CTV and City TV News Highlight Disability Concerns with the New School Board Student and Family Support Offices

Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance Update

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

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CTV and City TV News Highlight Disability Concerns with the New School Board Student and Family Support Offices

 

January 21, 2026

 

SUMMARY

 

CTV TV News in London yesterday reported on some of the serious concerns with the opening of Student and Family Support Offices at five Ontario school boards yesterday. These issues were initially brought to the public’s attention by the January 19, 2026 AODA Alliance news release. You can read the CTV news report below or watch it online. The five boards required to have a new Student and Family Support Office are the Toronto District School Board, Toronto Catholic District School Board, Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board and Thames Valley District School Board.

 

Our news release this past Monday revealed that by the close of office hours on January 19, 2026, one of the five school boards under the Ford Government’s direct supervision, the Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB), had not complied with the Ford Government’s November 13, 2025 order. That order required five school boards under Ford Government direct supervision to publicly post information on how to contact their Student and Family Support Office by January 19, 2026. On January 21, 2026, we learned that the TVDSB had belatedly posted online the required information on how to contact its Student and Family Support Office.

 

As well, last night’s City TV Toronto news broadcast included a great report on the TDSB’s Student and Family Support Office. There is no web news text of that report so far. City TV revealed that to serve the families of 250,000 TDSB students, including 40,000 students with disabilities/special education needs, TDSB is staffing its Student and Family Support Office with a paltry two people.

 

Several important issues regarding the Student and Family Support Office have emerged, on which we wish to comment.

 

It would be wrong to think of these new Student and Family Support Offices as a replacement for school board trustees, as if Ontarians should think of either having Student and Family Support Offices or having elected trustees, but not both. All families, and especially those with students with disabilities/special education needs need both. The TDSB Special Education Advisory Committee has been pressing for years for such a new service to be established for students with disabilities/special education needs, well before there was any sense that the Ontario Government might oust the elected trustees as that school board.

 

It is essential that these new Student and Family Support Offices are equipped to effectively accommodate the disability-related needs of parents of students who contact them for help regarding their child and that they convey this to the public. Any number of parents with disabilities may not know much about the school boards duty to accommodate parents with disabilities under the Charter of Rights, the Ontario Human Rights Code and the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act.

 

These Offices should proactively offer anyone calling them with disability accommodations if needed. So far, none of the web pages at the five school boards in questions have done this.

 

This is especially shocking since they are all being run directly by the Ford Government. Their elected trustees were ousted. The Ford Government appointed provincial Supervisors who report directly to the Minister of Education Paul Calandra.

 

It is vital that these Student and Family Support Offices keep reliable records of the calls and contacts they receive, the nature of the problems raised, and whether they were resolved. Each board should periodically make public a summary of these, without any individual names or details that could invade anyone’s privacy. For example, it would be helpful to know how many requests for help pertained to students with disabilities/special education needs, what the essence of the complaints were (i.e. how many were about the lack of an educational assistant), and what percentage were resolved. So far, the Ford Government has been silent about this. TDSB’s Special Education Advisory Committee pressed senior board official to commit to this at the recent January 12, 2026 SEAC meeting.

 

A critical question which has been raised by the AODA Alliance and the TDSB Special Education Advisory Committee has been whether these Student and Family Support Offices will actually work on proactively solving these problems, or whether they will simply repeat to the parents who contact them the reasons given in the past by the student’s teacher, principal or superintendent for not solving the parents’ concerns. If these new Student and Family Support Offices provide a venue for rethinking the problem and seeing if there are solutions that the teacher, principal or superintendent did not find, these offices could be very beneficial. If they are just another layer of bureaucracy for defending the status quo no matter what the circumstances, these offices will just wastefully add to parents’ enormous sense of frustration.

 

There is ample room to be worried, from the perspective of students with disabilities/special education needs. Here’s why:

 

  • As far as we can tell from its public announcements and from revelations at the January 12, 2026 TDSB Special Education Advisory Committee meeting (which is available online thanks to the Ontario Autism Coalition), the Ford Government is not taking steps to ensure that those working in these Student and Family Support Offices have the required expertise in the educational needs of students with disabilities/special education needs.

