A Midland mother is raising the alarm over what she views as “systematic failures” in the education system.
While Jennifer Chantler says her daughter Abby’s story isn’t new, it continues to persist with regards to how Simcoe County District School Board educates special-needs students.
“The current system is not student-centred; it’s administration-centred,” says Chantler, who notes Abby is a Grade 3 student at Mundy’s Bay Public School.
“(It’s) designed to help manage the school system, not to educate the students.”
She says both she and Abby’s father have spent thousands of dollars to satisfy the school board’s requirements of assessments and proof to have their daughter recognized by the board’s identification, placement and review committee, which identifies “exceptional pupils” and places them in special education programs.
“The hell I have been through resonates with almost every other parent of a special-needs child,” she explains. “The system is so broken that my child with complex special needs is denied an equitable education and (the system) expects that parents foot the bill for external services and assessments.”
According to the province, “an exceptional pupil is a student who has behavioural, communicational, intellectual, physical or multiple exceptionalities” that require them to have a special education program or service.
But from her perspective, Chantler says the board deflects the financial burden of educating special-needs kids onto their parents.
“They delay any supports that they can’t outright avoid until parents get tired and stop asking,” she says. “Providing SEA (special equipment amount) equipment is backlogged for over a year, meaning my daughter lacks access to specialized equipment needed to access the curriculum.”
Furthermore, Chantler says school boards provide vague and generalized individualized education plan (IEP) strategies and measures by only allowing teachers to use a drop-down menu to complete the IEP report.
“Kids with special needs do not fit into a drop-down menu,” she says. “Automating the system is eliminating the agency of the teachers, and disallows them from making specific comments that would be helpful for parents and fellow educators.”
Chantler says the board needs to allow teachers to fully customize IEPs to ensure transparency and accountability.
“Parents should be able to challenge the school on items that are, or are not, being provided,” she adds, “but without specific statements, how are we to ensure that what is being promised is being delivered?”
She says parents should be able to make informed decisions about the education and accommodations of their children with special needs.
“IEPs are not in an easily understandable format, using technical jargon that parents cannot understand. This can easily confuse and intimidate parents from asking questions. The IEP does not come with guidelines or explanatory information that would help a parent to make informed decisions about the content of the IEP,” she says.
“Unless the parent is technically savvy and has the ability to research what everything represents, parents are left in the dark about what is actually being provided by the school board.”
Board spokesperson Jamie Campbell says while neither the board nor individual schools can comment on individual matters to protect student privacy, she could provide some context regarding IEPs.
“An individual education plan is a written plan, developed through the classroom teacher, special education staff and parents/guardians for a student based on thorough assessments of the student’s strengths and needs,” says Campbell, who provided a link to the board's website regarding IEPs in a section titled Parent’s Guide to Special Education and the SCDSB’s Special Education Plan.
“IEPs provide detailed information about the special education program/services required by a student to help parents/guardians and school and board staff understand their learning needs and how to best support them. IEPs are monitored throughout the year and formally reviewed at least once every reporting period.”
According to Chantler, Abby requires numerous accommodations for her vision impairment, ADHD and neuro-development disorder, including a slant board, large-print school work, low-vision printing paper, Chromebook, magnifier, and orientation and mobility training.
“She is still awaiting all of the above except for the orientation and mobility training, which they provided and then took away when they removed her from their ‘vision caseload,’ stating that she isn’t ‘blind enough’ and is lower priority than other children with vision impairments,” Chantler says, adding they were told a Chromebook is available in every classroom and her daughter just needs to ask for it.
“She has never been shown how to use the programs on a Chromebook. How do they expect her to ask for, or use, the Chromebook if the school does not provide her with training? Again, it’s just pushed off to the parents to learn these programs and teach our own kids.”
Chantler says she’s been told the school is getting a slant board but can’t guarantee when it will be in.
“The slant board was originally requested based on an in-school assessment in 2023, and the school board has only just put through the order,” she says.
She hopes by sharing a “short synopsis” of her family’s experiences with the public board, it helps “convey the magnitude of problems that are well known but shoved under the rug.”
“Truly, my concern lays with the system overall,” she says. “How many kids require services and aren't getting them because of these long wait times for assessments and class room equipment?”
