BCEdAccess Society

School has been back in session for almost three weeks. We put out a call in our Facebook group for people to come forward and tell the public what is really going on inside schools. These stories are very upsetting.

We have a school system in BC that is designed to fail students with disabilities and diverse abilities. Which is heartbreaking, as it doesn’t need to be designed this way. We can change it.

The government needs a good dose of Whitney Houston, Can we blast this song from all of the schools?

“I believe the children are our are future
Teach them well and let them lead the way
Show them all the beauty they possess inside
Give them a sense of pride to make it easier”

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“If we just reduced the number of people experiencing a new mental illness in a given year by 10% –
something that is very feasible in many illnesses among young people, after 10 years, we could be
saving the economy at least $4 billion a year.” – Investing in Mental Health

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We are not reducing, we are increasing.

Schools are becoming petri dishes that are intensifying current mental health issues and creating new ones. It’s not just teachers and EAs being pushed out of the system. The students are stressed out too!

Chronic underfunding is causing more and more children with disabilities and neurodiversities to be pushed out of the classroom into online learning or homeschooling. This puts an incredible strain on families. To read more about exclusion from brick-and-mortar schools to online learning, here is a collection of stories of exclusion. Here is the link to the exclusion surveys for the Ombudsperson BC investigation.

As you read through the list of stories, I ask that you keep in mind a few things.

1. How schools are organized to welcome back students is designed by adults. How we organize our time and resources could change; if we wanted to, we could do something different. We aren’t dealing with the law of gravity. Different provinces and countries start their back-to-school session in different ways.
2. You will notice how the system is designed to set teachers up to fail and lead to school exclusion.
3. Our education system has a legal obligation to provide all students with a quality education. For students with disabilities, our education system is required to not discriminate. Students shouldn’t be harmed because of their disabilities. The reality is that the school system breaks that law every day. It is even more obvious at the start of school every year. To learn about rights-based advocacy, read our blog.

So what is the design?

Let us discuss this!

Teachers and EAs don’t start back to work until the FIRST day of school. If teachers do start back during the last week of August (which many do), they are doing so of their own free will. It is unpaid work. 

Even with classroom planning happening in the spring, most elementary school teachers do not know who their students are going to be until the second week of classes. EAs are often not assigned to students or classrooms until the second week of school.

In some districts, high school counsellors may start back in the last week of August for course organization purposes only, and they may not even be able to meet with students till the second or third week of school, until courses are finalized.

I grew up in Ontario. When I was a kid, in elementary school, we all went to our new class on the last day of school and spent the afternoon with our teacher and all the other students. There were slight differences in the fall, maybe a new teacher, but it wasn’t a complete surprise or a chaotic mess. We weren’t spending the first week or so playing games with our last year’s teacher. Why does BC do things this way?

For the people who justify how our system is designed, what narrative are you telling yourself to justify the design of the most chaotic start to a school year possible?

We can decide to do things differently. Because the Ministry and districts have structured school start-up the way that they have, children with disabilities and neurodiversities face exclusion. This is by design. This is what systemic oppression looks like. Children and families are harmed due to systemic decision-making that could be different, but isn’t.

How would the system need to change to allow children with disabilities to not be excluded in the first month of September?

How do we actually structure in IEP reading time?

Here is the national exclusion tracker that parent(s)/guardians can fill out. This data is essential to bring this issue into public view and make school exclusion undeniable.

Here are our stories:

Testimonies:

“Two crisis situations could have been prevented if they had read the IEP and documents I provided weeks before school started. Now my kid only attends for an hour, 3 days a week.” – Anonymous parent

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“Our school has not placed children in their permanent class assignments. The first 4 weeks are spent rotating in cohorts, which is chaotic, dysregulating and overwhelming for everyone.

Not enough EA support my child, who requires toileting support, has sat in wet pull-ups all day because no one has reminded him to use the toilet or supported him in changing his pull-up. Again, contrary to his IEP.” – Anonymous parent

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“Transportation not aligned with school timing. No assistance for driver on the bus with 3 wheelchair kids so first week’s driver quit.

No training for toileting in the first 2 weeks. Trained staff change each year. No EA in high school classes to support a kid in a wheelchair.” – Anonymous parent

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“Start school? They won’t be ready for my daughter till October.”

