As we move into the holiday season and new year, we continue to strive for more inclusive lives for our loved ones with disabilities, in school and the community.
It often feels like we are taking one step forward, only to find ourselves going two steps back. Our friends at Inclusion Saskatchewan issued a press release at the end of November that the provincial government plans to expand its “Specialized Support Classroom Pilot Project”, more properly understood as segregated classrooms, from 8 to 200 classrooms over the next four years. This, in the face of 60 years of research attesting to the positive value of inclusive education and the harmful effects of segregation.
Governments everywhere need to focus on properly supporting complex classrooms and reducing class sizes to make the environment suitable for all learners. We know how, but instead of doing what will work through smaller classes, co-teaching models, and an emphasis on unversal design and accommodations as needed, we continually revert to removing people from classrooms and creating “specialized spaces”, which frequently serve no one well.
This piece, “A Long-Brewing Crises in Special Education,” reflects on the Toronto District School Board’s system. Inclusion Action in Ontario would not advocate for students in regular classrooms that look like dumping students into large classrooms with no supports, and calling it “inclusion”: the fear and reality of so many. While there is a lot in this article we struggle with, at the same time, refreshingly, this article does not paint a completely inaccurate picture of “all flowers and sunshine” in separate classrooms, either. It reflects that the “Identification, Placement and Review Committee” system, which “identifies” people by their deficits (unless gifted), is a failure. It also points out how random the system can feel and is, depending on the principal or teacher you are dealing with.
Despite all this challenging news, the good work of Inclusion Action in Ontario was recently recognized by Twinkl.ca, which provides educators across the world with high quality, trusted teaching and learning resources. It boasts an impressive 12 million visitors every month!
Impressed by our online resources, and in particular our “Ya, Buts” post, Twinkl’s Content Executive, Gaston Prattis, reached out to us about including us in its communications. Of course, we were delighted, and the product is “Promoting Inclusion in Ontario Schools: A Focus on Improvement Through IEPs (Individual Education Plans)”.
On the topic of IEPs, Shelley Moore and the British Columbia government have really moved the needle forward on true inclusion through the IEP. It would be hard to encapsulate all her ideas here, but critical to it is the focus on strengths rather than deficits, early inclusion of the students themselves in the development of the plan – including very young children with significant disabilities and the people who know them, with the goal of ensuring investment in their own learning; and to normalize the existence of and use of the plan in a meaningful way. Shelley Moore is an inspiration to us all and her strategies are truly Level Up!
Our warmest wishes to all our supporters through the holiday season as we keep working on a more inclusive world for everyone.
