On June 22, 2025, IAO held its Annual General Meeting, where we reviewed the year’s successes and challenges, and elected a new board for a one year term. While many directors are returning, we welcome two new members, Amandipp Singh and Lavaneyaa Sri, and bid a fond goodbye to Gabriela Ortega, who stepped down from the board. We are delighted she continues to serve IAO as a representative to her school board’s Special Education Advisory Committee (District School Board of Niagara).
Our New Board Members
Amandipp describes himself as a social entrepreneur and accessibility advocate who began working on inclusive education and employment after navigating the world with partial vision. He wants to use his lived experience to remove barriers that leave people with disabilities excluded from opportunities through platforms like Enabled Talent.
Lavaneyaa is a Master of Public Health graduate with experience supporting equity-focused research and community-based programs for children, youth, and families. She is especially passionate about advocating for inclusive environments within education systems and creating space to list to and elevate the stories and lived experiences of children, youth and families.
We look forward to putting Amandipp and Lavaeyaa’s passion to work for IAO!
Successes and Challenges
One of our biggest successes of the year was the release of our Parents as Partners Advocacy Modules, a joint project with the University of Western Ontario. This online resource provides an introduction for anyone supporting students with special education needs in the public system. Remember, through the Identification, Placement and Review Committee, a school board is obligated to consider a placement in a regular classroom before they consider a segregated option! Please take a look at our modules and be sure to share with your contacts!
For the fourth year in a row, the Timothy D. Mayer Foundation saw fit to support our work! We are so grateful for their ongoing support.
We also obtained a seat on the Dufferin Peel Catholic School Board’s Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC), with a new volunteer joining our ranks, Paula Anderson, as our representative. But as we are volunteer based, our representation has decreased on other SEACs, as we have lost our volunteers for some boards. If you’re interested in being a representative for us with your local school board’s SEAC, please reach out! We are always looking for new representatives. You can read this blog for more information about this important role.
Guest Speaker Shawn Pegg – Crisis in the Classroom
In addition to electing our new board, we had the pleasure of welcoming Shawn Pegg, the Director of Policy and Strategic Initiatives with Community Living Ontario. Shawn presented CLO’s most recent research paper, “Crisis in the Classroom: Exclusion, Seclusion and Restraint of Students with Disabilities“, prepared in partnership with Jess Whitley, Professor of Inclusive Education at the University of Ottawa (and who is also our SEAC representative with the Ottawa Carlton District School Board!).
The report documented the rates of seclusion and restraints in school environments for students with disabilities and observed that students living in households with lower parental education and income levels were at increated risk for both seclusion and restraint. A large number of respondents reported exclusion for various reasons, including being instructed to stay home because the school felt it could not meet the student’s need. You can find the full report here and the overview here.
We look forward to another year of collaboration with our partner organizations and advocacy support for families seek inclusive lives for their loved ones with disabilities.
