Toronto Star Reports on Why It’s Still So Hard for Parents of Students with Disabilities to Find Out What Supports, Services and Options are Available at School for their Child

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

 

Toronto Star Reports on Why It’s Still So Hard for Parents of Students with Disabilities to Find Out What Supports, Services and Options are Available at School for their Child

 

October 17, 2024

 

SUMMARY

 

Today’s Toronto Star covered a vital issue for parents of students with disabilities in Ontario-funded schools, students  who number well over 300,000. Why is it so hard for these parents to simply find out what’s available at school to meet their kids’ disability-related needs? Read a fantastic article by Toronto Star education reporter Isabel Teotonio, below.

 

Over two and a half years ago, the Ford Government received an expert report that said that for parents of students with disabilities in Ontario-funded schools, it’s still too hard to find out what services, supports and options are available for their child at school and where to go to advocate for these. It called on the province to require school boards to adopt comprehensive communication action plans to make this important information easy to find and to understand. That was just one important area addressed by the final report of the Government-appointed K-12 Education Standards Development Committee. The key passage from that report, which the Ford Government received on January 28, 2022, is set out below.

 

Almost three years later, Ontario still does not have an Education Accessibility Standard. In the face of the Ford Government’s continuing inaction, the Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC) of the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has been advocating for over eight years to get TDSB to fix this problem for the over 40,000 students to whom it relates at that school board. That is the focus of today’s Toronto Star article.

 

Progress at TDSB on this issue has also been painfully and inexcusably slow. There is no good reason for this. It’s not a hard problem to solve.

 

Therefore, last June, the TDSB SEAC passed a new recommendation to TDSB’s elected trustees, calling for action. We set that motion out below. The current Chair of TDSB’s SEAC is David Lepofsky, who is also Chair of the AODA Alliance.

 

On September 25, 2024, the SEAC Chair presented this motion to the TDSB trustees’ Program and School Services Committee. You can watch the video of that presentation. The trustees on that committee were receptive but merely passed a motion to send the issue back to TDSB staff. TDSB’s SEAC wanted trustees to prod TDSB staff to dramatically speed up action on this issue.

 

On October 9, 2024, the TDSB SEAC Chair presented this issue to a meeting of all TDSB trustees. You can watch his presentation online as well as the trustees’ discussion about it, which took place later at that meeting.

 

In the end, the trustees passed a helpful but unnecessarily watered-down motion, set out below. It requires the TDSB Director of Education to “consider” making this issue a priority. It requires them to report back to trustees in the spring and to work with SEAC on the issue.

 

If parents cannot find out what’s available for their children and where to go to advocate for them, this gets in the way of their children receiving the education to which they are entitled. This is an easily removed barrier to education for students with disabilities, something guaranteed by the Charter of Rights and the Ontario Human Rights Code. It is ridiculous that parents have had to fight so long for something so obvious, simple and vital.

 

This problem is not limited to TDSB. The K-12 Education Standards Development Committee identified it as a provincewide problem that needs a provincewide solution. The promised Education Accessibility Standard is long overdue.

 

How You Can Help

 

  • Write a letter to the editor at the Toronto Star. Applaud the Star for covering this issue. If you are a parent of a student with disabilities, tell your story on this issue but keep it all to 300 words or less. Write the Star at lettertoed@thestar.ca

 

  • Email Premier Ford. Demand that he pass a strong Education Accessibility Standard under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. Write him at premier@ontario.ca

 

  • Write your school board. Press them to take the same action as did TDSB.

 

  • If you are a member of a Special Education Advisory Committee anywhere in Ontario, urge your SEAC to pass the same motion that TDSB’s SEAC brought forward on this important issue.

 

  • If you know any parents of students with disabilities in Ontario schools, encourage them to watch the AODA Alliance’s video that gives them tips on how to advocate for their child’s needs at school. Publicize it on social media.

 

Let us know what you try! Send us feedback at aodafeedback@gmail.com

 

For More Background

 

Check out the AODA Alliance’s online video series on what needs to be done to tear down the many accessibility barriers that impede students with disabilities from fully participating in and fully benefitting from our education system.

