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Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance Update
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Ford Government Says It Wants School Boards to Be More Accountable About Their Budgets and Promptly Does the Opposite!
June 11, 2026
SUMMARY
The Ford Government makes grand statements about its plans for Ontario’s school system. It is increasingly clear that they do the very opposite of what they say they are doing. Who does that remind you of?
When the Ford Government brought forward its Bill 101, it said it wanted to put student achievement first. Indeed, Bill 101 is entitled the “Putting student Achievement First Act.” Yet the AODA Alliance along with many other presenters at the April 27, 2026 legislative hearings on Bill 101 said that this bill did nothing to advance student achievement. In fact, several, including the AODA Alliance said it would hurt vulnerable students with disabilities.
Here is another blistering illustration of this. The Ford Government ousted elected Toronto District School Board trustees as well as those of several other school boards, and brought forward its widely criticized bill 101 on its claims that Ontario needs much more accountability when it comes to the development of school board budgets. We now have overwhelming proof from TDSB under provincial supervision that there is now far less public accountability when it comes to the development of next school year’s budget.
TDSB’s upcoming budget is being developed entirely behind closed doors by Education Minister Paul Calandra’s hand-picked TDSB Supervisor. There are no public meetings of elected school board trustees to give them a chance to openly review the proposed budget, grill TDSB staff about it, and vote on it.
A revealing June 10, 2026 Toronto Star article, set out below, documents how TDSB staff disclosed precious little about the forthcoming budget at the June 8, 2026 meeting of TDSB’s Special Education Advisory Committee and the June 9, 2026 meeting of TDSB’s Parent Involvement Advisory Committee. Ontario Regulation 464/97 requires TDSB to consult its Special Education Advisory Committee on its special education budget and to enable that Committee to review TDSB’s financial statements as they relate to special education.
At its June 8, 2026 Special Education Advisory Committee meeting, the budget was on the agenda. Senior budget officials were present at the meeting. One senior budget official made a presentation. It revealed almost nothing about the contents of the budget. No budgetary information was circulated in advance of the meeting, despite a request for such from the Special Education Advisory Committee Chair, David Lepofsky.
TDSB senior budget staff largely repeated general information about how the Ministry of Education funding formula works. That was not news. SEAC had been told all of that in the past.
The Special Education Advisory Committee was told that the budget must be finalized by the end of June and must be balanced. However, no information was provided on what cuts would be made under the budget, beyond stating that special education in-school staffing would not be reduced. TDSB staff admitted that they don’t know whether the population of students with disabilities/special education needs will decrease or increase next year. Yet the Ford Government has cut six million dollars from TDSB’s special education budget.
There have been cuts to the TDSB Special Education central office staff to “modernize” and “right-size” that department. Such evasive jargon for job cuts is at the very least, evasive and offensive. Senior TDSB staff refused to disclose how many central staff in that department got “modernized” and “right-sized” out of their jobs.
A number of SEAC members expressed the view that this meeting did not constitute a consultation on the special education budget, which TDSB is required to undertake. As a result, the Committee passed the following motion:
“Whereas TDSB is required to consult the TDSB Special Education Advisory Committee on the special education budget.
And whereas TDSB has known for one month that this topic will be on the SEAC agenda for the June 8, 2026 SEAC meeting.
And whereas the June SEAC meeting will be the only opportunity for SEAC to be consulted on the TDSB special education budget for the upcoming school year, because provincial funding amounts were only announced after the May 2026 TDSB SEAC meeting.
And whereas TDSB staff have provided SEAC with no budget information to review in advance of the June 8, 2026 meeting, in order to be able to provide any meaningful input on the special education budget.
And whereas SEAC members have raised concerns with TDSB staff over several years about the failure to provide budget information in advance of SEAC meetings where budget is known to be on the agenda, or where the information is only provided within hours of the SEAC meeting, and/or when the budget information has at times been presented in an inaccessible format for SEAC members with vision loss, precluding proper review by SEAC members.
SEAC therefore resolves as follows:
- SEAC members have not been properly and meaningfully consulted on the upcoming school year’s special education budget.
- In future years, when the budget is placed on the SEAC agenda, TDSB staff should is asked to provide meaningful budget information in written form, and in an accessible format, at least one week before the SEAC meeting where the budget is to be discussed.”
The Ford Government’s TDSB Supervisor Rohit Gupta did not attend this SEAC meeting. He has refused to attend any of TDSB’s SEAC meetings since he took up his position last summer. Last fall, he twice met with SEAC Chair David Lepofsky and agreed they should meet regularly with a next meeting to be in January 2026. However, since then he has refused to meet with the SEAC Chair or answer any emails from him.
Taken together, this, combined with the information in the Toronto Star report, below, is the total opposite of increased accountability. Making that even worse, since last October, Education Minister Calandra has ordered the eight school boards under provincial supervision to stop livestreaming any Special Education Advisory Committee meetings. The public, including parents of students with disabilities/special education needs, therefore have a hard time finding out what issues are raised on their behalf. TDSB senior staff have also tried to shorten SEAC meeting minutes, so they would provide even less accountability.
