School Boards that Ford Government Runs to Survey Parents on Budget Priorities, but Survey Creates False Impression that Boards can Opt to Deprioritize Special Education

Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance Update

United for a Barrier-Free Ontario for All People with Disabilities

Website: www.aodaalliance.org

Email: aodafeedback@gmail.com

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School Boards that Ford Government Runs to Survey Parents on Budget Priorities, but Survey Creates False Impression that Boards can Opt to Deprioritize Special Education

 

March 10, 2026

SUMMARY

 

Currently, Education Minister Paul Calandra directly runs 8 Ontario school boards. These boards serve 750,000 of Ontario’s 2 million K-12 students, well over one third of all Ontario K-12 students. That includes more than one third of Ontario’s students with disabilities.

 

All eyes are on how Paul Calandra-run school boards are treating students with disabilities. Last week, several news outlets covered one of many serious problems.

 

The Toronto District School Board is now conducting an online survey of parents of the 250,000 students at that school board. It asks parents to rate their 5 top budget priorities for the next school year out of a list of 10 possibilities. One of the 10 listed areas is: “Special Education Supports & Resources: Educational Assistants, specialized programs, and assistive technology.”

 

This creates the erroneous and harmful impression that educational supports for vulnerable, chronically underserved students with disabilities/special education needs is somehow an option that school boards can choose to deprioritize. It also gives all parents the false sense that such decisions can be subjected to some sort of popularity contest.

 

At its March 3, 2026 meeting, the TDSB Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC) learned of this survey, which it strenuously objected to. TDSB’s interim Director of Education Stacey Zucker announced that all school boards under Paul Calandra’s supervision are going to be doing similar surveys.

 

TDSB SEAC’s Chair, David Lepofsky (who is also Chair of the AODA Alliance) wrote Education Minister Paul Calandra’s overseer of the TDSB, Supervisor Rohit Gupta, to object to this survey. We set that letter out below. Mr. Gupta has not responded to this letter in the week since it was sent.

 

What makes this survey even more inexcusable is that last spring, TDSB did the same thing in a survey to all parents at the board. That survey asked what areas should be prioritized for budget cuts. TDSB was running a deficit that drew strong criticism from Education Minister Calandra. TDSB’s SEAC objected to that survey at its May 12, 2025 meeting. In response, the board’s Associate Director Louise Sirisko gave a strong apology. You can watch the SEAC members’ criticism of that earlier survey on YouTube, as well as Ms. Sirisko’s apology on behalf of the TDSB. That meeting took place before Education Minister banned school boards from livestreaming SEAC meetings at the school boards that he runs.

 

What did Associate TDSB Director of Education say to apologize? She noted that there is a difference between TDSB’s intent in composing that survey and its impact. She defended the 2025 survey’s intent but openly acknowledge the harmful impact identified by SEAC and other parents of students with disabilities/special education needs.

 

She acknowledged that TDSB removed the survey “to stop the hurt and the harm.” She stated in material part:

 

“…I do apologize for the unintended impact. And going forward, I will bring the experience of this year and the hurt that’s been expressed to any future surveys …they are an annual … I don’t want to say obligation…it’s an opportunity to engage with our parents. And all of your voices will be echoed by myself, by Nandy (i.e. the Executive Superintendent of Special Education), by the full special education team, so this is not repeated in the future. So please know that we’re listening deeply.”

 

TDSB’s 2026 budget survey certainly raises the question of whether TDSB violated that commitment and did not “listen deeply.”

 

At the June 2025 meeting of TDSB trustees, several of the elected trustees also apologized for the 2025 survey’s mistreatment of students with disabilities/special education needs. That was the last meeting of those elected trustees before Education Minister Calandra took over the TDSB and ousted them.

 

Last week, TDSB offered a transparently bogus justification for its new survey’s mistreatment of students with disabilities/special education needs in this 2026 survey of parents. TDSB said that the 2025 survey (for which an apology was given) dealt with what budget cuts should take place. In contrast, TDSB argued that the 2026 survey is about what budget areas should be priorities.

 

Yet this is obviously a distinction without a difference. In both cases, parents are asked whether special education should be a high or low priority when allocating budget. That TDSB offered this excuse reveals that there is no justification for what TDSB has done.

 

Media coverage of this issue included:

 

How You Can Help

 

  • Tell your member of the Ontario Legislature that students with disabilities deserve better than the treatment they are receiving at the school boards that Education Minister Paul Calandra is now running through his hand-picked provincially appointed Supervisors that report directly to him.

