AODA Alliance
ACCESSIBILITY FOR ONTARIANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT ALLIANCE
NEWS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Premier Ford’s Promised new “Student and Family Support Offices” Include None of the Safeguards, Recommended for Years, to Ensure They Can Hope to Help Parents of Over One Third of a Million Vulnerable and Too-Often Underserved Students with Disabilities
November 13, 2025 Toronto: Three days after disability advocates’ November 10, 2025 Queen’s Park news conference called on parents of students with disabilities/special education needs across Ontario to call Education Minister Paul Calandra in their “Better Call Paul” campaign, the Ford Government today announced that it is directing all school boards to establish “Student and Family Support Offices, starting with five boards the Government seized control of, ousting elected trustees. This announcement lacks any of the key requirements recommended to the Ford Government almost four years ago by a Government-appointed expert panel, all of which necessary to make it effective. It commits no provincial funding, vital to ensure that provincially under-funded special education programs don’t get raided to finance this new measure.
“Premier Ford’s announcement doesn’t even mention much less address the needs of vulnerable students with disabilities. There’s nothing in this announcement to require that those handling calls in these new Student and Family Support Offices from over 300,000 families of students with disabilities/special education needs will have the needed expertise in disability education to quickly and competently investigate solve parents’ problems, and will have the required authority to get their problems fixed,” said AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky, who also chairs the TDSB’s Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC). “I had the privilege of serving on the Government-appointed K-12 Education Standards Development Committee and have been extremely frustrated that in almost four years, the Government enacted none of our recommendations.”
In October 2024, the TDSB’s Special Education Advisory Committee passed a strong motion calling for TDSB to establish such a process for families of students with disabilities/special education needs, set out below, which urged in part:
“1. TDSB should establish a prompt, user-friendly, fair and effective process for parents/guardians of students with disabilities/special education needs to seek a resolution if they believe that TDSB is not providing an accommodation for their learning needs that would benefit the student, e.g. if TDSB is not delivering on commitments in the student’s Individual Education Plan or if TDSB has not agreed to provide an accommodation that the parent/guardian believes that the student needs.
- Staff at TDSB who receive and address a complaint from a parent/guardian of a student with disabilities/special education needs should:
- a) Have expertise and experience with education of students with disabilities/special education needs;
- b) Be independent of those TDSB staff who have dealt with the student’s needs in issue;
- c) Have expertise and training in effective mediation/alternate dispute resolution and
- d) Have authority to direct any corrective action that they decide is needed.
- If, after a review, the TDSB decides not to provide the accommodation that the parent/guardian has requested, TDSB shall give written reasons for this decision.
- Every effort should be made to mediate and resolve any disagreements between the family and TDSB. If the matter cannot be resolved, there should be an option for TDSB to appoint a person or persons outside TDSB to consider the issue., along short time lines.
- This process should be designed and carefully tailored specifically for addressing the needs of students with disabilities/ special education needs. It should not also deal with other students’ complaints that are unrelated to disability/special education needs…”
There is ample basis for fearing that TDSB, for example, will not ensure that a new Student and Family Support Office meets the needs of its 40,000 students with disabilities/special education needs. TDSB senior staff have consistently opposed establishing what TDSB’s SEAC has recommended. At the January 22, 2025 meeting of TDSB trustees, TDSB SEAC’s Chair David Lepofsky presented a brief, set out below, which called on the trustees to establish this new safeguards for parents students with disabilities/special education needs, and overturn the senior TDSB staff’s resistance. No doubt because of TDSB senior staff resistance, the trustees did not accede to this recommendation. This can be found at The archived video of that meeting at 28:30. Video at https://www.tdsb.on.ca/Leadership/Webcast-of-Meetings/Webcast-Archives/ctl/view-meeting/mid/40743?meetingID=481
On July 9, 2025, Lepofsky wrote the Government-appointed TDSB Supervisor, urging that he take action, stating:
“Third, parents need a swift, fair and effective route for seeking solutions if they believe their child’s special education needs are not being effectively accommodated. TDSB has a duty to accommodate each of their disability-related needs so that they can fully benefit from all TDSB services. This necessarily requires strategies that are individually tailored to the needs of each student with disabilities/special education needs. TDSB is required to consult with the student’s parents on this.
