village

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 school was designed to treat younger children in family-like settings with a high adult /child ratio. After an initial period spent in the reception house, each boy was placed in a house with seven or eight other youths and five staff members, male and female, who work on a rotating shift basis. Close relationships between staff and children was encouraged and regular house conferences are held. Reward for acceptable behaviour was stressed. With this younger age group, the concentration was on increasing self-confidence and achievement potential rather than on controlling delinquent behaviour per se. Learning disabilities were treated by specially trained teachers. Becoming a centre for the emotionally disturbed in 1977, it was administered separately.

Also known as the Ontario Training School for Boys, Hagersville Junior School, this facility opened in Hagersville, in 3 January 1966 as school for boys under the age of 12 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.

White Oaks Village was opened as a training school for boys aged 7 to 12 years. Training schools are facilities for youth placed under the wardship of the Ontario government. The schools offer a variety of vocational and occupational training to their wards, as well as treatment services and recreational programs.

In 1977, it became a centre for the emotionally disturbed of any age.

No authorizing agent has been identified for this agency.

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

2026-11-16: migrated to AtoM

RG 60 Administrative history file, Health/Social portfolio.

Archivist(s):
McIlroy