More than a quarter of Raymond Elementary School students have a special need

Over 700 students attend the Raymond Elementary school, a public school located south of Lethbridge. Nearly one quarter of them have special needs.

“The biggest assets to this school is the people within these walls. A school is just a building, but the people make the school. Every teacher to educational assistants. Everyone is on board. Students are students,” said Marlin Hogg, principal at Raymond Elementary.

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According to the Fraser Institute Report on Education, Raymond Elementary School has one of the highest percentages of special needs students in Alberta.

The principal of the school says parents with special needs students have packed up their lives and moved to Raymond to attend the school.

“Inspiring education is a document from Alberta education and it has given us a mandate to become an inclusive school,” said Hogg. “We are trying to have those with special challenges in the classroom by giving the teachers the strategies to help each of those students.”

The average number of special needs students in each classroom is about 4 to 5 says Hogg. Some of the classrooms have no teaching assistants. The students are not segregated and follow the same curriculum as the other kids in the class.

“Statistics show that the best person to teach those with special needs is the teacher.”