We commend the Ontario Autism Coalition for itself livestreaming SEAC meetings at TDSB and the Ottawa Carleton District School Board, and possibly others. We encourage others to do the same. You just need a smart phone, and access to YouTube or Facebook.
To help promote the accountability that the Ford Government has so dramatically reduced, the AODA Alliance posted on its website an AI-generated transcript of the June 8, 2026 TDSB Special Education Advisory Committee meeting which has been provided to us. As with all things AI, it is capable of having errors and inaccuracies. Please find it on the AODA Alliance website’s education page.
How You Can Help
- Write Premier Ford at premier@ontario.ca and your member of the Ontario Legislature. Tell them you oppose all this backroom secrecy at the TDSB and other school boards which are under provincial supervision. Tell them to retract their ban order that school boards under provincial supervision may not livestream Special Education Advisory Committee meetings. Premier Ford and Education Minister Calandra should not be so afraid of openness and accountability, when they preach openness and accountability.
- Remember to sign up to speak at the June 18 Virtual Town Hall on disability barriers in Ontario schools that the AODA Alliance and Ontario Autism Coalition are organizing. Parents of students with disabilities and students with disabilities themselves should write TownHall@ontarioautismcoalition.com to sign up to speak at this important event. Tell any parents of students with disabilities in Ontario that you know to do the same!
MORE DETAILS
Toronto Star June 10, 2026
Originally posted at https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/tdsb-reveals-next-years-budget-as-protesters-warn-against-cuts-that-will-hurt-students/article_8f565a00-0c5d-463f-a81c-a009ac91ff00.html
Budget update short on detail
Parents left with unanswered questions as protesters warn against cuts
Isabel Teotonio Toronto Star Kristin Rushowy Senior Writer
Following a protest by educators, parents and union leaders warning that spending cuts will hurt students, senior staff at Toronto’s public school board delivered a budget presentation Tuesday night that was thin on details.
Staff were scheduled to present a 2026-27 budget update to the Toronto District School Board’s parent involvement advisory committee. Instead, no new figures were revealed.
Instead, they delivered a high-level overview focused on the general budget process, survey results, declining enrolment and ministry funding – making little reference to coming staff reductions.
Parents raised concerns about various issues, including money coming from school budgets to help cover the $750 spending card for teachers, as well as cuts to model schools.
Stacey Zucker, the board’s new CFO and chief operations officer, said that although it is moving away from the current model schools program, it will continue to support students based on need.
When asked by parents if the board will balance its books with this budget, Zucker said: “We may not be completely balanced at the end of this year, but there certainly will be a plan to get there.”
Katrina Matheson, co-chair of the parent committee, said members “came with a lot of questions and clearly there is more work to do.”
Crystal Stewart, a parent committee representative, called the meeting “terrible.”
“We’re entitled to more information, and they haven’t given it to us.”
The board is currently being run by provincially appointed supervisor Rohit Gupta, who was present at the meeting but did not answer questions. At the end of the meeting, he said he’d worked closely with senior staff.
That prompted members in the public gallery to shout, “Your cuts are hurting our kids,” and that his $350,000 salary should instead be put toward public education.
While the budget-setting process typically involves weeks of public meetings and trustee debates, this year’s decisions have been made behind closed doors – and it remains unclear if the almost $3.34-billion final spending plan will be made public before it’s submitted to the ministry by the end of June.
The Star has already reported on many of the cost-cutting measures being implemented at the board, which has a $25-million deficit this year and faces continued declining student enrolment that further reduces its funding.
Reductions for next year include the elimination of 792 staff positions – this includes cuts of 40 vice-principals, 289 teachers and 461 support staff, such as educational assistants and designated early childhood educators.
Savings will also be found by closing a main distribution centre, five outdoor education centres, nine unprofitable school cafeterias and the board’s museum and archives.
The board is also cutting additional staff to model schools in the city’s most disadvantaged communities, which has meant smaller class sizes and more support staff.
Before the meeting, a rally was held outside, with mother Bibi Hanif – whose children attend a model school in the Jane-Finch area – saying “the impact is felt most by our most vulnerable students.”
The Ministry of Education is making a record $43-billion investment in provincial education, but boards have long argued that they are underfunded and the money has not kept pace with inflation.
John Weatherup, president of Toronto Education Workers CUPE local 4400, pushed back against the board’s claim that reductions are because of declining enrolment, with an expected drop by 5,000 to a total of 232,000 students in 2026-27.
“Declining enrolment is part of it,” Weatherup told the Star, “but they’re short-funded from the provincial government to begin with.”
Budget discussions were also on the agenda at a Monday night meeting of the board’s special education advisory committee, made up of members from organizations that represent kids with disabilities or special education needs.
Staff are required to consult with the committee on special education budget matters.
“They went through this charade of giving us virtually no information, way less than we ever got” in past years, said committee chair David Lepofsky on Tuesday, adding he was “appalled.”
“We don’t know how many special education staff at head office are cut. They’ve told us they’re not cutting special education staff in the classroom, but we don’t know what other cuts are happening at the board that could have a direct effect on our kids.”