With the start of the tenth season, the series survived longer than the nine-year gap between the Degrassi High telemovie School's Out (1992) and The Next Generation's premiere episode "Mother and Child Reunion" (2001).

This season depicts the lives of a group of high school sophomores, juniors, seniors, and graduates as they deal with some of the challenges and issues that teenagers face such as domestic violence, dysfunctional families, self image, bullying, sexual harassment, gender identity/transsexualism, teenage pregnancy, online predators, homophobia, school violence, divorce, religion, kidney failure, self-harm, alcoholism, sexual identity, financial difficulties, running away and relationships.

Joining the main cast this season are: Half-way through the season, recurring actors Shannon Kook-Chun and Daniel Kelly who play Zane Park (13 episodes) and Owen Milligan (12 episodes) were promoted to the main cast while Jamie Johnston and Judy Jiao departed.

The casting director is Stephanie Gorin, and the editors are Jason B. Irvine, Gordon Thorne, and Paul Whitehead.

Episode writers for the season are Cole Bastedo, Sarah Glinski, Michael Grassi, Matt Huether, James Hurst, Vera Santamaria, Shelly Scarrow, Duana Taha, and Brendon Yorke.

The first run, of 24 episodes, began after the feature-length film Degrassi Takes Manhattan in July 2010, and ran for six weeks.

Meanwhile, Anya struggles with finding out that her mother has cancer, which comes at a bad time when she has to do a project with two people whom she doesn't want to see: Sav and Holly J.

Meanwhile, Clare utilizes her newfound rebelliousness and her dark boyfriend, Eli, to find common ground with her parents and bring them back together.

Also, Wesley makes his attempt to set the Guinness World Record for most Pogo stick jumps in a 24-hour period.

[9] Degrassi was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award in the Best Drama Series category, alongside Brothers & Sisters, Grey's Anatomy, Pretty Little Liars, and the winner True Blood.

[12] It also received a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award in the outstanding children's program category, alongside iCarly, Victorious, Wizards of Waverly Place, and winner A Child's Garden of Poetry.