Some parents believe that TDSB is not effectively accommodating their child’s special education-related needs. Some believe that TDSB will not agree to provide education support or accommodation that the student’s parents believe is needed. Others believe that TDSB has agreed to provide support or accommodation, for example by including it in the student’s Individual Education Plan (IEP), but has not met this commitment. Still other parents of some students with disabilities/special education needs believe their child has been wrongly excluded from attending school at all or told they can only attend for part of a school day. This flies in the face of every student’s right to a publicly funded education. Trustees get calls from parents seeking their help with such situations.
SEAC members and the associations they represent have received many of these complaints. They brought these concerns forward to SEAC to seek a systemic solution.
AT TDSB, parents now have two options. First, they can submit a concern through the procedure in the Ministry of Education’s “Concerned Parents Protocol.” Second, they can submit their issue to TDSB’s Human Rights office. Especially in so large a school board, these bureaucratic avenues have too often been insufficient.
SEAC presented many of these concerns to the trustees at its January 23, 2025, meeting. Once again, at the urging of staff, the issue was referred back to staff. No material changes have taken place. TDSB staff have invited SEAC to participate in a working group to develop solutions. We have taken part in it, and aim to continue doing so. However, that activity does not appear to be poised to deliver the major reforms needed. Change is extremely slow in coming and very limited in scope.”
Fear about how this will work in practice is made worse by TDSB senior staff’s refusal to allow TDSB SEAC to even convene a Town Hall for parents of students with disabilities/special education needs in 2025 or 2026. A very successful Town Hall was held one year ago. At the November 10, 2025 TDSB SEAC meeting ((which TDSB is banned from livestreaming by an order from Education Minister Calandra), TDSB’s Director of Education opposed such a Town Hall, while stating that TDSB values listening to parents.
“Even if the Ford Government were to properly fund these Student and Family Support Offices and requires them to be staffed by those trained in disability-education, dispute mediation and even if it equips them with the authority to solve problems, we still need elected trustees as a final resort for parents,” said Lepofsky. Otherwise, the school boards’ senior staff will be an unaccountable law unto themselves, with no democratic oversight.”
Contact: AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky, aodafeedback@gmail.com
Twitter: @aodaalliance
For More Background
Video of the November 10, 2025 “Better Call Paul” Queen’s park News Conference
November 10, 2025 “Better Call Paul” news release by the AODA Alliance, the Ontario Autism Coalition and Ontario Parents for Education Supports
The September 1, 2025 AODA Alliance Update calling for a specialized avenue for parents of students with disabilities/special education needs to solve problems for their children at school.
The advocacy by the AODA Alliance over many years on behalf of students with disabilities is documented on the AODA Alliance website’s education page.
Text of the January 22, 2025 Brief to the Toronto District School Board Trustees from the TDSB Special Education Advisory Committee
Special Education Advisory Committee
Parents Need a Swift, Fair and Effective Route for Solutions If They Believe Their Child’s Special Education Needs Are Not Being Effectively Accommodated
A submission to the TDSB Board of Trustees on behalf of the TDSB Special Education Advisory Committee by SEAC Chair David Lepofsky
January 22, 2025
Introduction
SEAC shall make a deputation to the TDSB Board at its January 22, 2025 meeting. This submission provides background to that presentation. On January 15, 2025, TDSB SEAC presented this topic to the TDSB Program and School Services Committee.
TDSB has at least 40,000 students with special education needs. TDSB is required to accommodate each of their special education needs, so that they all can fully benefit from TDSB services. This necessarily requires strategies that are individually tailored to the needs of each student with special education needs. TDSB is also required to consult with the student’s parents on this.
