N.B. education minister to fix “mistakes” in bill that may harm inclusion

New Brunswick Education Minister Bill Hogan says the government will fix “mistakes” in a new bill to amend the Education Act after inclusion experts raised concerns.

“The last thing I want to do is have a negative impact on inclusion,” Hogan told reporters on Friday. “I mean, since 1985 inclusion has been the law and I’ve worked in inclusion and an inclusive environment my entire career and I intend to support that.”

The new bill was introduced Tuesday as the government seeks to overhaul the governance structure of the province’s education system. At the time, the minister said the bill “would not impact the everyday classroom experience for students and teachers.”

But Inclusion NB and the province’s child and youth advocate Kelly Lamrock quickly found some elements of concern among the 111-page bill, including changes that would broaden the circumstances in which children could be excluded from the classroom.

“Bill 46, amending the Education Act, changes more than governance. It contains significant changes to student rights and inclusive education. The Advocate’s Office was not notified of these changes and has not been consulted on the bill,” Lamrock tweeted on Wednesday.

“I am recommending that the Assembly ensure full Committee study of the bill with witnesses.”

The main issues with the bill involve the wording around why students could be excluded from the learning environment. One section, normally intended to allow for students to learn from home if they have a medical issue, had another subsection added which advocates worried was unnecessarily broad.

On top of urgent medical issues, students would be able to learn at home if they were dealing with “a circumstance, condition or need that requires a level of care or supervision that cannot reasonably be provided effectively at school.”

“That just raised some red flags,” said Ken Pike, the director of social policy at Inclusion NB.

“Once you expand that language it does raise some concerns… we (are) talking about a broader group of students with a variety of other circumstances.”

Another section, which says that students must be allowed to remain in the common learning environment to the “fullest extent possible,” had additional language about respecting the rights of other students.

“It told us… that the right of students to be included might be conditional or put up against the rights of other students and that was never the intent of that section,” Pike said.

“It does raise from red flags for us in a legal sense as to are we now putting conditions on students who have a disability and their rights to belong in the common learning environment.”

Other issues include moving the definition of “common learning environment” from the main definitions section of the act to the section that deals with personalized learning plans, and removing the right of appeal over where a student receives their education.

Pike says he was encouraged to hear the minister will seek to correct the issues, but says the organization will watch closely as the government addresses them.

Hogan said he met with Lamrock on Thursday and spoke with the executive director of Inclusion NB Sarah Wagner about their concerns. He also said the government intends to bring amendments to the bill once it reaches the committee stage.

“I can’t explain how the mistakes happened, I’m not very happy about it. I’m glad it was pointed out by our advocates with Inclusion NB and Mr. Lamrock so we can fix it before it goes forward and then have to say ‘oh my goodness, we never intended that,'” Hogan said.

“We’re going to identify where the problem is and we’re going to deal with the problem.”