 

Visit the AODA Alliance website’s education page.

 

MORE DETAILS

 

Toronto Star October 17, 2024

 

Originally posted at https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/options-for-tdsb-students-with-special-needs-brutally-difficult-to-navigate-parents-say-heres-what/article_8ecafc4a-8741-11ef-8c11-736e087b3f77.html

 

Parents want clarity on programming

Group has urged TDSB to make website, brochures more user-friendly, but little progress seen

 

Isabel Teotonio Toronto Star

Toronto’s public school board must do a better job informing parents about its programs, services and supports for students with disabilities and special education needs, because the current system is “brutally difficult” to navigate and filled with too much jargon.

 

That’s according to the Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC), which is made up of members from different organizations representing concerns of parents who have kids with disabilities or special education needs.

 

Over the past eight years, the committee has been asking staff at the Toronto District School Board to provide more information, make its website more user-friendly and use plain language in special education brochures. But there’s been little progress, so it recently took the unusual step of asking the full board of trustees to prioritize fixing this “problem” at the TDSB, which has about 40,000 students with special education needs.

 

“We have a problem that is pervasive,” said SEAC chair David Lepofsky at an Oct. 9 board meeting. “I describe TDSB as being…like a restaurant that won’t give you a menu but expects you to order.”

 

“Too often, it is, frankly, brutally difficult for parents of students with disabilities or other special education needs, to find out what’s available: What programs? What classes? What supports? What services? What accommodations?”

 

Lepofsky, a disability rights activist and retired lawyer, said the TDSB leaves it to school administrators to convey much of this information to parents. But not all parents know to ask the principal, and not all principals have the answers or the time to get them, he said adding, “This is not efficient, especially when it’s information that we all need as parents.”

 

He also said parents seeking information are told by the TDSB to read the special education plan it files each year with the Ministry of Education.

 

“Have you ever looked at it? It’s the cure to insomnia,” he said, noting it’s a couple of hundred pages long and “incredibly complex.” “It is not very useful especially for families for whom English isn’t their first language, and who don’t know all the technical jargon                       edu-speak.”

 

He says the TDSB’s information for parents is filled with language that isn’t easily-understood by a lay person, terms and acronyms such as exceptionalities, IEP (individual education plan) and IPRC (identification, placement and review committee).

 

Staff said they have been working in recent years on improving “communication and engagement.” Still some trustees said they continue to hear from frustrated parents.

 

Trustee Sara Ehrhardt moved a motion, which passed, calling on the TDSB director to “consider” making this issue a priority and “proactively” informing parents about programs, supports, services and educational offerings for students with disabilities and special education needs.

 

“This does reflect the board’s desire that this advance as a priority,” said Ehrhardt, who asked for an update in the spring, saying if there isn’t sufficient progress made trustees may take further action.

 

Staff said they recently developed an “action plan” that will address some of the concerns. And acting director of education Stacey Zucker told trustees, “this is a priority,” adding, “We are committed to this, and I know that when the update comes back we will be very far along in this process.”

 

Trustee Neethan Shan urged Zucker to provide an earlier update, so the TDSB can come up with a strategy on how to fix the problem.

 

“It’s not your expertise in communication that’s being challenged, but it is the need that exists for communities to know more,” said Shan, acting chair of the TDSB. “In order for them to navigate the system effectively, they need the information. And it’s multi-layered. Lower-income equity-deserving groups face it much more.”

 

When parents can’t get answers from the TDSB, they end up turning for help to charitable disability community organizations. For instance, Autism Ontario regularly hears from parents inquiring about TDSB programming.

 

“It’s really mind-blowing some of the questions that we get. I got one the other day from a parent saying, ‘Do I have any rights?’ ” Leo Lagnado, who represents Autism Ontario on SEAC, told the Star. “How are you going to request anything from the school board if you’re coming from the perspective in which you do not believe that you have any rights?”

