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Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance Update
United for a Barrier-Free Ontario for All People with Disabilities
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A Glimpse of Backdoor Cuts to Come for Students with Disabilities? Disturbing New Survey Reveals Previously Undisclosed TDSB Cuts to Services for Students with Disabilities
December 10, 2025
SUMMARY
A December 9, 2025 news article in the online Toronto Today publication, set out below, reports on a very disturbing survey that documents previously undisclosed cuts to some supports for students with disabilities/special education needs at Canada’s largest school board, the Toronto District School Board. This is the sole responsibility of the Ontario Government of Premier Doug Ford, since it took over total control and management of TDSB late last June.
This issue requires immediate objective and independent investigation. TDSB is required by law to consult with its Special Education Advisory Committee on its special education budget.
As we have earlier reported, the Ford Government is actively considering abolishing all elected school board trustees across Ontario. It has already seized direct control of six school boards, ousted their elected trustees, and passed provincial legislation without first holding public hearings that makes it even easier for the Minister of Education to seize direct control of more school boards.
How You Can Help
- Join the Better Call Paul Campaign. Phone or email Education Minister Paul Calandra, and ask him to intervene to fix the problems facing your child with disabilities in an Ontario school. Specifically, ask him to investigate these unwarranted cuts to services at TDSB for students with disabilities/special education needs, a school board he is directly running.
Phone: 416 325-2600
Email: minister.edu@ontario.ca
- Download and distribute our 1-page Better Call Paul brochure available at this link.
- Encourage others to learn how to be an effective disability advocate by listening to our new podcast called Disability Rights and Wrongs — The David Lepodcast. Get this podcast wherever you get your podcasts or download it directly from various podcast platforms such as:
Apple music: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disability-rights-and-wrongs-the-david-lepodcast/id1838700161
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5WFLiSy99OJPMZ1ZSrkWCg
People can also ask their smart phone, Alexa, or Google Nest: “Play podcast Disability Rights and Wrongs!”
MORE DETAILS
Toronto Today, December 9, 2025
Originally posted at https://www.torontotoday.ca/local/education/tdsbs-half-time-vice-principals-not-completing-special-ed-teaching-survey-11601651#google_vignette
TDSB vice principals not completing special ed work: survey
TDSB’s half-time vice principals are not completing required special ed teaching: survey
The president of the TDSB’s elementary teachers’ union says the survey shows there is ‘systemic discrimination’ of special needs students within the board
Gabe Oatley
Amid ongoing staffing challenges, many half-time vice principals in the Toronto District School Board are being pulled from their required special education duties to cover other administrative and classroom roles, leaving vulnerable learners without necessary support, according to a new report.
The report from the union Elementary Teachers of Toronto (ETT), shared with TorontoToday this week, is based on a survey completed by ETT members between mid-November and early December.
While many Torontonians without kids might imagine each school has a full-time principal and vice principal (VP), this is not always the case. Per the report, there are VPs in more than 100 TDSB elementary schools who cover typical administrative duties half-time and are assigned to a separate instructional position within the other 50 per cent of their role.
TDSB trustee Michelle Aarts (Beaches-East York) told TorontoToday that half-time VPs are a critical resource for schools where student numbers are too low to meet ministry guidelines for a full-time VP. Within these schools, many VPs are assigned to teach special education and work with children one-on-one, or in small groups, on learning goals outlined in students’ individual education plan. Other half-time VPs also serve as guidance counsellors or work with students learning English as a second language (ESL).
However, ETT’s survey found that amid staffing challenges, many half-time VPs are not fulfilling their required instructional function.
By mid-November, nearly one-third of the way through the school year, surveyed teachers reported that half-time VPs in about 20 schools were yet to deliver any formalized special education instruction to students. In an additional 20 schools, teachers reported half-time VPs have cancelled their special education programming at least once per week.
The survey found similar gaps in the delivery of classes for ESL students.
ETT president Helen Victoros told TorontoToday the findings amount to “systemic discrimination” of some of the board’s most marginalized learners.
TorontoToday contacted the TDSB for its perspective on the survey’s findings, but did not receive a response prior to publication.
‘Deeply concerned’: Autism Ontario
A spokesperson for the charity Autism Ontario said the organization is deeply concerned by the allegations outlined in the ETT report.
