Parents of autistic children are frustrated by a Toronto District School Board (TDSB) decision not to explore creating an alternative dispute resolution mechanism for parents unsatisfied by the classroom accommodations their children have been offered.
“It’s insulting,” said parent Melissa Rojas Montoya. “It makes me really consider, what am I going to do in September?”
At issue is a motion, passed unanimously by TDSB trustees last week that asked school board staff to consider establishing a “prompt, user-friendly, fair and effective” process for parents to use when they are unsatisfied with how a school is accommodating a disabled student.
TDSB schools work with the families of students with autism and other disabilities to develop individual education plans and other accommodations.
Currently, parents unsatisfied with the plans provided to their children must follow the same complaint process as those upset by the fact their kid didn’t make a sports team, said David Lepovsky.
“The recourse needs to be to a person with dedicated expertise in educating kids with special education needs,” said the chair of the TDSB’s special education advisory committee, which drafted the initial motion on the matter.
“In a school board as big as the TDSB, you could and should have a phone line people can call,” he said.
Lepovsky told TorontoToday this work is urgent, noting many parents of the 40,000 disabled students the TDSB serves are unsatisfied by the support their kids are receiving.
Yet despite the unanimous approval for the motion, the TDSB told TorontoToday in an emailed statement on Jan. 24 that a new approach to dispute resolution won’t be considered.
“The TDSB has existing pathways that are legislated by the Ministry and Board for addressing concerns related to accommodations, and will continue to follow these mechanisms,” said spokesperson Emma Moynihan.
One parent’s struggle
Toronto parent Rob Gillezeau told TorontoToday the board’s decision is disappointing. He believes a new dispute pathway could help others to avoid the difficulty he faced last summer in trying to secure support for his daughter, Martha, who is autistic.
To help kids with extremely complex needs, the TDSB operates a number of so-called diagnostic kindergarten programs, which have a lower student to teacher ratio.
Recognizing Martha might be a candidate, Gillezeau contacted her local school last spring to discuss the possibility. In doing so, the Toronto dad learned that to be eligible for such a placement, Martha’s case would need to be discussed by the board’s special education program recommendation committee (SEPRC).
Throughout the spring and summer, Gillezeau emailed and called Martha’s school in the Annex, asking to arrange a committee meeting.
Months and months went by, however, he said, with no success.
At first, school staff told Gillezeau not to worry, he said. But then, as the summer progressed, staff told him that a committee date was unlikely to be scheduled because there was now too little time left before the school year.
The news was extremely distressing, said Gillezeau.
The major concern was that if Martha began school in a regular classroom, she would no longer be eligible for a SEPRC hearing and would have to be assessed through the individual education plan pathway, which could take months, he said.
This was a daunting prospect, the father added, because the school had made it clear they did not have the educational assistant resources to support Martha’s learning in the classroom and could not ensure she wouldn’t escape from the school.
Gillezeau said Martha is enormously analytically skilled. Like many other autistic children, however, she sometimes tries to run away from school or other environments. The Annex junior school’s playground is not fenced in, which meant educators could not provide assurance they’d be able to keep her safe, Gillezeau said.
Increasingly desperate as September approached, Gillezeau and his partner made the difficult decision to keep Martha out of school, unwilling to sacrifice her safety. As days ticked by in September, the parents tried to get action, contacting local politicians and advocacy groups, while they managed Martha’s childcare by relying on family.
One maneuver got action.
One week after Gillezeau informed the school principal he was exploring the possibility of filing a human rights complaint, the committee meeting he had been working to schedule for months was in the books.
“It p—es me off,” said Gillezeau. “This is a horrendous way to run the system.”
Benefits of an alternative dispute resolution pathway
The Toronto dad said he believes an alternative pathway to dispute the delay he was facing would have saved time and frustration.
“You get to better outcomes when you humanize the process,” he said.
While ultimately, Gillezeau said that Martha was provided with a spot in a diagnostic classroom in early October, he said it should not have taken the threat of a human rights complaint to secure the meeting.
Asked why the committee meeting took so long to schedule, Moynihan said the board does not comment on individual cases due to privacy.
Is the TDSB ‘gaslighting’ parents?
Leo Lagnado, a member of TDSB’s special education advisory committee, said Gillezeau’s experience is not isolated. He said the school board uses delays and minimizes student accommodation requirements as a strategy to reduce pressure on the insufficient resources it has available.
“[If] you don’t have spots for all the kids that need it, you have to artificially constrain the demand,” he said. “The way that they do that is basically, by gaslighting parents.”
Moynihan did not provide a direct response to Lagnado’s allegation.
“In the event that a parent feels their concerns or questions have not been addressed by their principal, the individual should contact their school superintendent for support,” she said.
A recent report published by the Ontario Autism Coalition, argues that the provincial government is not providing school boards with adequate funds to meet students' needs.
Of the 430-odd respondents to the organization’s survey, more than 50 per cent said that some or none of their student’s individual education plan accommodations were followed consistently.
A third of families also reported that they felt their child had not been placed in an appropriate classroom placement to meet their needs. (49 per cent felt their placement was appropriate.)
Asked about the report, Education Minister Jill Dunlop told The Trillium that the province has made “historic” investments in special education.
Where to from here?
On Monday, Lepovsky told TorontoToday that he is frustrated that the TDSB will not consider the development of an alternative pathway.
“TDSB staff have presented no evidence that their existing pathways solve the problem,” he said. “The fact that parents report difficulties getting their child’s disability-related needs met in too many cases proves that the status quo does not work for everyone.”
Lagnado, too, expressed disappointment. “Yes, this is about underfunding at the provincial level, but it’s also about gross mismanagement at the board level,” he said.
Parent Melissa Rojas Montoya said the lack of willingness to explore a better path for concerned parents is alarming. Rojas Montoya is also seeking placement of her child in a diagnostic kindergarten, but has not yet received confirmation on whether this will be possible, she said.
Etobicoke Centre school trustee Dan MacLean told TorontoToday he believes there needs to be “improved pathways of parent interaction” between parents and the TDSB.
He said trustees will continue to monitor and support the work of staff in this area.
