Sellene is experiencing exclusion, segregation and integration in a school setting. She’s attending only 60% of the time, most of that time is in a classroom by herself with a CEA teaching her or playing on a computer.
This coming week her class is going skating. Sellene can only come if her dad or I bring her separately.
Every single minute Sellene is in school right now her district is violating her human rights
Sellene’s brain needs to work harder to learn the same thing as other kids.
The wiring is wrong, the circuits faulty, the path from one thought to the next is all swervy. Her eyes don’t work the same, she has trouble keeping out the extra noises and sights around her. She needs smaller sentences, lots of opportunity to repeat what you said and reminders to keep pencil to paper during her thoughts.
In our district the expectation to work in the regular classroom for kids like Sellene is high. Too high.
Despite all this, inclusion looks like this…
Is that including her? Or allowing her to be there?
Right now her inclusion plan is mostly extra things that Sellene brings with her to try to function in a classroom that isn’t set up for her. She brings a visual calendar, break cards, headphones, fidgets, weighted items. These things are tools she is expected to use to fit in. The onus is on her to do so. Instead of helping, they have added responsibilities.
Of course she can’t do that. And now she hates school. It only took 2 months to defeat her.
Sellene turned 10 last week.
A few days before her birthday we had the IEP meeting at her school. The District had a few meetings as well. We are nearly two months in to the school year and this is where we are at;
That’s not inclusion. That’s not education. And it’s sure as not fair.
School District 73 has a Special Education Policy. It states, in part, that ;
The Board of Education recognizes that all students should have the opportunity to develop to their individual potential. The Board supports the provision of the most enabling learning environment for all students.
I brought a copy of this policy to our meeting and asked the question to our school staff. Do you feel Sellene has been placed in the most enabling learning environment given her needs?
Since then, I have been informed that the District Resource Program Screening Committee will review Sellene’s file and make a decision about possibly placing her in a resource setting. This isn’t the best place for Sellene either, and I question how much instructional time she will receive, but it can’t get worse than what she is going through right now. That committee meets November 14th. So another three weeks floats away while Sellene reads Captain Underpants books in the back of the room.
They sure play fast and loose with the school year. Remember, we asked them to start planning in January. November 14th is nearly a year later…
We are off to Victoria this morning to meet with the BC Representative for Children and Youth!
Right now, our daughter attends school three days a week. Of those three days, she spends about half her day outside of the classroom. She reads in the library, in the LART room or her quiet room. She plays with the LART teacher or her CEA.
While in the classroom, she often reads quietly at her desk which is situated in the back corner of the class. Since her classmates are learning at the grade 5/6 level, and she is still trying to learn at the grade 2 level, she isn’t able to participate in the lessons.
Is this inclusion? Is this providing Sellene an education? Or, is it daycare? This is what the Ministry of Education says about teaching diverse learners in their 2008 Framework for Diversity in BC Schools;
The school district is accountable to many mandates. These include;
My daughter is allowed to come to school and read. If she’s well beahved.
And that is not what inclusion means.
School District 73 reported a $1.5 million budget surplus last year.
Good news? Well, the province gave them that money to spend on making sure the children in this district had the resources to learn. At the last election forum I attended our Trustees made it clear that the money allotted to Special Education is a ‘FUNDING MODEL’ and not a “Spending model” and they are under no obligation to spend that money on supporting students. John O’Fee went on to say that they get no money from the Province for things like lawnmowers and fleet trucks and that money needs to come from somewhere.
So, while Sellene sits in a classroom she can’t learn in, our District is sitting on $1.5million and new lawnmowers.
That’s not ok.
Here’s a shot of part of our home classroom. The District gave us about $450 for supplies in the last two years.
We pulled Sellene from the regular classroom part way through the grade three year. Despite the best efforts of her teachers, they just couldn’t modify the curriculum in a way that was meaningful for Sellene.
We chose to enroll her with the distance learning program with the school district. They supplied the materials, we did the teaching. We completed grade three and grade four in this program./ But, by the midway point in Grade Four, it was obvious that teaching her was more than I could do. It was interfering with our bond and I am not a professional educator and was stumped on how to help her with things she couldn’t grasp.
We asked the District for help and it turns out that her program, @Kool, doesn’t receive any of the additional funding provided by the Province to support learners with special needs. So, they had no extra help for us. That’s when we started pushing for a new plan.
Since that time we have been asked to;
We have declined all those suggestions as Sellene has a right to go to school. In addition to being entitled to attend, she is entitled to a meaningful experience, where she is able to learn and participate. That’s what is missing right now. She can’t learn or participate in a regular grade five classroom with limited support and no materials that are suited to her ability level.
Since the September 30th deadline has passed, SD 73 now has Sellene’s payment from the Province for her education and no school would accept her unless we paid out of pocket for her to attend. That’s not going to happen. But we aren’t going to let them ride out the clock and let her sit in the library for five months either.
Yesterday, School District 73 had a meeting about Sellene. This morning we were told to seek a private education for her.
There is no room for Sellene in Public Education….
She is 141st on the waitlist for a specialized program for autistic children. What are we supposed to do until then? Who is keeping the money you and I pay in taxes for her to go to school and learn?
How do you feel about that? I feel sick for her. She deserves much better than this.
I have asked all of our local candidates the following questions (via email) about supporting children with disabilities. I’ll post their replies here and in the BC parent support groups as I get them. I addressed childcare, school exclusion, access to recreation and funding disparity…
Children with disabilities can have difficulty accessing recreation and creative opportunities. What role do you see your government playing in making sure families of children with neurodiverse needs have the same access to opportunities as other families in Canada?
Many children with disabilities are excluded from school in some form or another. Families are asked to keep them home, they are put in seclusion rooms or left out of activities or are in educational environments that are unsuitable so they don’t participate in a meaningful way. How can the Federal Government support inclusive education in all Provinces?
Affordable and accessible childcare is an issue for all families in Canada. Families who need childcare for children with disabilities face further challenges. How do you plan to address the shortage of care for children with disabilities? How can the Government help support both families and care providers so stable, long term placements are successful?
Currently, children with lesser known disabilities are often excluded from programs because the programs are based on a specific diagnosis. An example of this is the Autism Funding Program. Many children with FASD and ADHD would benefit from the same early interventions but can not access them. Will you address this discrepancy? How will you ensure all children have access to support programming no matter their diagnosis?
Sellene Just Wants To Go To School 