“When a student’s Individual Education Plan is not being implemented or supported because designated staff are unavailable or reprioritized for administrative tasks, this is a violation of the Human Rights Code and the Education Act,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
“When this delivery is undermined, it erodes trust, compromises equity, and creates downstream harm, especially for those already facing barriers to learning.”
David Lepofsky, chair of the TDSB’s special education advisory committee, said prior to reading ETT’s report, he had been unaware of the prevalence of half-time VPs serving in special education teaching roles, or allegations that some VPs are not completing their special education responsibilities.
“This information, if true, is devastating for some of the most vulnerable students in our school system, who are chronically underserved [and] who face recurring disability barriers in schools,” he said. “This, if true, can only serve to make things worse.”
Half-time VPs frequently filling gaps: Trustee
However, not all were surprised by the report’s findings.
Trustee Aarts said the practice of using half-time VPs has been ongoing for at least 15 years; but that within the last several years, it’s become particularly common for half-time VPs to be pulled from their teaching responsibilities to fill other gaps.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the trustee said schools across the province have faced enormous challenges in finding enough supply teachers to fill positions when teachers are off sick. When this happens, VPs frequently cover the role, she said.
The trustee said underfunding of schools by the provincial government has also made it more likely that half-time VPs are pulled from their instructional roles.
Lacking sufficient numbers of hall monitors, special education staff and child and youth workers, she said half-time VPs are often the only available adults in the school to help when a student has left class because they’ve become dysregulated, or for a myriad of other concerns that arise daily.
In its report, ETT also pointed its finger at the provincial government for the issue.
“Underfunded and understaffed school boards increasingly rely on half time teaching VP’s as one of their strategies to fill the gaps,” ETT wrote. “This strategy puts a band aid [sic] on a deep chasm of problems.”
A poll conducted in October 2023 by three associations that serve Ontario principals suggested school leaders are feeling the strain. Of the some 3,700 principals and VPs surveyed, 97 per cent said their workload was unmanageable, and 99 per cent said their workload had increased since 2019.
Union raised issue with TDSB before
Victoros said the union has in previous years raised alarm with the TDSB about VPs’ unfulfilled responsibilities, but has been met with resistance. In response to a 2016 request from the union, Victoros said the TDSB began outlining the instructional responsibilities required of half-time VPs working in special education.
However, she said the board has subsequently resisted tackling VPs’ failures to meet these standards at a systemic level. Instead, Victoros said the board has requested the union file a report about the specific schools where half-time VPs are not fulfilling their mandate.
She said this “whack-a-mole” approach is wholly insufficient to address the scale of the issue at hand. She added that the board’s failure to implement a holistic solution has consequences for both students and teachers.
The report notes that teachers often structure their lesson plans to allow time for a half-time VP to deliver special education or English learning instruction.
When this does not happen, teachers said it requires them to re-jig programming on the fly.
Victoros said it also causes teachers moral injury because they see students struggling academically as a result of insufficient support.
Unfulfilled instruction for language learners: survey
In addition to alleged instances of half-time VPs not completing required special education instruction, teachers surveyed by ETT also said some VPs have not fulfilled their remedial language support functions.
Of the 102 Toronto elementary schools identified with a half-time VP, 62 per cent of teachers said their VP is a special education resource instructor, while 13 per cent said VPs have an English language teaching role. Of half-time VPs teaching remedial English, ETT members reported that 36 per cent had not delivered any language education to students this year; while an additional 27 per cent of half-time VPs cancelled their language programs at least once per week since the school year began.
Victoros said this is unacceptable.
She added that the findings point to a major equity issue within the board between students at schools with half-time VPs and those with full-time VPs. “You’re at a significant disadvantage of actually receiving these specific program supports if you’re in a school with a half-time teaching vice principal,” she said.
The union president said she presented ETT’s report to TDSB staff on Dec. 5. She said she was told the board is “working on a communication to schools” about the issue, but that the union would not be provided with additional details.
In light of ETT’s findings, Autism Ontario said the board should audit the work of its half-time VPs and implement clear metrics to track service delivery. The charity said there “must be accountability” when systemic service gaps are identified, especially when those patterns disadvantage underserved learners. In its report, the union did not share the list of schools where half-time VPs are allegedly not completing required instructional duties. Victoros said ETT does not want teachers to face reprisals for having completed the survey.