 

Lagnado says parents regularly call Autism Ontario to say their kids are being excluded. For instance, principals may say that their children’s needs are too complicated and suggest they stay home, or ask that their kids be picked up early from school because there’s a shortage of staff. Many parents, he says, “feel guilty” and keep their kids at home.

 

“The law is on their side, but they don’t know that,” says Lagnado. “The Education Act is very clear that these kids have a right to education.”

 

Each school board in Ontario has a SEAC, which is legislated by the Ministry of Education and appointed by the board. At the TDSB, the committee will hold its first town hall on Nov. 4 to hear from parents about the barriers their children face and how to improve services.

 

Figure:

 

The Toronto District School Board says it’s working to improve how it communicates information to parents about programs and services available to students with disabilities and special needs.

 

 K-12 Education Standards Development Committee Final Recommendations on Providing Needed Information to Parents/Guardians

 

Parent/caregiver and student participation recommendations

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.

  1. We recommend: All of the students with disabilities and the parents/caregivers of those students have the right to fully participate in the planning and implementation of the student’s educational plan/program.

Timeline: immediate

The Ministry of Education shall:

61.1 ensure effective processes and resources used for planning for all students with disabilities to ensure that students and parents/caregivers are able to participate effectively in the process.

Timeline: six months

61.2 procure software to be used by school board, for producing accessible IEP, report cards and other like documents. This software will ensure parent and students with disabilities have access to all relevant information in an accessible format.

Timeline: six months

61.3 develop a timely formal process/dispute resolution mechanism for parents/caregivers and students to appeal the contents or implementation of individual education plans, to make necessary changes if required, and to ensure that district school boards follow it.

Timeline: six months

61.4 in cases where disputes cannot be resolved at the school board level, appoint an arm’s length third-party mediator when parents/caregivers and/or students can show that the school is not effectively meeting their needs.

Timeline: one year

The District School Boards shall:

 

61.5 provide parents/caregivers of students with disabilities, and where applicable, students with disabilities themselves, with timely and effective information, in accessible formats, on the available services, programs and supports for students with disabilities (whether or not they are classified as students with special education needs under the Education Act and Regulations).

Timeline: six months

61.6 ensure that parents, caregivers, and students are informed, as early as possible, in a readily accessible and understandable way, about important information such as:

  1. what “special education” is and who is entitled to receive it.
  2. what the rights are to full participation in and full inclusion in all the school board’s education and other programming, and to be accommodated in connection with those programs under the Ontario Human Rights Code and Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, whether or not the student is classified as a student with special education needs under Ontario’s Education Act and regulations.
  3. the menu of options, placements, programs, services, supports and accommodations available at the school board for students with disabilities.
  4. who to approach at the school board to get this information, and how to request placements, programs, supports, services or accommodations for students with disabilities, including the development of Individual Education Plans, or to raise concerns about whether the school board is effectively meeting the student’s education needs.

Timeline: six months

61.7 ensure parents/guardians of students with disabilities can easily find out and, where necessary visit, different placement, program, service and support options for a student with a disability, to ensure that the parent/guardian or the student, is knowledgeable about the options for placement, program or services that are available to be provided to that student. This information should be posted on the school and school board website in an easy to find and read, accessible and jargon-free format, and provided in take home brochures.

Timeline: immediate

61.8 develop, implement, and make public an action plan to ensure parent/caregiver/students have access to the information they need and meet the requirements of this section. The action plan should incorporate the following:

  1. the goal of the plan.
  2. what information will be made available to parent/caregiver/students with disabilities.
  3. how information will be formatted to make it easy to understand and jargon free.
  4. the types of formats that will be used to make the information available and accessible.
  5. where information will be available to parents/caregivers/students (in schools and on-line including school and school board websites).
  6. the timelines for distributing information to all parent/caregivers/students and the key transition points when information will be provided (such as at start of school, at least once annually, and as part of student planning, including individual education plan development and review).
  7. who will be responsible for ensuring information is provided to parent/caregiver/students with disabilities.
  8. how the distribution of information will be tracked or measured.
  9. what measures will be used to evaluate the value and impact of providing the information.
  10. how the action plan will be evaluated.
  11. how the action plan will be shared publicly with regular progress updates.

