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Jun 20, 2022 at 2:19 pm
School Trustee 73 - TEA1
Kamloops and District Labour Council asks:
How would you address the challenges of the current funding structure for students with special needs?
Candidate Answers
This depends on the severity of the needs of child. Each child is so unique that funding needs to help parents and children. With divorce rates over 84% with special needs children involved we need to support the whole family.
Funding needs to be rethought to encapsulate direct therapy, counseling for siblings and parents, educational support and activities to keep these children developing.
My approach would be to make available more tax credits open to parents for the above items. Provide more family planning to help support the family unit and increase the funding support to promote for at home education as this is where most children feel comfortable.
I believe that the government should not only increase the funding for all 3 levels of Special Needs Assistance. But also needs to provide more complex training and higher wages to the very specialized union support staff that are instrumental in the not only this student growth, but also allowing the teacher the time and resources to manage and teach the rest of the class. No student should be left behind in the classroom or playground due to special needs. The other obstacle is from what I hear from parents of these gifted children. The lengthy delays in getting an assessment and or specialist to support the findings or dispute them. That has got to be addressed, the longer you leave it, the further that child could fall behind.
There is no question in my mind that current funding for all aspects of students with special needs is not enough. We need to at the board level apply serious pressure on the provincial government to increase funding for our special needs children. Many parents of special needs children were told not to bring their child into school the first week because of the lack of support staff. I strongly believe every child has the right to go to school no matter what needs they have have. That is why I also maintain that we need to look at increasing funding/wages for the support staff that are looking after these children. We have a very big problem with retention of support staff in our district.
Simply put, the current funding system doesn't recognize the individual needs of students. Some students need full time aides (who aren't paid nearly enough), others need specialized resources, others need environmental supports (less noise, less crowding) and many students who need support aren't recognized (students with family stressors, students in care, students being bullied). Continued lobbying is required, and individual MLAs (who as a whole are responsible for funding decisions) need to be shown why this funding model doesn't work and why additional resources are needed.
The funding structure falls under Section 106.3 (5) of the School Act so it is more so on the provincial level, however I would work with SD73 to see where we are lacking in this regard. I think support staff and services are critical to ensuring that students with special needs are given an equal opportunity to succeed. It seems that we are facing labor shortages in all fields, so finding adequate and skilled staff to fill these roles could be problematic.
At the very basic level, we can lobby to demonstrate that the previously projected costs are no longer representing the actual costs incurred of funding these programs. To be honest, I do not have a plan specifically for funding programs for special needs students as of yet but if it is an issue that is impacting our kids then we, as a community, need to seek out a solution.
This is one of the most vocal and distressing concerns I have received from parents in our community.
Ensuring we have the support staff, capacity, and accessibility for our students with complex needs is a priority for SD73. But it is a priority of funding, and we need to look at other school districts within—and outside of—our province to ensure we are following best practices and are being funded fairly.