 

  • Please widely publicize the information in this update. Urge the media in your community to cover this.

 

  • If you are a member of a school board’s Special Education Advisory Committee, please propose to your SEAC that it hold an open meeting to listen to parents’ voices. TDSB’s Special Education Advisory Committee is doing this on April 13, 2026 and would be happy to offer tips on how to do it.

 

  • If you are a parent of students with disabilities who attend the Toronto District School Board, sign up to make a presentation at the April 13, 2026 TDSB Special Education Advisory Committee meeting, a public forum to hear from parents of students with disabilities/special education needs. The February 10, 2026 AODA Alliance Update gives you the information you need on how to sign up.

 

  • Check out the AODA Alliance’s online video that offers practical tips to members of a school board’s Special Education Advisory Committee and members

 

  • Learn about the AODA Alliance’s advocacy to improve education for students with disabilities by visiting the AODA Alliance Website’s education page.

 

 

 

 

MORE DETAILS

 

Toronto Star March 5, 2026

 

Originally posted at https://www.google.ca/search?q=Parents+%27livid%27+at+special+education+as+an+optional+priority+on+survey+toronto+star

Parents ‘livid’ at special education as an optional priority on survey

Board staff accused of basing budget on ‘popularity contest’

 

Isabel Teotonio Toronto Star

Parents of children with special education needs and advocacy groups are “livid” over a Toronto public school board survey about which areas to prioritize in the upcoming budget.

 

The Toronto District School Board posted an online survey this week, open to community members for about two weeks, seeking input on what to prioritize next year.

 

It lists 10 key areas, such as classroom resources, reading and math supports and school maintenance. It also includes “Special education supports and resources: Educational Assistants, specialized programs and assistive technology.”

 

“We’re livid, this is appalling,” said David Lepofsky, chair of the TDSB’s Special Education Advisory Committee, made up of members from organizations that represent parents of kids with disabilities or special education needs.

 

“The duty to provide effective (special education) funding is not an option, it’s not subject to a popularity contest,” he told the Star, noting it’s a requirement under the Education Act.

 

Lepofsky said this year’s survey is inexcusable because last year the board issued a similar one, with the same list, asking parents about possible areas for budget cuts. That generated outrage, prompting senior staff and the board of trustees to apologize.

 

The Star asked the TDSB why it launched this year’s survey, given last year’s backlash and apologies. A board spokesperson defended the move, saying last year’s survey was about “potential areas to reduce spending and find efficiencies,” whereas the current version is about “priorities.”

 

“This year’s survey asks respondents to identify and rank the priorities that they believe the board should focus spending on in the upcoming budget to support student achievement and well-being,” she said via email.

 

“Each year, a survey is shared with TDSB stakeholders to inform the annual budget process, and this year’s survey asks respondents to rank five of 10 priorities to identify how to place resources where they are needed most to help students succeed. Special education supports and resources … is one of these priority areas.”

 

Other supervised boards – there are now seven the province has taken over – have similar surveys.

 

At a Special Education Advisory Committee meeting this week, parent Leo Lagnado, who represents Autism Ontario on the committee, told senior staff “it doesn’t matter if the semantics of the survey are about cuts or about budget, when you prioritize something … you are trying to decide funding allocation.”

 

“You already apologized for this before and quite frankly this is appalling that special education is once again listed in a prioritization exercise,” said Lagnado. “It is insulting.”

 

In a letter to TDSB supervisor Rohit Gupta, sent Wednesday and shared with the Star, Lepofsky wrote on behalf of the committee, saying “it is wrong and palpably harmful” to include special education supports in a ranking-style budget survey. It signals to families of 250,000 TDSB students that spending on special education is “optional or open to being deprioritized.” And for parents of roughly 40,000 kids with special education needs “this can only instil fear that their child’s services and supports are at risk of being defunded or deprioritized, depending on public opinion.”

 

He said that fear is made worse given recent actions by the TDSB that include raising the maximum class size in two categories of special education classes, taking steps that appear to signal the eventual closing of two high schools for teens with special needs, and no longer live-streaming or archiving video from Special Education Advisory Committee meetings so parents must attend in-person.

 

Last year, facing a significant deficit, the TDSB issued its 2025-26 budget survey seeking input “on how to prioritize our spending” and asked parents to rank 10 areas in order of importance. At a May 2025 SEAC meeting, members called for an apology, and associate director Louise Sirisko apologized for the unintended harm. The next month, the board of trustees voted in favour of a formal apology.

