Please Write Legislature’s Standing Committee on Social Policy Fast to Support the AODA Alliance’s Brief on Bill 101 to Protect Students with Disabilities – and — AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky’s Monthly Metroland Column

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

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aodaalliance

Twitter: @aodaalliance

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/aodaalliance

TikTok @AODAAlliance

 

Please Write the Ontario Legislature’s Standing Committee on Social Policy Fast to Support the AODA Alliance’s Brief on Bill 101 to Protect Students with Disabilities – and — AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky’s Monthly Metroland Column

April 24, 2026

 

SUMMARY

 

1.     Please Write the Legislature’s Standing Committee on Social Policy Now!

 

You have until 6 pm this Monday, April 27, 2026 to tell the Ontario Legislature’s Standing Committee on Social Policy that you support the AODA Alliance’s April 23, 2026 brief on Bill 101. That’s the Ford Government’s bill that guts local democracy at school boards across Ontario. You can submit any written message or submission, formal or informal, to the Standing Committee on Social Policy by going to the general link at the Ontario legislature.

 

All you need to say is that you support the criticisms of Bill 101 and the recommendations in the AODA Alliance’s April 23, 2026 brief. Of course, feel free to add any other thoughts you wish to share.

 

2. Please Circulate AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky’s April Column in the Toronto Star’s Metroland Publications

 

AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky writes a monthly column on disability issues in the Toronto Star’s 25 Metroland publications around Ontario. This month’s column, set out below, is about gut-wrenching barriers that students with disabilities/special education needs face at the Toronto District School Board.

 

Please circulate it to people you know. It reports on what the Toronto District School Board’s students with disabilities/special education needs can face in class. It is a glimpse into what can be expected if the Ford Government’s Bill 101 is passed. You can watch the video of the April 13, 2026 TDSB Special Education Advisory Committee Town Hall for parents online.

 

  1. Watch Online the April 27, 2026 4 PM Evidence that AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky Will Give the Legislature’s Standing Committee on Social Policy regarding Bill 101

The AODA Alliance has been granted a time slot at 4 PM on Monday April 27, 2026 to give evidence to the Ontario Legislature’s Standing Committee on Social Policy during its one day of public hearings on Bill 101. Watch it live online.

 

You can also watch online the 9:30 AM Queen’s Park news conference by the AODA Alliance, the Ontario Autism Coalition and Ontario Parents for Education Support on April 27, 2026, just before the Standing Committee begins its hearings.

 

MORE DETAILS

 

Inside Halton April 22, 2026

 

Originally posted at https://www.insidehalton.com/life/special-education-parents-reveal-hardships-and-highlights/article_e16627c4-c3b9-5606-bf8c-a978d2d90a42.html

 

Special education parents reveal hardships and highlights in Ontario schools

Everyone paid to run Ontario school boards needs to hear from parents about what is going on in classrooms, the advocate urges.

 

By David Lepofsky

David Lepofsky is the chair of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance.

 

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is blazing ahead with proposed legislation to radically revamp how school boards are run.

 

The public must have a say in our schools’ future. Look closely at what is happening in classrooms that Education Minister Paul Calandra now runs.

 

How have the most vulnerable and chronically underserved students, such as special education students, fared?

 

Here is information from the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) — Canada’s largest and one of eight the education minister is running.

 

On April 13, the TDSB’s special education advisory committee (which I chair) held a public forum.

 

Parent after parent of special education students told gut-wrenching stories of hardships their children face at schools. They offered thoughtful ways TDSB could improve.

 

Although the education minister banned supervised school boards from livestreaming such committee meetings, a community group streamed it. You can watch Ontario Autism Coalition’s recording here.

 

The TDSB supervisor did not attend this event or hear parents from diverse backgrounds speak about their children, reflecting the experiences of a wide spectrum of disabilities. For example:

 

  • Long delays getting special education needs assessed, or following assessment, getting the school board to act on it.

 

  • Parents having to purchase aids for their child’s disability-related learning needs.

 

  • The school board not addressing a child’s ADHD until another recognized disability was also diagnosed.

 

  • Children needing more staff support than the school board said it had available.
  • A case of a child who did very well at a special education high school — one the board now appears to be gradually closing by first eliminating Grade 9 enrolment.

 

  • A slow reduction in the overall level of staff supports for special need students.

 

  • Added mental health harms for a child when their special education needs were not effectively accommodated.

 

  • Parents whose experience with the board at different levels led them to believe that staff need substantial new training on meeting the needs of special education students.

 

  • Parents who were discouraged and exhausted from dealing with their child’s needs and from difficulties in dealings with the school board.

 

  • Parents who got no answer or no solution after contacting the board’s new Student and Family Support Office.

 

  • Parents who believed that the school board fell far short of its broad commitments to special education students.

 

  • Parents also related success stories, but some feared upcoming cuts.

 

The message from these parents was not that everything is always bad for special education students.

 

Front-line educators want to teach all learners. They are handcuffed by a school board full of barriers and bureaucracy.

 

Everyone paid to run our school boards needs to hear from parents like these about what is going on in our classrooms.

 

It’s inexcusable that senior school board staff strenuously opposed our committee holding a town hall for parents of special needs students. They refused to even announce our upcoming event in a regular school board newsletter to parents of special education students.

 

In a future column, I’ll describe how Ford’s new bill, as it now stands, will make things worse for vulnerable students with disabilities.

 

As a vital first step, the province must agree that the legislature will hold public hearings on this bill and allow time at those hearings for all who ask to speak.

 

Public hearings on a topic this important are central to true democracy. I encourage everyone to let the province know that holding open public hearings on its education legislation is essential.

 

David Lepofsky is a retired lawyer who chairs the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance and the Toronto District School Board’s special education advisory committee. He is a visiting professor of disability rights at the law schools at Western, Queen’s and the University of Ottawa, and hosts a podcast, “Disability Rights and Wrongs — The David Lepodcast.”