“Devastating,” NDP joins calls to implement expert recommendations to support students with disabilities in Ontario classrooms

QUEEN’S PARK — Ontario NDP Shadow Minister for Education, Chandra Pasma (Ottawa West – Nepean), and Shadow Minister with responsibility for the Ontario Autism Program, Alexa Gilmour (Parkdale – High Park), have issued the following response to Community Living Ontario’s report on the reality that students with disabilities and special needs are facing in classrooms:

“Parents, educators, and advocates have been sounding the alarm on this for years — children with disabilities and special needs are not getting the support they need or the education they deserve in our classrooms,” said Chandra Pasma.

“This is absolutely devastating,” said Alexa Gilmour, Shadow Minister with responsibility for the Ontario Autism Program. “Our children deserve so much better. No parent should have to pick up their kid from school with horror stories like these. We are failing these kids and their families.”

“Our schools need more caring adults to support students with disabilities and special needs. The crisis we are seeing did not happen overnight. Years of cuts and neglect from this government brought us here. Things need to change, desperately.”

“Since 2018, the Ford government has made cut after cut to our public schools,” added Pasma. “Nearly every school board in the province is running a deficit in special education, spending more than they’re getting from this government, and they’re still not able to meet children’s needs — this is not how we look after the most vulnerable students in our province.”

The Ontario NDP have long called on the Ministry of Education to track and report all data on exclusions for students with special needs.

Pasma and Gilmour are calling on the Minister of Education to urgently bring:

• Increased access to resources and supports for students
• Requirements for the Ministry of Education to track and report on exclusions, partial-day attendance, seclusion, and the use of restraints
• More trained caring adults into classrooms to support students with disabilities and special needs