 

March 4, 2026 Letter from TDSB Special Education Advisory Committee Chair David Lepofsky to TDSB Supervisor Rohit Gupta

 

David Lepofsky, Chair, TDSB Special Education Advisory Committee

 

March 4, 2026

To: Rohit Gupta

Office of the Provincial Supervisor

Toronto District School Board

5050 Yonge Street

North York, ON M2N 7H3

Via Email: supervisor@tdsb.on.ca

 

Dear Sir,

 

Re: TDSB’s 2026 Online Survey of Parents on TDSB Budget

 

I write as the Chair of the Toronto District School Board’s Special Education Advisory Committee. Provincial law mandates our committee to advise TDSB on “…any matter affecting the establishment, development and delivery of special education programs and services for exceptional pupils of the board.”

 

On March 2, 2026, TDSB launched a two-week online survey of parents of TDSB students regarding next year’s TDSB budget. I write to identify a serious problem with this survey, to ask that it be immediately corrected, and to ask to meet with you as soon as possible to discuss this.

 

This survey asks: “Of the 10 key areas outlined below, please rank the top 5 priorities you believe the Board should focus spending on in the upcoming budget to support student achievement and well-being.”

 

One of the ten listed areas is: “Special Education Supports & Resources: Educational Assistants, specialized programs, and assistive technology”

 

One of the other areas listed included among other things accessibility for people with disabilities. It states in full: “School Facilities & Maintenance: Building repairs, accessibility, and playground upgrades…”

 

It is wrong and palpably harmful to vulnerable TDSB students with disabilities/special education needs for TDSB have included these in this survey. On behalf of SEAC, I urgently request that these be removed from this survey.

 

TDSB Interim Director of Education Stacey Zucker announced this survey at The Monday, March 2, 2026 meeting of the TDSB Special Education Advisory Committee. She announced that special education is listed among the possible priorities which parents can rank, as if this was a reassuring and positive action.

 

TDSB’s duty to make priority spending on these matters is not optional. It is part of TDSB’s fundamental duties to students with disabilities/special education needs under the Education Act and regulations and pursuant to the duty to accommodate students with disabilities. The duty to accommodate students with disabilities lies at the core of the TDSB’s obligations to them under the quasi-constitutional Ontario Human Rights Code and under the constitutional Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This is all reinforced by the provisions and goals of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act.

 

This survey signals the families of 250,000 TDSB students that TDSB spending on these matters is somehow optional or open to being deprioritized. For the families of TDSB’s 40,000 students with disabilities/special education needs, this can only instill fear that their child’s services and supports are at risk of being defunded or deprioritized, depending on public opinion. Such a fear can only be made worse by recent actions at TDSB, such as

  • TDSB raising the maximum class size in two categories of special education classes;
  • TDSB removing the maximum size of any individual Grade 4 to 8 class;
  • TDSB taking steps that signal a likely eventual closing of the Eastdale High School and Heydon Park Secondary School and
  • Over-stretched parents of students with disabilities/special education needs no longer being able to watch and learn from meetings of TDSB’s Special Education Advisory Committee via TDSB online live stream or archived video.

 

This survey harmfully signals to the parents of students with no special education needs and to those students themselves that it is appropriate for them to think that spending on supports for students with disabilities/special education needs are optional and are a trade-off for more supports for students with no disability or special education needs. This risks promoting bullying of some students with disabilities/special education needs and harassment of some parents of those students.

 

This is all the more inexcusable because less than a year ago, TDSB issued a similar survey to TDSB parents that sought their priorities on spending and wrongly listed special education as amn option for deprioritization or budget cuts. At the May 12, 2025 TDSB SEAC meeting, SEAC members raised strong, heartfelt and thoughtful objections to this, drawing on feedback they had received. Under pressure, TDSB revised that survey to remove special education as an option for parents to choose.

 

At that May 12, 2025 meeting, TDSB Associate Director Louise Sirisko publicly apologized for special education having been included in that survey in the first place. SEAC passed a detailed recommendation at that meeting, which I later presented to the trustees at their June 2025 regular meeting. That SEAC resolution stated:

 

“Whereas:

On April 22, 2025, TDSB circulated a survey by email to parents on possible areas of budget cuts. It included special education as a potential area for cuts.