 

  • As noted earlier, the TDSB’s Special Education Advisory Committee has been trying for years to get senior TDSB staff to establish some sort of service for students with disabilities/special education needs akin to what is now mandated for all students at these Student and Family Support Offices. TDSB senior staff were vehemently opposed to this. We can have no confidence that their rejection of this idea has somehow vanished just because Education Minister Paul Calandra has ordered these school boards to open these Student and Family Support Offices. To succeed, these offices need to be welcomed within the school board bureaucracy, and especially at the highest levels.

 

  • These Student and Family Support Offices will be able to receive complaints from any family about any issue. They are not limited to students with disabilities. That means that the serious concerns brought forward by parents of students with disabilities about the chronic systemic disability barriers they face will be in the same lineup as a parent who is upset that their child did not make the desired volleyball team, or get the role in the school play they wanted. As has been the historic pattern for students with disabilities in the school system, there is a well-founded fear of too often getting lost in the shuffle.

 

How You Can Help

 

  • If you have a child with disabilities at one of the five school boards under provincial supervision, and if your child is struggling to get the needed disability supports at school, take your problems to the board’s new Student and Family Support Office. Let us know how it goes. Read the January 20, 2026 AODA Alliance Update that gives you all the contact information you need, and practical tips.

 

 

  • Let the media know about any problems you encounter with a Student and Family Support Office.

 

  • On another note, be sure to listen to the AODA Alliance’s new podcast: Disability Rights and Wrongs — The David Lepodcast. It is available wherever you get your podcasts.

 

 

MORE DETAILS

 

 CTV News London Ontario January 20, 2026

 

Originally posted at https://www.ctvnews.ca/london/article/ontario-school-boards-launch-student-support-portals-as-critics-question-role/

 

Ontario school boards launch student support portals as critics question role

By Reta Ismail

 

Several Ontario school boards launched new student and family support office websites Tuesday, including the Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB).

 

The move comes as those boards remain under provincial supervision, raising questions about whether the new portals are replacing the role of elected trustees.

 

The TVDSB officially launched its Student and Family Support Office – TVDSB portal on Tuesday.

 

Education Director Bill Tucker said the online service is meant to help parents and caregivers navigate the school system when they are unsure where to turn.

 

“Given the size of our school board, it really is designed to help parents and families navigate, should they have some difficulty finding, you know, who they go to, what issues can they have addressed,” Tucker said.

 

TVDSB is one of five Ontario school boards mandated by the Ministry of Education to have the offices in place by today. All five are under provincial supervision.

 

Tucker said families with complex concerns about a student’s education plan or wellbeing can submit an online form or call the listed phone number. Concerns will then be directed to the appropriate supports.

 

Critics, however, argue the portals add bureaucracy rather than accountability.

 

“It’s smoke and mirrors from the minister,” said Ontario NDP Education Critic Chandra Pasma. “You are taking away the support and advocacy of a trustee who will help you navigate the whole process, and you’re replacing it with another layer of bureaucracy.”

 

Accessibility advocates also raised concerns.

 

“There certainly are some problems with the existing trustee system, but these are easily fixed,” said David Lepofsky, chair of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance. “Mend it. Don’t end it.”

 

A request for an interview with Education Minister Paul Calandra was declined. In a statement issued by his press secretary, the minister said the government will continue, “overhauling an outdated school board governance model so that more resources go into classrooms, teachers have better support and students have the best chance to succeed.”

 

The online portal encourages parents and caregivers to first contact a teacher, principal, or superintendent before submitting an inquiry — a process critics say creates barriers for some families.

 

“If you don’t have a computer, or you don’t know how to use a computer, or you can’t do that in English, or there are accessibility problems that prevent you from using a computer to communicate, you’re out of luck,” Lepofsky said.

 

Questions are also being raised about whether existing staff can manage the added workload.

 

“Nobody has added additional resources,” Pasma said. “Family support offices consist of people who are already responding to parents or who have other obligations, which raises questions about timely responses.”

 

Disability advocates are encouraging families to use the new system and share feedback.

 

“Let us know how much the people at the other end of the phone understood,” Lepofsky said. “Let us know if they solved it.” Health Care – AODA Alliance

 

All remaining Ontario school boards are required to have Student and Family Support Offices in place by Sept. 1, 2026.