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“I am an EA and some classes have as many as 7 IEPs with multiple 1:1. students and only 1 EA” – Staff and anonymous parent

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“Transition into grade 8 from elementary school. No breaks were given for the first week, and there were no teacher check-ins. I had to send all About Me and IEP over the weekend with no follow-up. Not providing accommodations listed.” – Anonymous parent

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“Once again, we have no plans to subject our son to B&M school.” – Anonymous parent

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“We have many supports, BUT they require me to be at home…homeschooling is working, but being a single-income family is hard.” – Anonymous parent

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“‘They misplaced my son’s entire file and “forgot” he’s autistic” – Anonymous parent

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“I’m an inclusion district specialist teacher, and I am exhausted, sad, angry and disappointed in this system I am a part of. I try very hard to make a difference, but it feels insurmountable most days. I am also a mom of a student with multiple designations in this system. I don’t have any answers. I am sorry.” – Anonymous parent

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“This year, specific supports were removed from my child with a disability, which has impacted his access to education, mental health, and safety at school as a result of putting policies and procedures before student needs and rights” – Anonymous parent

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“Gr. 12 English teacher clearly didn’t bother to read the IEP. He made my very dyslexic child read Hamlet out loud one week into the school year. When my kid said he can’t read it, the teacher said, “If you can’t read, you should be in the special ed class.” First, the whole thing is discriminatory. And second, a week in, you should have time to glance through the IEP. And third, even if the teacher had not read the IEP, do they not know that 10-20% of kids are dyslexic? Why are you making all the kids read out loud?

This is a systemic issue because this is not an isolated incident. Usually, I send an email at the beginning of the year for teachers to check the IEP. I hadn’t had time to do that yet because i was busy with work. But it’s actually not my responsibility.” – Anonymous parent

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Why hold year-end IEP meetings to prepare supports for next teachers if they don’t even receive the IEP before school starts? The result has been repeated violations of the plan, leading to stress, heightened anxiety, and self-harm. – Anonymous parent

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“Recent cuts have resulted in loss of programs for category H&R students who are now left with no support and often don’t attend class” – Anonymous

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“My son missed out on 2 weeks of football camp because of his Tourette’s and the school wanting an in-service from Tourette’s Canada. This was done on day 4 of back to school with the whole football team as well as the principal and both vice principals. He was immediately included until parents went to the superintendent to complain. Now he’s excluded again because of his medical condition. Complete discrimination” – Anonymous parent

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“I work in education, and I’m very disappointed with the lack of training and time available to discuss students. If you’re new to working with a student and you need to know what works for the student, there is no time to shadow or ask the important questions. If you have a good admin, they might be able to find the time somewhere.

Where is the consistency for our students? They are nearly all dysregulated and having a hard time adjusting to being back at school.

The second week in I had a class teacher ask if the student I was supporting had an IEP.

It should be mandatory and signed off that class teachers have seen the list of designated kiddos, their in-class designation, diagnosis, and read their IEP.” – Anonymous staff and parent

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“This year specific supports were removed from my child with a disability, which has impacted his access to education, mental health, and safety at school as a result of putting policies and procedures before student needs and rights” – Anonymous parent

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“Staffing numbers and EA assignments still not established, making it difficult for our students to settle into the school year” – Anonymous parent

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Our school prohibited in-person access for students to our counsellors during the first week of school and only allowed communication through email to fix course schedules.

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“In our school district, elementary school students are not given class until the numbers have been settled, and the school knows how many teachers they will have, and how many EA’s they can get. This is especially true at the local small school that fluctuates around 100 students. My kids are no longer in elementary, but students with Disabilities and anxiety were recommended to stay home for the first 2weeks of school, because they were unable to support them during that time, and it would set them back for the beginning of the school year.

In other words, “sorry, we can’t get our act together so your kid cannot attend school for the first two weeks”. No, not the individual school’s fault, as one of the principals (frequent changes), would try to assign EAs and students with known supports to know teachers before the school year, but frequently, things would still require big changes.” – Anonymous parent

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“Our school in SD 36 was intended to have 27 Divisions and only got approved for 25. One teacher was told he had to leave the school 3 days after it started. One was delegated to an empty position within the school. There was lots of shuffling. A Grade 2 teacher is now teaching Kindergarten.

My child is in a portable and told me they don’t have individual desks. They are using bins to store school supplies. Basically they cramped more kids into each class.” – Anonymous parent

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“We have students who might be regulated but will do zero academics…2-4 in a class and lucky if an EA can even go to that class and bounce around for an hour a day. And, we have 2 full time kids away until mid Oct, another m/w/f from 9-12 (parents support and want this so year can start successfully), another two kids who do just 9-12 (parents are advocating for this knowing that their kids can only handle this but hope time can increase), another who is just coming for an hour.”- Anonymous education staff and parent

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The education system can do better.

It starts with the Ministry of Education and Child Care.

This blog will be sent to the Ministry of Education and Child Care and the BC Human Rights Commissioner’s Office.

Thank you so much to all of the parents and education staff who were willing to provide us with their experience. This is advocacy.