Newfoundland report calls for overhaul of policy of inclusion in the classroom

By The Canadian Press

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – The Newfoundland and Labrador government should scrap its existing policy on classroom inclusion, an expert panel says in a newly released report that found students, parents and teachers across the province are convinced the system for dealing with students with special needs is broken.

The four-member task force, which conducted a broad review of the K-to-12 education system, is recommending the Department of Education rescind the 1996 inclusion policy and develop a new approach toward dealing with students with “exceptionalities.”

“Students with specific learning disorders are given little help and fall further and further behind,” says the report, released Tuesday. “Parents describe the ‘constant fight,’ for supports for their children year after year.”

In consultation sessions held across the province, the task force was repeatedly told there was broad support for the “internationally embraced model of inclusive education where all children, regardless of religion, culture, gender or ability, can attend the neighbourhood school.”

However, they were also told that even though every province in Canada accepts the notion of inclusive schools, students aren’t getting the help they need.

“The message was clear: inclusion, as a model of delivering supports to students with exceptionalities, is not working,” the report says.

The report says there has been an increase in the number of students with Autism Spectrum Disorder and specific learning disabilities, including those with speech disorders.

In 2017, 22 per cent of students in Newfoundland and Labrador were documented as having at least one “exceptionality,” a slight increase from 2006. And even though there were 2,800 fewer students in the school system when compared with six years ago, there were 180 extra instructional resource teachers and identified need teachers.

Among other things, the report calls for using something called “small group instruction,” both in and out of the regular classroom.

As well, it says individual program plans should be used to ensure all children are in school for a full day, preventing children with special needs from being sent home.

There are also calls for creating an early identification and intervention system for students with challenges, and providing professional learning on a new special education policy.

Other recommendations include:

— adopting New Brunswick’s model of department-led professional learning on responding to student behaviour

— developing a new model of student assistants that would allow for more flexibility, and assigning student assistants to the school and not to individual students

— drafting a plan to introduce a second level of student assistants as instructional assistants with levels of post-secondary education appropriate to the role

— reviewing the capacity of social workers, psychologists, occupational therapists, speech language pathologists and community nurses to ensure adequate service to students and families in the new proposed model.

The report, which includes 82 recommendations, also calls for big changes in the way the department deals with student mental health, math assessments and language arts.

The call for change comes amid declining enrolment, which dropped from 106,000 students in 1997 to 66,000 students this year.

The report found that too many students are dropping out, struggling with reading and basic math, and are graduating from high school without sufficient knowledge of career opportunities, post-secondary study options and fundamental life skills.

“All of these issues are especially pronounced for many Indigenous students and for immigrant students,” the report says. “Parents and educators alike were unanimous in voicing concern that all students, not just those with exceptionalities, are being under-served with the current model of inclusive education.”

– By Michael MacDonald in Halifax

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