Seven-year-old Quinn Walls-Slumkoski had just started learning to communicate with an assistive tablet when the COVID-19 pandemic struck Nova Scotia, shuttering schools and access to all her learning specialists.
Her parents tried to maintain her progress over the summer, but with full-time jobs, no respite care and limited expertise, they faced a steep uphill climb.
“We’re not trained professionals in speech language pathology and it’s difficult to keep going with that,” said her father, Corey Slumkoski.
“She doesn’t view us as teachers, we’re mom and dad, so it’s difficult to keep her on track with those sorts of things.”
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School begins next week in Nova Scotia, but some parents of children with disabilities are concerned that the back-to-school plan lacks details on how their kids will be supported.
The document says “a plan for supporting students with specialized health care needs will be in place,” and that students with “additional needs” will be supported, regardless of whether classes are fully open, conducted at home, or in a partial or blended response.
“Return to school will present unique challenges to children and youth with medical or behavioural complexities and their families,” it reads. “Student services supports will continue to be provided in all planned responses.”
Specialists, including psychologists, mental health clinicians and speech language pathologists, it adds, will be equipped to provide virtual services.
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But Slumkoski says he’s been unable to find out whether such services will be available in the event of an “unplanned response.” If Quinn needs to be taken home to protect her health, for example, as advised by her doctors at the first sign of community spread of the virus.
He’s concerned her teachers will feel pressured to support her learning at home, above and beyond their full-time responsibilities to the rest of the students who remain in class.
“Our thoughts are that this educational plan should have some sort of provision for hiring more supports, for hiring more people to teach these students who may not be able to attend classes due to health reasons, even if the classrooms are still open,” he told Global News.
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Lisa Bond, whose 13-year-old son Zavier lives with autism, said she’s worried too. The representative of Nova Scotia Parents for Public Education said she’s concerned teachers will be ill-equipped to give Zavier the attention and care he requires while enforcing all the protocols in place during the pandemic.
“He’s very quiet,” she explained. “If he’s uncomfortable or anxious he will get up and walk out of the classroom and go hide in a bathroom, and in a class of 32 kids where the teacher’s just trying to make sure everybody’s got their mask on, it would be very easy for that to not be noticed.”
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Bond is also concerned that she won’t be able to accompany Zavier on the first day of school. It’s a new school for the Grade 9 student and he has not been permitted to take a tour early to get familiar with, and comfortable in his new surroundings.
“There’s been no transition meetings, there’s been no tours,” she said. “The government’s not providing me any comfort, whether it’s for kids with special needs or without special needs.”
The Department of Education did not respond to requests for comment on this story by deadline.
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