New Brunswick’s child and youth advocate is raising concerns over the number of students being excluded from class without receiving supplementary supports or education.
During an appearance before a legislative committee on Thursday Kelly Lamrock told lawmakers that too many students are being sent home due to behaviourial issues, without being provided with supports to deal with those issues or continue their learning.
“School districts first need to bloody well learn that they are accountable for providing service to the child, the child is not responsible for proving themselves fit to receive the service,” he told reporters following his committee appearance.
“If you take a child out of the school system you need to answer the question, why are you doing it, what are you doing differently to help them meet the goals, what services are they getting while they’re (at home) and what support are we giving the families.”
Lamrock said the trend of “partial days” for children with behaviourial issues is becoming more common, with more than 100 children in the province currently being regularly excluded from the common learning environment. The Education Act gives school age children the right to education, and Lamrock says the government is violating the law by allowing students to be regularly sent home without plans to address their behaviour and ensure continued education.
The child and youth advocate’s office is preparing a legal brief to provide school districts with guidance, which will also include statistics on partial days and recommendations on how to improve the situation.
“I think a lot of good, well-meaning administrators are caught between saying ‘I don’t have any resources or place to send a child,’ but in the common learning environment they’re not in a place where they can participate without disrupting it or not benefitting from it,” Lamrock said.
He suggested that MLAs consider creating a fund that would allow school districts to contract private psychology services to allow for quicker access to assessments for students. Students face a lengthy waitlist to be assessed by psychologists within the school system due to chronic staff shortages. As of June, over 80 per cent of psychologist positions in the anglophone system were vacant.
Ben McNamara, an education specialist with Inclusion NB says it’s important to address those human resource issues, but also the province needs to provide resources in the form of training to support teachers as they try to ensure an inclusive classroom environment.
“We have an amazing group of educators in this province who want to do what’s right for the students who are part of their class and we need to be asking the question if we’re providing educators with the resources they need to build that inclusive classroom and inclusive school,” he said.
McNamara said that Inclusion NB has been hearing from parents and teachers concerned with how partial day plans are being used. Steps taken by the province such as hiring more behaviour intervention workers and a focus on recruitment and retention of specialized professionals are positive steps, but action needs to be taken to address shortfalls happening in the system right now.
One of the most important pieces is ensuring that students have a pathway back to the classroom if they do need to be temporarily excluded.
“Inclusive education does not have to mean that 100 per cent of the time of each student is spent in the class, but it does mean that we’re giving students the opportunity to learn and grow with their peers,” he said.
“We need to make sure that that lens is applied when we’re bringing forward long-term recommendations.”
Green leader David Coon said he is pleased to see the advocate is raising the issue and says that addressing it will require financial commitments from the government. He says the projected $247-million budget surplus should give the needed flexibility to bolster the resources for those with complex needs in the school system.
“We don’t even have in our elementary schools a place for kids to go, who are acting up, in the school to undertake the kinds of activities that help them cool off and get control again,” he said. “So that just builds up and builds up and builds up until you get into these kinds of situations where people end up being at home.”
“The schools are seriously under-resourced. The class sizes are too large and all of that requires money to fix.”
Lamrock said that his report on the use of partial day plans will be released in the coming months.
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