Wawa-news.com You can't hear the 'big picture'!
The Ontario Autism Coalition (OAC) has released the results of its survey of families’ experience with special education in schools across Ontario. The report paints a bleak picture of a system that is unable to properly support a large portion of the students it is meant to serve, due to large shortages of staff and other resources.
One of the most important findings was concerns about student safety, with 50% of parents stating that they usually or always worry about their children’s safety at school. Also disturbing is that over a third of families reported that their child did not feel safe or supported at school. The most reported safety concerns were bullying, elopement and violence.
6% of families representing over 21,000 special education students, reported that their kids were fully excluded from school. This is what is known as a hard exclusion, meaning the student doesn’t attend school at all. “Soft” exclusions have become an even larger problem with over a third of families responding that their children were being partially excluded from school. This would include being unable to go on field trips, or calls to the parent to pick up their child because the school could not manage the child’s behaviour or keep them safe.
19% of families reported their child was placed on a modified schedule, with 35% of them only attending school for 3-5 hours a day. In 38% of the responses, the reason for the modified schedule was that the school lacked the resources to accommodate the student’s needs or to keep them safe.
The majority of families reported that some or none of their student’s Individual Education Plan accommodations were followed consistently, and 2/3 of families reported rarely or never getting reports about progress toward the goals in those plans.
All of these factors, along with many others, led 2/3 of parents to report that their children were not accessing curriculum consistently or at all, and 50% of families feel their children are not receiving a meaningful education. For a government that seems to concentrate significantly on academic outcomes in education, there seems to be little concern for the outcomes of students with special education needs.
The survey collected 429 responses from parents with children in 60 school boards. It was conducted for one week before the beginning of the 2024-25 school year. The survey will be repeated annually in order to track any change in these issues over time.The report provides actionable recommendations to address these systemic deficiencies.
The full report is available at:
https://ontarioautismcoalition.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/OAC-Special-Education-Report-2023-2024-School-Year-RGB.pdf
The OAC is committed to advocating for equitable and effective educational resources for students living with disabilities, and we demand urgent action to improve special education in Ontario.
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