Residential schools in Canada operated for over 160 years, beginning in the early 1800s with the first church-run Indian Residential School opening in 1831. The federal government formally expanded and funded the system starting in the 1880s, making attendance compulsory in 1920 for Indigenous children between the ages of 7 and 15 under the Indian Act. The last federally funded residential school closed in 1997. These schools were spread across most provinces and territories and were part of a broader policy of forced assimilation of Indigenous children by separating them from their families and cultures.
