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
AODA Alliance Discovers Via the Grapevine that Ontario Ministry of Education is Holding Closed Invitation-Only Consultations on Reforming Widely-Criticized Power of School Principals to Exclude Students from School — AODA Alliance Has Been Frozen Out
December 4, 2024
SUMMARY
For almost five years, the AODA Alliance, as well as any number of other disability organizations, have been trying to get the Ontario Government to rein in the sweeping power of every school principal in an Ontario-funded school to exclude a student from school. This power has disproportionately been used against students with disabilities. When students with disabilities are excluded from school, their fundamental right to an education is denied.
For years, the Ontario Government has done nothing to fix this, as far as we could tell. In July 2020, we made public a scathing report, that shows that practices vary wildly from school board to school board. That report is entitled “For Too Much of Ontario, Each School Principal Is a Law Unto Themselves, When It Comes to the Right of Students with Disabilities to Go To School — A Report by the AODA Alliance on the Sweeping Power of Ontario School Principals to Refuse to Admit a Student to School.” The Ford Government has never disputed its accuracy, or even responded to it.
In the past few days, we learned via the grapevine that the Ontario Ministry of Education is considering the possibility of issuing a “Policy and Program Memorandum” (PPM) to every school board giving directions for the first time that could regulate or limit how this sweeping power is used. The Government is holding some sort of a consultation on this.
The Government did not tell the AODA Alliance or some key disability advocacy organizations about this. We have never been invited to take part in this. This is inexcusable. We and other disability organizations have been very public for years, advocating for reform. All should be included in an open consultation.
On December 4, 2024, the AODA Alliance wrote a strong letter to the Ministry of Education officials who appear to be responsible for this consultation, which we set out below. We have asked to attend the December 10, 2024 consultative webinar that the Government appears to have scheduled. We have also insisted that a wide spectrum of disability organizations be invited as well. We object to the Government’s apparent plan to keep confidential the draft PPM that they have under consideration. The public, including students with special education needs and their families, have a right to know what this draft now says, and to have their voices heard.
How You Can Help
- Tell the Minister of Education Jill Dunlap and Premier Doug Ford that they should make public the draft PPM on excluding students with disabilities from schools, and hold a wide-open consultation, not a closed, invitation-only consultation, on this important topic. Their email addresses are all at the end of our letter, set out below.
- Tell Premier Ford and Education Minister Dunlap that they should enact the long-overdue Education Accessibility Standard under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, which should address this issue, as the K-12 Education Standards Development Committee recommended in its final report. The Government received that report almost three years ago, and claims to have been studying it since then.
- Urge your local media to cover this issue.
- Invite your school board’s Special Education Advisory Committee and any other disability organizations that might be interested to reach out to the Ford Government and ask to take part in this consultation.
- Learn more by visiting the AODA Alliance website’s education page.
MORE DETAILS
Text of the AODA Alliance’s December 4, 2024 Email to the Ministry of Education
December 4, 2024
To: Charmaine Perera, Director of the Special Education / Success for All branch.
And healthy.schools@ontario.ca
Dear Ms. Perera,
Re: Ministry of Education Consultation on Potential Policy and Program Memorandum to Ontario School Boards Regarding Refusals to Admit Students to School,
I write as Chair of the AODA Alliance, a widely-recognized non-partisan grassroots coalition. We advocate for accessibility and full inclusion of people with disabilities in all aspects of life. For at least 15 years, we have made it a priority to advocate to tear down the many barriers that impede students with disabilities in Ontario’s education system. Our website’s education page shows our major activities in this area.
We recently received word through the disability community grapevine that Ontario’s Ministry of Education is now holding some sort of consultation on the development of a future Policy and Program Memorandum to Ontario school boards about a school principal’s power under Section 265(1)(m) of the Education Act to refuse to admit a person, including students, to school. We wish to be actively included in this consultation. However, we have not been invited to take any part in it, nor even notified about it, by the Ministry.
The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance is an obvious and important participant in this consultation. Yet we have inexplicably been left out. I have played the lead role on education issues, including on exclusions, for the AODA Alliance that we list here.
Since 2009, the AODA Alliance has led the provincewide campaign to get the Government to enact the Education Accessibility Standard under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. From 2018 to 2022, I served as the AODA Alliance’s representative on the Government-appointed K-12 Education Standards Development Committee. It’s final report made very detailed findings and recommendations on the need for reform to full-day and partial-day exclusions from school as they apply to students with disabilities. I was an active participant in the development of those recommendations.
