Anybody Care About Their Education? - Special Needs Students Being Told to Stay Home

Spoke to a couple principals and a school board member regarding this issue and received some great feedback.

Kids are sent home when the school doesn't have the ability to properly take care of them or they are a major disruption to classes. This is NOT done lightly and only after consultation with the parents.  My concern would be this consultation process.  There is no set standard. I have heard of no formal District best practices either. It is up to each school to handle as they see is appropriate. I'm not sure I trust this method.  I'd like to see a set of provincial Best Practices. Parents come in a variety of forms and not all with the same social abilities as others.  This can be very problematic to fairness.

The parents I've spoken to, with 1 exception, were unaware they had any choices or input into how it's handled.  They thought they really had no choice so simply accepted what was being offered.  This is not totally the fault of the teacher or the administrative staff. Parents need to step up and ask questions. Complaining to a 3rd or 4th party isn't productive.  Parents need to be educated.

The other challenge I'm finding is the impact on families when kids need to stay home all or part of a day.  It can be a great financial hardship to arrange for this care. A parent or caregiver, who is not a teacher, is now required to pick up the slack.  I wonder if this extra cost is fair to the parents.  And more important, are these kids being denied a proper education because of a disability? That's the big question really here.  Budgets are not there to adequately educate these kids.  And families are not given extra money to help educate the kids.  So, who is advocating for their education?

Serious question here folks.. who is advocating for their education?

Sorry, Your Child Can Only Come to School a Half/Day? Really?

When is it OK for schools to tell parents their kids can not attend for more than a few hours? Where can I look for answer?

I'm talking to a woman in Surrey, who says her ASD child is not allowed to spend more time because they don't have the staff. WoW! We have a face to face meeting later in the week. Also have heard from a parent whose child does not have a diagnosis, but is in elementary school and has behaviour challenges. Runs outside, throws things, etc. And that child is told they can't come for a full day.

What are parents rights to getting an education for their kids? I'm going to read through School Act guidelines and see what it says. I know some Districts may have their own rules as well.

I understand that a child can not be in class when they are a danger to others, to themselves, etc. But, what is a reasonable excuse? There seem to be no firm guidelines or formal process. I know that when a child is made to stay home, they do not get additional funding for schooling at home.  

I think this is a big deal people!

Advocating for Your Special Needs or LD Child

Had a very familiar conversation with a parent of a special needs child, Jane, today.  She has a daughter with autism and spent a couple years in the public system and then transferred to a private school. It's been quite a challenge finding all of the services her daughter needs to give her the best chance for a happy, fulfilled life.

Like myself, Jane was a bit overwhelmed when her daughter went into the public school system. Your autism funding drops drastically when your child turns 6 years old.  The assumption is that the school system picks up where autism funding has been reduced.  The reality is that there just aren't the services available within the school system to meet all of these needs.

Necessary speech and occupational therapy is at a premium.  Occupational therapy is almost impossible to get at school.  So, even though doctors and therapists will give recommendations, schools are not able to comply.  So, what does a family do?  That's a good question that many parents struggle with.  What do we do? You end up making some tough choices on how to use your funding. Sometimes secondary insurance plans will provide some help and community services. You need to be a really strong advocate for your child and research programs.  This isn't easy for lots of parents to do for a variety of reasons and end up frustrated and confused.

My friend Lisa has a couple children with learning disabilities. They have had major challenges getting what they need at school. I have another friend Sue, who is told to keep her child home 1/2 day because the school isn't able to deal with all of her son's needs. Because of this, Sue is unable to work and they need extra help from the government to get by.  You may be surprised, but schools telling parents to keep their kids home is not as uncommon as you might think. I need to check and see if there are any stats on this.

How do these kids get what they need? Who is advocating for them? There has to be options and there needs to be somebody helping these families through the maze of education and community services.

Programs for special needs kids need to improve. Childcare for special needs kids needs to improve. With lack of funding in education and community service sectors, we need to build stronger relationships with businesses and our communities.

I'm not sure exactly what the answers are, but I'm looking forward to hearing what candidates propose in this upcoming election.

All Kids Created Equal?

I spoke with a Mom from the Lower Mainland who has a child with Down's Syndrome.  Her son has communication challenges as well as behavioural challenges related to his diagnosis.  I found out that her child, who has way more struggles at school than mine, gets way less for support. And she says it's due to diagnosis.  Autism gets you the cornucopia of help from the school and government.  Kids with a different diagnosis may not be so lucky.

Her neighbor has a child with ADHD who is impacted quite severely by this and a psychiatric diagnosis as well.  She gets NO support from the government or from school in regards to his illness.  She says her principal has had to be really creative with hours and help for her son in class. She is choosing to keep him home from school next year.  But, with all of the media attention on human rights cases, she's thinking about exploring that option.

Neither of these parents are interested in challenging the system because they feel it's just too big of a task.  Too intimidating.

These stories are good examples of why I like the idea of loosening diagnosis restrictions on getting extra help for the student and teacher.

LIF Fund Gets an A+

Great for SN kids! LIF Fund getting high marks. Ministry of Ed is on the right track.. But more help is needed. 

What would you like to see for services for SN kids? 

BC Government Online News