Your child’s education is the school’s responsibility, including when they need individual support. Teachers, education assistants (EAs), resource staff, and administrators contribute in different ways. Families and caregivers bring essential knowledge of their child and participate in planning.
Clear responsibilities matter. When nobody owns the next step, support can become inconsistent, and families and caregivers end up coordinating work the school should be organising.
This page focuses on BC public schools.
How is support supposed to work?
Our Know your rights page includes a flow diagram showing the process: investigate barriers, consult with the student and family or caregivers, develop a concrete plan, implement it, and review whether it enables meaningful access.
Classroom teachers can draw on resource teachers, learning support staff, and the school-based team. When school-level support is insufficient, the team can seek district or other specialist assistance.
Ask who is coordinating the response, what each person will do, and when the team will review it.
Who does what?
| Role | Main responsibilities |
|---|---|
| Classroom or subject teacher | Plans and teaches the educational program, determines appropriate adaptations with support from the team, assesses learning, and reports progress. |
| Education assistant | Helps implement the plan under teacher direction, supports participation and other assigned needs, and contributes observations about what is working. |
| Resource or learning support teacher | Provides specialised teaching or consultation and helps develop strategies, adaptations, and plans. Exact responsibilities vary. |
| Case manager or school-based team | Coordinates planning, communication, referrals, and review. Ask who holds this role for your child. |
| Principal and district staff | Address school organisation and implementation, and arrange additional expertise or resources when needs exceed what the classroom or school can resolve. |
| Families and caregivers | Share relevant information, contribute ideas, participate in planning, and communicate concerns about their child’s experience. |
| Student | Contributes their experience, priorities, and preferences, with accessible ways to participate in decisions. |
Sections 17 and 18 of the School Act distinguish teachers’ educational responsibilities from the supporting role of assistants. Assigning an EA does not transfer responsibility for teaching or educational planning away from the teacher.
The BCTF/CUPE joint paper on the roles and responsibilities of teachers and EAs explains separate and shared responsibilities for planning, instruction, assessment, and communication. Pages 5–9 are especially useful. It also recognises a shared responsibility to advocate for students’ and families’ legal and human rights. Published in 2009, it should be read alongside current local working arrangements.
Who adapts assignments?
The teacher is responsible for planning appropriate instruction and assessment. Resource staff can help identify approaches, and EAs may help carry out strategies under teacher direction.
Families and caregivers can suggest what works at home and ask how this information can be used to investigate barriers to learning.
See page 6 of the BCTF/CUPE joint paper for the division of work involved in designing programs, selecting adaptations, and preparing learning materials.
What if staff do not have the knowledge or training they need?
Training and experience vary. You may encounter staff who are unfamiliar with your child’s disability or with effective approaches to supporting them.
A knowledge gap should lead to additional consultation, professional learning, or specialist support. The Professional Standards for BC Educators expect educators to understand individual learning needs, seek support when needed, and continue developing their practice.
Ask what assistance the resource teacher or school-based team can provide. If that is insufficient, ask the principal what district expertise or resources will be accessed, who will arrange it, and what will happen in the meantime.
Families and caregivers can contribute expertise without becoming responsible for training the staff or managing the referral process.
The Professional Standards for BC Educators describe expectations for educators who hold a BC Certificate of Qualification. Standards 3, 4, 5, and 7 address individual learning needs, family participation, effective teaching and seeking support, and professional learning. They can help you identify the expectation relevant to a concern.
Can I communicate directly with my child’s EA?
Communication arrangements vary between schools and districts. Teachers remain responsible for assessment and reporting, while EAs often have valuable observations about daily participation, communication, and support.
Ask for a workable communication plan: what information can be exchanged directly, what needs to go through the teacher, and who will respond to questions.
If you are told all communication must go through the teacher, explain what information you need and ask how it will reach you reliably. You can also request that the EA’s observations inform team meetings and reviews.
An EA should not be placed in the position of independently approving changes to the educational program or following conflicting instructions from home and school.
Page 8 of the BCTF/CUPE joint paper explains teachers’ responsibility for evaluating and reporting progress and how EAs contribute observations and information.
What does teacher autonomy mean?
Teachers exercise professional judgement about instruction, assessment, and classroom practice. The details of professional autonomy provisions vary between local collective agreements.
Professional judgement operates within legal and professional obligations, including the duty to accommodate. A classroom preference or standard practice does not, by itself, justify refusing a necessary accommodation.
Families and caregivers can propose approaches and ask for explanations. This does not give them authority to direct every teaching decision, but it does entitle their concerns to a substantive response.