Your Ministry had a senior representative on the K-12 Education Standards Development Committee. She was well-aware throughout its four years of work of our focus on the need for reform in the area of full-day and partial -day exclusions of students with disabilities from school. Your Minister and deputy minister each met with the K-12 Education Standards Development Committee and were well aware of our work.
In December 2019, the AODA Alliance and the Ontario Autism Coalition held a joint news conference at Queen’s Park to focus on the need for reforms to rein in the power of school principals in this area. Your Ministry monitored that news conference.
In July, 2020, the AODA Alliance made public a comprehensive report on the wildly varying policies over school exclusions from one school board to the next. This report was shared with your Ministry at senior levels. No one at the Ministry ever disputed its findings.
In 2017-2018, the Special Education Advisory Committee of the Toronto District School Board passed a strong motion calling for reforms in this area. This led to some real improvements at TDSB. I had the honour of serving as Chair of TDSB’s SEAC at the time that motion was developed. I am again serving as TDSB SEAC’s Chair. We are again revisiting this issue at the December 10, 2024 TDSB SEAC meeting.
Beyond the AODA Alliance, there are many other voices from the disability community and the community of parents of students with special education needs who should have a central role in this consultation from the beginning to the end. For example, each school board’s Special Education Advisory Committee should be actively participating.
The Ministry’s recent email, of which we have obtained a copy, which invites some to a December 10, 2024 consultation of some sort, and which we set out in full at the end of this email, states:
“A confidential draft of the PPM will be provided to you for your review. There will be an opportunity to review and provide further written feedback to the ministry following the sessions.”
With great respect, any draft PPM in this area should not be confidential. There are no trade or military secrets in issue here. Everyone involved should be free to get input from the broader community, including from those who have been the victims of full-day or partial-day exclusions from school, without any such restrictions. After all, we are dealing here with the fundamental right of students with disabilities to attend school and get a public education.
Please sign me up to attend the December 10, 2024 consultation webinar on behalf of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance. We may wish to bring an additional representative. Please let us know who you have invited to attend this session, and please make public an open invitation to community organizations and groups in this space to attend and take part, including all of Ontario’s SEAC s. Please also remove any confidential restrictions on the draft PPM and make it public in advance.
We would welcome the opportunity to help your Ministry succeed in implementing long-overdue reforms in this area.
Sincerely,
David Lepofsky CM, O. Ont
Chair Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance
Twitter: @davidlepofsky
CC: The Hon. Premier Doug Ford Premier@ontario.ca
Jill Dunlap, Minister of Education Minister.edu@ontario.ca
- Denise Cole, Deputy Minister of Education EDU.DMO@ontario.ca
Raymond Cho, Minister for Seniors and Accessibility Raymond.cho@ontario.ca
Melissa Thomson, Deputy Minister for Seniors and Accessibility Melissa.Thomson@ontario.ca
Meenu Sikand, Assistant Deputy Minister for Seniors and Accessibility Meenu.Sikand@ontario.ca
^Text of November 28, 2024 Email from Ontario Ministry of Education to Undisclosed Recipients
From: Healthy Schools (EDU) <
Healthy.Schools@ontario.ca>
Sent: November 28, 2024 9:28 AM
To: Healthy Schools (EDU) <
Healthy.Schools@ontario.ca>
Cc: Healthy Schools (EDU) <
Healthy.Schools@ontario.ca>
Subject: Consultation on the draft policy/program memorandum on exclusions of students – Consultation sur la version préliminaire de la note politique/du programme sur les exclusions d’élèves
Greetings,
You are invited to participate in an engagement session to provide your input on a draft Policy/Program Memorandum (PPM) that the Ministry of Education is developing to provide guidance on the use of student exclusions, under clause 265(1)(m) of the Education Act.
The session will be led by the Safe and Healthy Schools Branch at the Ministry of Education to gather feedback on the draft policy.
A confidential draft of the PPM will be provided to you for your review. There will be an opportunity to review and provide further written feedback to the ministry following the sessions.
This meeting will be held virtually over Zoom for 1.5 hours per session on the following day December 10th, 2024, 10:30am-12:00pm.
Please RSVP here.
A meeting invitation with a link will be sent to you to confirm your participation. Meeting materials will follow closer to the date.
Please let us know if you have any accessibility needs/requirements in order to participate in this session.
If you have any questions about this meeting, please email:
Regards,
Safe and Healthy Schools Branch