AODA Alliance
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
Twitter: @aodaalliance
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/aodaalliance
Call Education Minister Paul Calandra to Get Help for Your Child with Disabilities in School – Join the “Better Call Paul” Campaign
November 10, 2025
SUMMARY
At a Queen’s Park news conference today, the AODA Alliance, the Ontario Autism Coalition and Ontario Parents for Education Support unveiled a new grassroots campaign for parents of students with disabilities/special education needs in Ontario schools. Join us in this campaign!
If your child has disabilities and is not having their disability-related learning needs met in an Ontario school, call Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra. Tell him your child’s problem. Ask for his direct help. We’ve named this our “Better Call Paul” campaign.
Below get the whole story from our news release that we issued after the news conference. It includes our 1-page brochure that gives you all the information you need. You can also Print that brochure and give it to others.
How You Can Help
Post our “Better Call Paul” brochure, set out below, on social media, websites and anywhere else you can. Email and text it to friends, family and co-workers.
- Print our brochure and give it to others. Post it in public places in your community.
- Send our “Better Call Paul” news release to your local media. Urge them to cover this story.
- Are you a member of a school’s parent council, or a school board’s Special Education Advisory Committee or Parent Involvement Advisory Council? Do you know any members of those committees or councils? Get them to circulate our “Better Call Paul’ brochure.
- Are you a teacher, principal or other school board employee? Help us spread the word to others at your school board about this blitz.
MORE DETAILS
November 12, 2025 News Release After Queen’s Park News Conference
Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance
Ontario Autism Coalition
Ontario Parents for Education Support
Disabilities Advocates Unveil “Better Call Paul” Campaign at Queens Park for Parents to Seek Help at School for Their Underserved Children with Disabilities
November 10, 2025 Toronto: At today’s Queen’s Park news conference, disability advocates called on parents of students with disabilities in Ontario-funded schools to call or email Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra and press for his help if they are one of the many such students whose disability-related learning needs are being underserved at school. They launched this “Better Call Paul” campaign in the face of the Ford Government taking more and more direct control of Ontario’s schools. Below is the one-page brochure now being distributed around Ontario announcing the campaign.
“Premier Ford’s Education Minister is making micro-management decisions of the school boards that the Ontario Government has taken over, deciding things like how many students there will be in some special education classes or whether a school board’s Special Education Advisory Committee meetings will continue to be live streamed, or even whether a school’s name should be changed,” said AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky. “If a frustrated parent has no school board trustee to go to in order to seek help, we’re urging them to call the only elected politician who can, Education Minister Paul Calandra. Better call Paul!”
“Parents of one third of a million students with physical, mental health, sensory, neurological, learning or other kind of disabilities in Ontario-funded schools around the province need to get ready for the real possibility that the Ford Government will abolish all elected school board trustees, making Minister Calandra the sole elected trustee for all Ontario,” said Ontario Autism Coalition board member and past president Bruce McIntosh. “To prepare for that, we’re recommending they get ahead of the game and start calling Minister Calandra now to ask for help for their kids at school. Better Call Paul!”
“Senior bureaucrats running school boards need to be publicly accountable for how well they serve our children,” said Julia Evangelisto, co-chair of Ontario Parents for Education Support. “Over-burdened parents of students with disabilities too often find dealing with them to be upsetting, stressful and ultimately unsuccessful. We fear what will happen if all we have to turn to for help is the huge unfriendly Ministry of Education.”
The Ford Government has not reached out to any of the three disability organizations holding this news conference, to get their input on the impact on students with disabilities of different options for reforming Ontario’s education system. The AODA Alliance applied to give evidence at public hearings on Bill 33, which addresses this topic. However Premier Ford’s closure motion prevents any public hearings from being held on that bill.
For further information:
Contact: Bruce McIntosh 416-451-8315, bruce.mcintosh@ontarioautismcoalition.com
David Lepofsky, AODA Alliance, aodafeedback@gmail.com
The graphic above includes a picture of Paul Calandra. It says if you need a trustee, you “Better Call Paul.” It includes his phone number (416-325-2600) and his email (minister.edu@ontario.ca) and asks people who email to send a copy to 2025BetterCallPaul@gmail.com and if they phone to email that same address to say that they did.
Is Your School Board Failing to meet the Learning Needs of Your Child with Disabilities? Better Call Paul!
Do you have a child with any kind of physical, mental health, sensory, neurological, learning or other kind of disability? Is your school board meeting their disability-related learning needs? If not, call Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra. Ask him to solve your child’s disability-related learning problems at school.
What can a frustrated, anxious, beleaguered parent do if their school tells their child with disabilities to stay home, or doesn’t give their child supports they need to learn at school? Until recently, when all else failed, they could call their elected school board trustee for help.
However, the Ford Government took control of five school boards. It ousted their elected trustees. Education Minister Paul Calandra now directly controls those boards. He appointed supervisors who report to him.
This could be in store for all Ontario. The Government aims to take more control over all school boards. It may oust all elected trustees from overseeing Ontario’s schools.
Paul Calandra may end up being the school board trustee for all Ontario-funded schools, with far more power than elected trustees ever had. If your child needs help now, better call Paul!
Phone: 416-325-2600
Email: minister.edu@ontario.ca
If you email him, please copy us at the grassroots non-partisan non-Government Better Call Paul campaign at 2025BetterCallPaul@gmail.com
Ontario-funded schools have one third of a million students with disabilities. Far too many face all kinds of serious disability barriers at school. In January 2022, the Ontario Government received a detailed blueprint on how to fix this, prepared by a Government-appointed panel of experts from the school system and the disability community. The Government has not implemented that blueprint.