If a suggestion is declined, ask why and how the alternative will address the same barrier. Read Understanding the duty to accommodate for more.
Kim Block’s Part 1 – The Power of the Human Rights Code explores how human rights obligations apply when classroom practices, policies, or funding criteria create disability-related barriers. It includes links to legislation and decisions for readers who want the legal detail.
How can I share expertise without taking over the teacher’s role?
You may know considerably more about your child’s disability profile than the staff working with them. That knowledge can help the team understand barriers that are otherwise easy to misinterpret.
Connect your information to a specific situation and invite the teacher to help translate it into classroom practice:
Repeated verbal prompting makes it harder for our child to begin. Written instructions and processing time have helped. How could we incorporate those into classroom routines?
Offer a brief explanation or a relevant resource, then ask how this insight could be adapted to the school context to help remove disability barriers.
Respecting a teacher’s expertise does not require minimising your own. Professional defensiveness may arise, but families and caregivers cannot be responsible for managing every reaction. Keep the discussion connected to the child’s needs and experience.
Where do responsibilities become blurred?
When families and caregivers repeatedly coordinate staff, adapt materials, or chase implementation, the school may not see how much unpaid work is sustaining the arrangement.
Document what you are doing and ask how the school will take responsibility for those tasks. If you offer temporary help, clarify its scope and when the school will take over.
Likewise, giving an EA instructions outside the agreed plan can create conflicting expectations. Bring proposed changes to the teacher or case manager so the team can establish a consistent approach.
Raising concerns, sharing research, requesting information, or challenging an ineffective plan is legitimate participation. Clear roles should support accountability rather than silence questions.
What rights do families and caregivers have?
Parents’ rights extend beyond simply being consulted. The School Act provides rights concerning information about attendance, behaviour, and progress; consultation about the educational program; access to student records; and appeals of certain decisions.
The IEP Order and human rights law create further obligations relating to planning, implementation, and accommodation. Families and caregivers also have a role in sharing relevant information and participating reasonably in the accommodation process.
The professional standards expect educators to consider parents’ and guardians’ perspectives, communicate promptly, and protect students’ physical and emotional safety. Sending a child to school does not mean surrendering the ability to question whether their needs are being met.
In Co-parenting with the Government, Kim Block discusses court decisions about religious objections to inclusive curriculum and learning materials. It helps explain limits on parental control over a public education service. Those curriculum disputes are a different question from whether a school must accommodate a child’s disability-related needs.
What does the school’s duty of care mean?
Educators have responsibilities for students’ safety while children are in their care, including during school-sponsored activities. The duty of care involves taking the precautions a reasonable, careful parent would take in comparable circumstances, with professional knowledge also informing what is required.
For families and caregivers, the practical questions include whether staff understand your child’s needs, what supervision or precautions are required, and how relevant information will reach everyone responsible for their care.
The Ministry’s Emergency Management Planning Guide explains duty of care on page 8 of the linked guide and describes schools’ responsibilities during emergencies.
For additional background on in loco parentis and teacher liability, see chapter 4, beginning on page 14, of the Alberta Teachers’ Association’s Substitute Teachers guide. This is an Alberta resource; its references to provincial legislation and professional regulation apply there.
How do laws, policies, and collective agreements fit together?
They serve different purposes:
- Legislation, regulations, and ministerial orders establish legal obligations. The IEP Order is a binding order, not merely optional guidance.
- Professional standards set expectations for certified educators’ competence and conduct.
- Ministry and district policies guide how schools organise and deliver education within the law.
- Collective agreements and job descriptions govern employment conditions and how staff work is organised.
Schools must meet their obligations to students while organising staff work within applicable employment arrangements. Families and caregivers should not have to resolve staffing or contractual questions themselves.
Section 4 of the BC Human Rights Code provides that the Code prevails when it conflicts with another enactment. School practices and employment arrangements must also comply with human rights obligations.
The 2025–2029 provincial collective agreement retains the “Shared Commitment to Equitable Access to Learning” on page 93. It connects the implementation of staffing provisions with inclusion, meaningful participation, and consideration of individual needs.
Kim’s original reference was to page 89 of the 2022–2025 agreement. For current provincial and local documents, use the BCTF collective agreements directory.
What if nobody takes responsibility?
Ask the principal to identify who will coordinate the response, what action will be taken, and when you will receive an update. Include the effect on your child when support is missing.
If school-level action stalls, seek district involvement. You do not need to keep repeating informal conversations indefinitely.
See School advocacy has stalled: what can I do next? for escalation options.