TDSB should not have included special education as a potential option for cuts in this survey, for the following reasons.

TDSB has a fundamental and overarching duty to accommodate students with disabilities under the Ontario Human Rights Code and the Charter of Rights. If anything, students with disabilities are now being underserved at TDSB, as feedback at the November 2024 Parents’ Town Hall emphasized in wrenching detail.

Including this in the survey created significant worry and anxiety among parents of students with disabilities at TDSB. It generated a fear that there may be cuts to the services for their children.

Including this in the survey risks generating or reinforcing adverse attitudes towards students with disabilities at TDSB. Some parents may be led by the survey to think that funding for meeting the education needs of students with disabilities at TDSB can be traded off against other budget areas, and/or that cuts to other areas addressed in the survey would take place because of the funding for students with disabilities. Students with disabilities and their parents should not be exposed to any risk of a backlash against them.

Including this in the survey in any form flies in the face of commitments by TDSB senior staff at recent SEAC meetings in March and April to the effect that there would be no cuts to staffing for special education, except prorated staffing cuts commensurate with reductions in the actual number of students with disabilities/special education needs.

  1. TDSB should establish a policy that there should be no cuts to supports and services for students with disabilities/special education needs.
  2. TDSB should immediately advise all parents at TDSB in writing via email that there will be no cuts to supports or services for students with disabilities/special education needs.
  3. TDSB should apologize for the inclusion of special education in the survey.”

 

At the June 2025 meeting of TDSB trustees, some individual trustees added their voices to Ms. Sirisko’s earlier apology. They too publicly apologized on behalf of TDSB.

 

In light of that past experience, TDSB should not have made the same mistake again in the current survey. Yet at the March 2, 2026 TDSB Special Education Advisory Committee meeting, Interim Director of Education Stacey Zucker defended the current survey, stating that the 2025 survey asked which areas should be prioritized for budget cuts, whereas the 2026 survey does not address the topic of budget cuts.

 

SEAC members who spoke to the topic rejected this defence. In both surveys, parents are asked in essence the same thing from the perspective of students with disabilities/special education needs. In both cases, the harm caused by the survey to students with disabilities/special education needs and their families is the same. The fear of having to defend what they now get is no different. These are among TDSB’s most chronically underserved and vulnerable students.

 

As you know, you have a standing invitation to attend our monthly Special Education Advisory Committee meetings. Trustees, whom you replace, previously had seats on the Special Education Advisory Committee. We always had some trustees in attendance.

 

It is profoundly regrettable that you have not attended any of our meetings. I understand that at least some provincially appointed Supervisors in other boards that the Ontario Government has taken over have attended at least some meetings of their Special Education Advisory Committee.

 

It is especially regrettable that you did not attend our March 2, 2026 meeting. You could have learned from the feedback from various SEAC members and would have benefited from an opportunity to speak directly with them. It is no substitute for you to receive written summaries, letters, or reports from TDSB staff.

 

Interim Director Zucker stated that a comparable survey is being conducted at the six other school boards under provincial supervision, and TDSB sees benefits in being consistent. As was pointed out at the SEAC meeting last night, seven wrongs don’t make a right. Indeed, the fact that so many other school boards are taking action that is so harmful for students with disabilities/special education needs and their families is a cause for serious concern. These students and their families deserve better.

 

I would welcome a chance to meet with you as soon as possible to discuss this. You and I had two positive meetings last fall. When we last spoke, you suggested that our next meeting should take place in the new year, after the holidays. However, when I wrote your office to schedule that meeting, I was advised that I was instead to meet with Interim Director Zucker and one of your office’s staff, Ms. Laura Elliot.

 

I am always happy to meet either or both of them on any issues. However, that is no substitute for meeting with you. Only you have decision-making power as the TDSB Supervisor. Ms. Elliot, I understand, simply provides advice to you. Ms. Zucker reports to you.

 

I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Sincerely,

David Lepofsky CM, O. Ont

Chair TDSB Special Education Advisory Committee

cc: The hon. Paul Calandra Minister of Education minister.edu@ontario.ca

Denise Cole, Deputy Minister of Education edu.dmo@ontario.ca

Stacey Zucker Interim TDSB Director of Education stacey.zucker@tdsb.on.ca

Louise Sirisko, Associate Director TDSB Louise.Sirisko@tdsb.on.ca

Nandy Palmer, Executive Superintendent, TDSB Nandy.Palmer@tdsb.on.ca