Blog
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Raise your hand for inclusive education: 10 questions to ask BC school trustee candidates
Inclusive education takes more than good intentions. It takes funding, reliable support, and accountability when children are excluded. These ten questions ask BC school trustee candidates what they will do, how they will know support reaches students, and how families can track their commitments. Ask every candidate. Let’s make inclusive education the centre of this election.
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Don’t blame a child for drowning: BC school violence
feature image by prostooleh If children were repeatedly struggling in a river and lifeguards were being injured rescuing them, we would demand answers. Were there enough lifeguards? Did they have the training and equipment they needed? Had warnings been ignored? Why were so many children reaching the point of needing rescue? A child may have jumped in or played too close to the current. Children make choices while still developing the skills to recognise danger and keep themselves safe. Adults remain responsible for supervision, protection, and support that account for those developing abilities. If a child injured a lifeguard while…
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Don’t build a system around school exclusion
BC’s proposed Child and Youth Well-Being Action Plan promises earlier help, better coordination, family-centred services, and less pressure on families navigating fragmented systems. These are important goals. Families need services that communicate with each other and provide practical help before a crisis. But greater coordination will accomplish little if disabled children continue to be excluded from school. BCEdAccess has submitted feedback urging the Province to make school access, disability rights, and public accountability central to the plan. Thank you to our families and caregivers We are deeply grateful to the families who made time to read the plan and share…
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When September starts before the supports do
The first week of school arrives with photographs. Children in tidy clothes stand beside front doors holding hand-lettered signs. New backpacks are packed, lunches are made, children see old friends, and families wait for teacher assignments. Families of disabled children participate in many of these same rituals. Yet we may pack lunches while wondering whether someone will support our child to eat. We may take first-day photographs without knowing whether anyone has read the IEP, whether the necessary staff and supports will be in place, how long our child will be allowed to stay, or whether the phone will ring…
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Who gets left off the bus?
Across British Columbia, disabled children and complex learners are being left out through budget decisions. A bus route fills up. A counsellor’s door closes. A music room goes quiet. A specialist position stays vacant. A school day gets shorter. Each decision appears local, temporary, or administrative. For children and families, the result is much clearer: the support that made school possible disappears, and the child is expected to carry the loss. This essay traces how different districts, different line items, and different budget pressures keep producing the same outcome — children losing access while the system still appears balanced on…
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Happy Mother’s Day from BCEdAccess
This Mother’s Day, we honour every mother, grandmother, auntie, and caregiver carrying what the school system would not.
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Say here, if I call your name
Families have heard the deflections for years. We’ve catalogued them and answered each one. None explain disabled students losing access to school.
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Dear School District Leadership
This was posted by a parent in our Facebook group, and speaks to what so many other parents and children are struggling with in the education system. This letter needs to be read out loud in front of those decision makers who shape education. This is so spot on. Many thanks to the parent who wrote this and for allowing us to share this with all of you. Please share widely and feel free to send this to the Trustees in your school district. ******* Another month, another email … Dear School District Leadership, I am writing as the parent…
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New BC data on student absences
We’re sharing a new set of data on student absences in BC public schools, obtained through a provincial FOI request placed by one of our members. The dataset covers the 2022/23 and 2023/24 school years and includes absence rates and reasons for absence, broken down by inclusive education designation (for example, G designation for autistic students). We’re making this data available because we are seeing troubling patterns that are important for families to be aware of. Across every school district, students with inclusive education designations are absent at higher rates than students without designations. Absence rates differ markedly by region and designation…
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The budget that cries wolf: SD61’s deficit cycle
Every spring in British Columbia, school districts present budgets that force communities to choose between necessary programming such as: music or speech therapy, career education or school counselling, enrichment for all students or baseline access for disabled ones. No one should have to make these choices. It is like asking people to choose between clean air or clean water. These ‘choices’ are presented as the unavoidable arithmetic of balanced budgets and provincial funding formulas. It isn’t that simple. What is on the chopping block also signals what a district values, what they treat as negotiable, whose needs matter. For many…
