Large numbers of the Aboriginal children who were sent to residential schools never returned to their home communities. Some of these children ran away, while others died at the schools. The exact number of children who died at school may never be known, but the death rates for many schools, particularly during times of epidemic or disease, were very high.

Sometimes parents never found out what happened to their children. The students who did not return have come to be known as the Missing Children. Working with Survivors and Aboriginal organizations, the Missing Children Projects is documenting the deaths and the burial places of children who died while attending the schools.

To date the TRC has identified the names of, or information about, more than 4,100 children who died of disease or accident while attending a residential school.

This information will be compiled into a national register that will hold all of the information we know about these children.