Did YOU Know?
School Boards are Not Always in Compliance with Ministry Legislation, Regulations and Policies
By Don Richardson – email: drichardson.gll@gmail.com
School board members and board staff receive a lot of guidance materials from the Ministry of
Education and they tend to comply with the guidance they receive. However, it’s not often that board
members and board staff actually sit down and read the Education Act and regulations under the Act to
make sure they are fully complying with the law. By focusing on Ministry guidance materials alone,
boards can miss the big picture and find themselves out of compliance with Ontario laws and
regulations.
1) Compliance with Requirements for Special Education Plans
Does your Board consult with you, your community and community organizations on its annual Special
Education Plan? It should. Thanks to the efforts of IAI, school boards across Ontario MUST now provide
a distinct Special Education Plan including goals and targets for the coming year AND must produce a
separate report on what has happened during the year in relation to the Special Education Plan. Both
reports must be submitted to the Ministry of Education by July 31st each year, and Boards are required
to consult with their communities and Special Education Advisory Committees (SEACs) on their Special
Education Plans.
In 2013, with support from IAI, IAI Board member Don Richardson had the Upper Grand District School
Board seek legal advice from Ministry legal counsel on the requirements of Ontario Regulation 306
under the Education Act: Special Education Programs and Services. Up until that time, Boards produced
a Special Education report that consisted of responses to a Ministry provided smorgasbord “checklist” of
things to include in the report. Other than the wording in Regulation 306, the Ministry did not provide
Boards with explicit direction to produce an actual Special Education PLAN.
Thanks to IAI’s intervention, in 2013 the Ministry provided all Ontario school boards with a memo
making it clear that Boards have a legal requirement to follow Regulation 306 and actually produce a
real Special Education Plan – not just a smorgasbord list of things they might have done over the year.
By only following the Ministry’s “checklist” for Special Education Reports, many school boards across
Ontario were not complying with the key special education regulation under the Education Act! The
Ministry, through its Standards for School Board’s Special Education Plans (2000) also requires Boards to
consult on Special Education Plans, requiring within each Plan:
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a statement of how members of the community, particularly parents of children who are
receiving special education programs and services, are informed of the timelines and methods
for providing input into the board’s special education plan
a summary of feedback received as a result of consultation with members of the community (pg.
4)
This means that if you have issues with how your Board administers Special Education Programs, the
Board is required to listen to your issues and report on consultation with you within its annual Special
Education Plan. Members of SEACs are supposed to have significant opportunities to provide input on
the Plans, and can issue “Minority Reports” that must be also be included in Plans if SEAC members are
not satisfied specific Board actions or approaches. Does your board produce a real Special Education
Plan with goals, objectives and measureable outcomes, or are you still seeing smorgasbord lists of
activities?
2) Compliance with Providing Bullying Prevention and Intervention Plans
Does your Board provide a Bullying Prevention and Intervention Plan and consult with your community
every two years on this Plan? Bullying is a major impediment to inclusion and parents of children with
IEPs know all too well that bullying is a major impediment to the child and family wellbeing. In 2013
Ontario passed Bill 13, an Act to amend the Education Act with respect to bullying and other matters.
The Education Act now require boards to develop and implement an Equity and Inclusive Education
Policy, requires boards to establish a separate Bullying Prevention and Intervention Plan and requires
boards to have their schools to implement the plan.
While most Boards have Equity and Inclusive Education Policies, not all boards are in legal compliance
with the Education Act with separate Bullying Prevention and Intervention Plans, despite the fact that
this is reiterated in Ontario Ministry of Education Policy/Program Memorandum No. 144 (PPM 144 pg.
5).
PPM 144 says that in developing Bullying Prevention and Intervention Plans, Boards:
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should also consult with their Special Education Advisory Committee and with community
partners, including social service agencies, mental health agencies, members of First Nations,
Métis, and Inuit communities, and other appropriate community groups. Boards may also
choose to consult with their Parent Involvement Committees.
The board’s plan must be made available to the public either on the board’s website or, if the
board does not have a website, in another appropriate manner.
Principals must also post the board’s plan on the school website or, if the school does not have a
website, must make it available to the public in another appropriate manner
Boards must review their bullying prevention and intervention plan periodically (e.g., at least
once every two years). Boards must solicit the views of those listed above when reviewing their
plan.
The Ministry has also issued a “Model Bullying Prevention and Implementation Plan” (2013) that
stresses that a safe, inclusive and accepting school environment is essential for student achievement
and well-being. The Ministry says that a board’s Bullying Prevention and Intervention Plan should be
based on real data to assess, monitor and evaluate outcomes, include evidence-informed strategies and
practices and should include efforts to reach out to the broader school community.
3) Definition of Inclusive Education – Missing in Action
The Ministry requires each school board to have Equity and Inclusive Education Policy, but many policies
do not include a functional definition of "inclusion" or "inclusive education" to guide policy
implementation. Without these functional definitions, it is difficult for parents and organizations to
advocate for “inclusion” because staff and board members may not speak the same language.
Community Living Ontario defines “inclusive education” as:
“An educational experience where every child shares in all facets of ongoing education that will meet
his/her unique needs; and, where all Boards of Education ensure that these rights include the
opportunity:
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to attend regular classrooms in their local neighborhood school;
to attend classes with similar-aged children;
to receive an education program based on, but not restricted to, individual goals;
to receive adequate supports to ensure equitable opportunity for success;
to receive coordinated planning and assistance in all transitional phases, including preschool to
elementary, elementary to secondary, post-secondary, cooperative education, colleges and
universities or continuing education;
And where parents have the opportunity to become true partners in determining all aspects of their
child's education. Community Living Ontario believes that inclusion must be promoted and supported as
a first choice for all students who have an intellectual disability, and that the Ontario Ministry of
Education must be accountable and fully responsible for the full and uniform implementation of these
measures in all school boards throughout the province.”
Does YOUR school board’s Equity and Inclusive Education Policy include a definition like this to guide
the practice of real inclusive education?
Conclusion
Ministry legislation, regulations and policies form the foundation for how education is administered by
the Ontario government. Legislation and regulations provide legally binding mandates on boards to
follow the law. IAI knows that board members and board staff may not always take the time to read the
Education Act and regulations under the Act to make sure they are fully complying with the law. Lets
make sure we remind them that the Education Act, its regulations and Ministry policies on special
education and inclusive education are important to us and our communities!