Some parents believe that TDSB is not effectively accommodating their child’s special education-related needs. Some believe that TDSB will not agree to provide education support or accommodation that the student’s parents believe is needed. Some believe that TDSB has agreed to provide support or accommodation, e.g. by including it in the student’s Individual Education Plan (IEP), but has not met this commitment. No doubt, trustees periodically get calls from parents seeking their help with such situations.
SEAC members and the associations they represent have received many complaints about such situations. They have brought these concerns forward to SEAC to seek a systemic solution. SEAC does not investigate individual cases, but looks for places where we need system-wide improvements.
At its November 4, 2024, monthly meeting, SEAC, with the assistance of TDSB staff, convened its first-ever town hall meeting for parents of students with special education needs. We considered this event to be a major success, providing a placed where parents could raise concerns with us.
At this town hall, SEAC heard many wrenching stories from parents describing situations where their child’s special education needs were not being met at TDSB. Depending on the circumstances of an individual case, the parent’s belief may be well-founded. When such an issue arises. SEAC has identified as one of the priority areas on which it is now focusing, the need to ensure that these parents have access to a swift, fair, and effective avenue for raising such issues, and for having them properly and quickly resolved, without the need to resort to external legal proceedings such a human rights complaint to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.
AT TDSB, parents now have two options. First, they can submit a concern through the procedure set out in the Ministry of Education’s “Concerned Parents Protocol.” Second, they can submit their issue to TDSB’s Human Rights office.
Especially in so large a school board, these avenues have not been a sufficient response. The Government-appointed K-12 Education Standards Development Committee, established under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, called for school boards to create an additional avenue for parents that is more specialized and tailored to the needs of students with special education needs.
Last June, SEAC received an extensive briefing from TDSB staff, and later held a full discussion of this issue, As a result, at its October 8, 2024 monthly meeting, SEAC passed the motion set out below. Staff had been present as this issue was discussed at earlier SEAC meetings, and at its K-12 Working Group, a SEAC subcommittee.
Staff advised SEAC at its January 13, 2025 meeting that staff have taken no steps as a result of SEAC’s passing the motion set out below. SEAC therefore now brings this important issue to the TDSB Program and School Services Committee. SEAC emphasizes that it is fully open to a school board to develop its own internal process for assisting parents to raise these issues, and for TDSB to attempt to resolve them. Just because the Ministry has prescribed the Concerned Parents Protocol, this does not mean that a school board is handcuffed to offer that procedure, and only that procedure. It also does not mean that that procedure cannot be refined and modernized.
SEAC remains eager to work collaboratively with TDSB’s staff and trustees on this issue. SEAC does not ask trustees to vote at its January 22, 2025 Board meeting to approve or reject the specific proposal set out in this motion. Rather SEAC asks trustees, within their proper role, to recognize that the problem SEAC here identifies is a real one, and that it is a priority that it be addressed.
October 8, 2024 Motion Passed by the TDSB Special Education Advisory Committee
SEAC Motion
At the October 8th, 2024 Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC) Meeting, the Committee passed a motion entitled “Creating a Fast, Fair and Effective One-Stop Avenue within TDSB for Parents of Students with Disabilities/Special Education Needs Who Believe TDSB is not Accommodating Their Child’s Learning Needs
SEAC recommends that:
- TDSB should establish a prompt, user-friendly, fair and effective process for parents/guardians of students with disabilities/special education needs to seek a resolution if they believe that TDSB is not providing an accommodation for their learning needs that would benefit the student, e.g. if TDSB is not delivering on commitments in the student’s Individual Education Plan or if TDSB has not agreed to provide an accommodation that the parent/guardian believes that the student needs.
- Staff at TDSB who receive and address a complaint from a parent/guardian of a student with disabilities/special education needs should:
- a) Have expertise and experience with education of students with disabilities/special education needs;
- b) Be independent of those TDSB staff who have dealt with the student’s needs in issue;
- c) Have expertise and training in effective mediation/alternate dispute resolution and
- d) Have authority to direct any corrective action that they decide is needed.
