AODA Alliance
Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance
Ontario Autism Coalition
Ontario Parents for Education Support
NEWS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
On Wrenching Anniversary of Ford Government Inaction, Advocates for Parents of Students with Disabilities Described Worsening Plight of Their Children in Ontario Schools and Demand Action At Queen’s Park News Conference`
January 29, 2024 Toronto: This week marks a disturbing anniversary of Ford Government inaction when it comes to giving some of Ontario’s most vulnerable students a fair chance at school. Four years ago, the Ford Government received a comprehensive report by a committee of Government-appointed experts that revealed the many disability barriers permeating Ontario’s publicly funded schools, which hurt at least one third of a million students with physical, sensory,, intellectual, learning, mental health, neurological, communication and other disabilities. These accessibility barriers impede them from fully participating in, being fully included in, and fully benefitting from all that our K-12 school system has to offer. The report was prepared by the Government-appointed K-12 Education Standards Development Committee, mandated under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act.
At a Queen’s Park news conference today, organizations that advocate for parents of students with disabilities sounded the alarm. The Ontario Autism Coalition, AODA Alliance and Ontario Parents for Educational Supports united to declare that in the intervening four years, things have not gotten better for these students. In key ways, they have gotten worse.
“In opposition, the Tories blasted the Kathleen Wynne Government for not enacting a much-needed Education Accessibility Standard under the Disabilities Act, but in power, they’ve dragged their feet on this for years and leave our kids to languish, while claiming to be doing a wonderful job,” said David Lepofsky, Chair of the nonpartisan grass roots AODA Alliance, which has led the fight since 2009 to get Ontario to enact the Education Accessibility Standard. “Premier Ford has been told what disability barriers are hurting students with disabilities and what he needs to enact to tear those barriers down.”
The final report of the Government-appointed K-12 Education Standards Development Committee gave the Ford Government and Ontario’s 72 school boards a practical roadmap for how to remove those barriers and to prevent new ones from being created in the future. Among the many barriers in Ontario’s schools, the report found:
- Many school buildings are not physically accessible, impeding students, teachers, staff and parents with physical disabilities.
- Schools have arbitrary power to exclude students with disabilities from school outright, or only let them come to school part-time, with no real due process.
- Digital learning technology used in schools too often lacks digital accessibility to ensure that students with disabilities can fully use and benefit from these learning tools.
- The school system too often does a poor job of letting parents of students with disabilities know what programs, services and supports are available for their children and how to access them.
- The education system is replete with rigid bureaucratic and administrative barriers that make it harder for schools to meet the needs of students with disabilities and create roadblocks for parents trying to advocate for the needs of their children in school.
- Teachers and other educational staff too often lack sufficient training, if at all, in how to effectively teach all learners, including students with disabilities.
“Over the past four years, the Ford Government sat idly by while school boards continued creating new barriers and leaving existing barriers in place that hurt our kids,” said Bruce McIntosh, Ontario Autism Coalition board member and founding president. “Study after study has shown how too often, due to chronic provincial underfunding, so many of our kids are under-supported in school, or told to just stay home.”
“More than one quarter of the students in Ontario-funded schools are now directly run by the Education Minister, and not by elected trustees, so Doug Ford can’t blame anyone else for the problems that students with disabilities so often face at those boards,” said Julia Evangelisto, co-chair of Ontario Parents for Education Supports. “Having a paltry two staff in TDSB’s new Student and Family Support Office to answer issues from 250,000 students including 40,000 students with disabilities, is laughable for parents trying to navigate a cold and bewildering school board bureaucracy that is even harder to deal with since trustees were ousted.”
The Ford’s Government seizing control of six school boards has led to chaos at the top, with two Directors of Education already summarily fired. We’re left wondering why the Ford Government has subjected families to this chaos.
The Ford Government said it took over TDSB because the trustees passed a budget that had a deficit. Yet at the January 12, 2026 meeting of TDSB’s Special Education Advisory Committee (which David Lepofsky chaired) TDSB Budget Chief Craig Snider stated that seven months after a provincial Supervisor took over the Board, “…the budget itself for the 25-26 year remains the same.” Why Haven’t the trustees been restored to the positions to which they were elected?
At this news conference, an urgent call was made for these steps:
- Enact the long overdue Education Accessibility Standard under the Disabilities Act.
- Give school boards the budget they need to meet the needs of underserved students with disabilities.
- Stop condemning all school board trustees across Ontario for the misconduct of two trustees at the Brant Haldimand Norfolk Catholic District School Board, which the Ford Government has not taken control over. We wouldn’t talk about abolishing the entire Ontario Legislature if one cabinet minister was under a dark cloud because of an alleged spending scandal. When it comes to the trustee system, mend it don’t end it.
- Give us and parents of students with disabilities a direct voice in any reforms to school board governance. A good start would be a meeting with Education Minister Paul Calandra.
- Reverse any backsliding for students with disabilities that has taken place under the provincially-appointed Supervisors.
Contact: Bruce McIntosh 416-451-8315, bruce.mcintosh@ontarioautismcoalition.com
David Lepofsky aodafeedback@gmail.com
Background:
January 12, 2026 meeting of the TDSB Special Education Advisory Committee TDSB Budget Chief is asked whether the provincially-appointed Supervisor has imposed any budget cuts, and he confirms that TDSB continues to operate under the same budget that the elected trustees approved last spring: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nr25Tq4jTFg&t=0h30m4s