Less help for special-needs students
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By LeRae Haynes
The number of children with special needs and requirements in classrooms has gone up, while the number of support staff to help them has gone down, according to Cariboo Chilcotin Teachers Association President Joan Erb.
“The BC government has upped the mandate for the testing of kids with special needs so that it’s harder for kids to qualify for extra support,” she explained. “There were kids categorized last year who aren’t this year. They’re in classrooms where they don’t get guidance or support---they’re needy kids and we can’t get to them because we’re too busy dealing with the whole class.”
She explained that the testing is administered by support services that may include three district psychologists and sometimes the Learning Support Teachers. “Many kids who received help last year from people like Teachers Assistants, a Speech Pathologist, a school counsellor or psychologist are on their own this year.”
A lot of teachers are away on medical and stress leave, according to Joan, and she said that it’s all to do with stress levels in the classroom. “We’re overwhelmed. When you know you’re not meeting the needs of your children it breaks your heart,” she continued. “You get to the end of your day and you say, ‘I did no good for my class today---I just managed and I just maintained.’ When we whine, we whine on behalf of our kids.”
She said she finds it immensely frustrating that private schools receive as much public funding as public schools, and can charge tuition, or fees for courses. “Private schools don’t have to take the kids in the special needs categories, and that’s why test results get so skewed,” she explained. “They can refuse any student---we can’t.”
Another thing that has a powerful impact on students in BC classroom is child poverty, which Joan said is the highest in Canada. She said that the recently-announced government cuts in gaming funds will affect meals given to kids in schools. “Breakfast programs are funded by Parent Advisory Councils, and those programs will either be stopped altogether, or the funds will be robbed from somewhere else,” she continued.
“We notice such a huge difference in the behaviour of kids when they’re hungry. For some of our kids, they may not get dinner and that breakfast that they get at school may be the only real food they get all day,” she said. “Why haven’t we got our priorities right yet, and see the value of our kids and our public education? There should not be one hungry kid in our schools.
“Sometimes parents are embarrassed to send their kids to school because they don’t have the proper shoes, clothes and lunches,” she said. “We’re wearing blinders. I think our First Nations communities have come a lot farther than we have in admitting that we have social issues and social problems and taking responsibility for them.”
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