Timeline: six months

61.9 ensure that each school shall send home an introductory pamphlet, or equivalent, to all parents/caregivers at the start of each school year, or when first registering a student in the board, and not only to families of those students who are already being identified as having a disability.

Timeline: immediate

61.10 ensure provision of in-person and virtual events to help families learn how to navigate disability-related school board processes. Where possible these should be streamed online and archived online as a resource for families to watch at a convenient time.

Timeline: six months

61.11 ensure an effective process for parents and caregivers of students with disabilities, and, the students themselves, to effectively take part in the development and implementation of a student’s plans for meeting and accommodating their disability-related needs, including (but not limited to) their individual education plan.

Timeline: six months

 

The TDSB’s Special Education Advisory Committee June 2024 Motion

 

The Right of Parents, Guardians and Students with Disabilities/Special Education Needs to Know about TDSB Programs, Services, and Supports, and How to Access Them

 

Whereas students with disabilities/special education needs and their parents/guardians have a right to user-friendly access to important information about the programs, services, supports and educational offerings available for them at TDSB and how to access them. This should be easy to find, written in plain language without education jargon, and available in multiple languages and multiple formats, including accessible formats.

 

And whereas for over eight years, SEAC has repeatedly told senior TDSB officials that too many families find it hard to find this information. They find this very frustrating. This undermines their ability to advocate for their child’s needs.

 

And whereas TDSB has told SEAC that it is the responsibility of each principal to convey this information to parents and guardians of students with special education needs and that parents can look to TDSB’s website, its Special Education Plan posted there, and some brochures. Yet SEAC has advised TDSB that this is not an effective solution.

 

And whereas TDSB’s 2024 Multi-Year Strategic Plan commits to treating parents as partners and to “[i]dentifying, removing, and preventing systemic, procedural, and attitudinal barriers that stand in the way of equity of access and outcomes in education.”

 

SEAC therefore recommends that the TDSB Board should

 

  1. As a priority, create and implement a strong, comprehensive action plan to fully, effectively and pro-actively inform all parents/guardians/students, including parents/guardians of students with disabilities/special education needs, about the programs, supports, services and educational offerings that could assist students with disabilities/special education needs, and where and how to access and advocate for them, and

 

  1. report by the end of 2024 and every six months thereafter t to the Board and to SEAC on their progress.

 

The October 9, 2024 Motion Passed by the Toronto District School Board

 

Business Arising: Communication Plan Regarding Special Education Supports

 

The Board decided:

 

Whereas, on June 10, 2024 the Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC) endorsed a motion entitled “The Right of Parents, Guardians, and students with Disabilities/Special Educations Needs to Know about TDSB Programs, Services and Supports, and How to Access Them”; and

Whereas, in June 2024, the Ministry of Education issued PPM 170 which outlines requirements and provides direction to school boards on communication with parents/caregivers; and

Whereas, the Toronto District School Board’s 2024-28 Multi-year Strategic Plan includes as conditions for success, both effective communication and increasing the ability of all students to access education in a way that reflects their needs; and

Whereas, on October, 2024, the Board approved a recommendation from the Program and School Services Committee to refer the matter to staff to work with SEAC regarding further collaboration on meeting its goals;

 

Therefore, be it resolved:

  1. a) That the Director consider, as a priority, effectively and proactively informing all parents/guardians/students, including parents/guardians of students with disabilities/special education needs, about the programs, supports, services and educational offerings that could assist students with disabilities/special education needs, and where and how to access them;
  2. b) That the work at Part (a): i. build from the minimum requirements of the Ministry’s Policy/Program Memorandum 170;
  3. include ways to reach diverse and multilingual communities effectively in accessible formats;
  4. c) That the Special Education Advisory Committee be consulted on the work at Part (a);
  5. d) That the Director update the Board on the work in spring 2025.