- If, after a review, the TDSB decides not to provide the accommodation that the parent/guardian has requested, TDSB shall give written reasons for this decision.
- Every effort should be made to mediate and resolve any disagreements between the family and TDSB. If the matter cannot be resolved, there should be an option for TDSB to appoint a person or persons outside TDSB to consider the issue., along short time lines.
- This process should be designed and carefully tailored specifically for addressing the needs of students with disabilities/ special education needs. It should not also deal with other students’ complaints that are unrelated to disability/special education needs.
- This motion outlines the principles that should guide the needed process, while leaving flexibility on how it will be designed and operated. This process can be designed so as not to conflict with Ministry requirements. A Parent/care-giver, or the student themselves, can first bring their concerns to their teacher, and then the principal, after which this avenue would be available to them if needed.
Excerpts from the January 28, 2022 Final Report of the Government-Appointed K-12 Education Standards Development Committee
Barrier: parents/caregivers of students with disabilities, and students with disabilities themselves, need direct, easy access to important information about the menu of programs, services, supports and accommodations available for students including students with disabilities, and how to request or advocate for them. They have a right to know all the important information they need including, for example what is available, what persons and what office to approach to get this information and to or to request or change the student’s placements, programs, supports, services or accommodations, or to raise concerns about whether the school board is effectively meeting the student’s disability-related education needs.
This information should be easy to find, and should be readily available in accessible formats, in plain language and in multiple languages. Parents/caregivers report that too often, it is very difficult to find out this important and basic information. It is inefficient and unreliable to leave this responsibility to individual principals, spread across Ontario, to each deal with this as they choose. When it is left to each principal, without clear requirements and pre-prepared materials for parents, caregivers and students, school boards won’t be able to ensure that this important need is met.
As well, parents/caregivers of students with disabilities report that too often, they find it very difficult frustrating and demoralizing to advocate for their child’s needs in the school system. Depending on the board, the school and the people involved, it can be a welcoming, positive, and cooperative process, or an alienating, bureaucratic and rigid process.
When there is a dispute about the Individual Education Plan contents or implementation, parent/caregivers/students do not have a dispute mechanism and some parents, caregivers or students resort to filing a human rights complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal. Filing a human rights complaint involves great legal expenses, delays, and hardships to a family. A dispute mechanism that is easy to use and that can resolve issues quickly is needed….
(Note: The recommendations included)
61.13 consistent with the recommendations for a Ministry of Education policy on student and parent/caregiver engagement, a school board level dispute resolution mechanism is available to parents/caregivers of students with disabilities, and to those students, for concerns related to accommodations, including individual education plans.
The dispute resolution process shall be:
- fair, independent and impartial
- respectful
- non-adversarial
- timely
- accessible
- one where the decision is provided in writing.
Timeline: one year
61.14 after the dispute resolution process is completed, if the family is not satisfied, they have the right to bring their concerns regarding the proposed accommodations, including the individual education plan, to a designated senior official at the school board with authority to approve the requested accommodations, for a further review.
Timeline: immediate
61.15 in cases of dispute, the ministry shall appoint a mediator.
Timeline: six months
61.16 no proposed services, supports or accommodations that the school board is prepared to offer shall be withheld from a student pending a review.
Timeline: immediate
61.17 notify parents and caregivers, who themselves have a disability, that they have a right to have their disability-related needs accommodated in these processes, so that they can fully participate in them. For example, they should be notified that they have a right to receive any information or documents to be used in any such meeting or process in an accessible format.
Timeline: immediate
61.18 ensure that students with a disability who move from school board to school board, or school to school, have the right to an individual education plan with same or comparable programs, services, and accommodations. If the school board, or the school to which the student transfers proposes to deny or to reduce those accommodations or supports, the parent/caregiver/student should be able to take their concern to the dispute resolution process. all accommodations shall be maintained until and unless, through the dispute resolution procedures set out in these accessibility standards, the school board has justified a reduction of those accommodations.
Timeline: one year