Ontario schools have one-third of a million students with disabilities. Far too many suffer from all kinds of disability barriers at school.
In January 2022, the Ontario government received a blueprint on how to fix this, from a government-appointed panel of experts from the school system and the disability community.
The government never implemented it.
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At a Queen's Park news conference last week, myself and other disability advocates urged parents of students with disabilities in Ontario-funded schools to call Education Minister Paul Calandra and press for his help if they are one of the many students whose disability-related learning needs are underserved at school.
We launched our "Better Call Paul" campaign as a response to the province seizing control of some Ontario schools.
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Calandra is micromanaging school boards that he has seized, ousting their elected trustees.
He's deciding how many students there will be in some special education classes or whether a school board's Special Education Advisory Committee meetings can be livestreamed, or even whether a school's name should be changed.
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If a frustrated parent has no elected trustee to go to seek help, we're urging them to call the only elected politician who can -- the education minister.
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Parents of students with physical, mental health, sensory, neurological, learning or other disabilities must prepare for the possibility that the Ford government will abolish all elected school board trustees, making Calandra Ontario's uber-trustee for all.
They should start calling the minister now to ask for help for their kids at school.
Did your school tell your child they cannot come to school at all, or can only stay for part of the school day? Better Call Paul!
Have you asked for your child to have a special needs assistant to ensure they are safe throughout the school day, but the school refused because they don't have enough staff? Better call Paul.
Did you find out to your horror that the school put your child in a padded isolation room without your consent, and without staff monitoring their safety? Better call Paul.
Has your school sent you an Individual Education Plan listing what they'll do to meet your child's disability-related needs, but fail to do what they promised? Better Call Paul!
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Did your school board increase the size of your child's special education class in a way that makes it harder for your child to learn? Better Call Paul.
Until recently, when all else failed, parents could call their elected school board trustee for help. But no longer at Dufferin-Peel Catholic, Ottawa-Carleton, Thames Valley, Toronto Catholic and Toronto district school boards.
Senior bureaucrats running school boards need to be publicly accountable for how they serve our children.
Overburdened parents of students with disabilities too often find dealing with them to be upsetting, stressful and unsuccessful.
The premier hasn't talked to the disability community to get input on the impact on students with disabilities of different options for reforming Ontario's education system.
I applied to speak at public hearings on Bill 33, which addresses this topic. However, a closure motion banned any public hearings from being held on that bill.
Three days after our news conference, the province announced it is directing all school boards to establish "Student and Family Support Offices," starting with the five overseen by the province.
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Its announcement lacks key requirements recommended almost four years ago by that same panel of experts. These are necessary to make these offices effective. It commits no provincial funding, vital to ensure that underfunded special education programs aren't raided to finance this.
The province's announcement doesn't address or even mention vulnerable students with disabilities.
It doesn't require call-takers in these Student and Family Support Offices have expertise in disability education to competently investigate and solve problems presented by parents of students with disabilities. Nor does it ensure that these offices will have the authority to fix these problems.
Even if Ford had properly funded these offices and required them to be staffed by those trained in disability education and dispute mediation, and even if they have authority to solve disability problems, parents still need elected trustees as a final resort.
Otherwise, the school boards' senior staff will be an unaccountable law unto themselves, with no democratic oversight.
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