Homework is studying, not busy work:
The Ministry of Education and Training strongly suggests that students have '10-minutes per grade per night' available for homework (70 minutes a night for grade 7s, 80 minutes for grade 8s). Homework includes at-home practice (that will not be graded but will ensure student success on in-class assessments), review of the days work, and pre-reading or pre-viewing text or video in preparation for upcoming activities or assessments. Examples might include re-writing notes to improve retention, making review cards, or recreating diagrams from memory. Students will not be assessed (ie. graded) on work done at home. This is a relatively new concept for many of us, but it started to be phased in seven years ago, and is the norm across the province. So, you will not see extra 'busy' worksheets coming home. You may on occasion see unfinished classwork or projects coming home to be completed independently.
Again, busy work is never assigned, nor is 'practice' assessed.
All students are expected to demonstrate their understanding, independently, and in-class (ie. "I'll do it at home later" is not acceptable. IEP students are also expected to demonstrate their learning, as outlined in their IEP and with the provided accommodations, independently, and in-class.
How can you help? Give them a set time and place to study/review. Make sure they are not over-programmed so that they have that guaranteed time, and remind them that there's no such thing as 'no homework' -- but studying happens every night.