APPENDIX B: CORE SUPPORTS

III. Education and Learning Supports

Overview

The Alberta School Act guarantees that all children residing in Alberta will have access to the education system and to a program that addresses their learning needs. Alberta Learning has publicly stated that a primary goal of the Ministry is, “to develop a high-quality, life-long learning system for Alberta.” This goal is consistent with the learning interests of Albertans with disabilities that are:

• Responsive - The learning system is able to meet the education needs of all students, community, and the economy.
• Flexible - The learning system is flexible by providing a wide scope of programs through various learning modalities.
• Accessible - All Albertans can access and participate in the learning environment.
• Affordable - Cost will not be a barrier to inclusive learning environments. The learning system is affordable to all Alberta students regardless of learning needs.

In order for individuals to fully participate in the learning environments of early childhood, primary, secondary, or post-secondary education programs, they may require one or more education supports.

Education supports refer to the personal, technological, and accessibility needs that may be required by students with disabilities for full participation in a learning environment. Supports identified in the personal and employment support sections of this report may be similar in content but the difference amongst these categories rests in the context of the environments, i.e. living, working, or learning. Some of the education supports for students with disabilities include multi-sensory learning programs and assistant/teaching supports.

The availability of education supports for students with disabilities appears to be dependent on several factors. Two examples include the nature and severity of the disability, and the school board’s degree of support inclusive of school policies and appropriately trained teachers.

The provision of education supports in the learning environment that enable persons with disabilities to fully participate in their education programs is a key contributor to positive school – student interaction. Other benefits to students with disabilities who have positive early school experiences include healthy peer interaction, increased self-confidence to pursue further education, increased self-awareness of education supports that they may require in an employment environment, and a more successful transition with transferring their learning interests and needs to future employment interests and needs.

The negation of education supports for students with disabilities has been identified as a risk factor for early school drop out and subsequent challenges with the individual obtaining meaningful employment. A 1991 study showed that only 41% of persons with disabilities aged 15-64 living in Alberta had some post-secondary education. Twelve per cent had never attended high school.

On average, Albertans with disabilities are reported to have lower education attainment levels than their non-disabled peers. This discrepancy in education attainment between persons with and without disabilities appears to originate from the learner’s inability to fully participate in education programs due inaccessible learning environments, denial of funding for accommodation in the classroom, and a host of other factors.

Lower levels of education attainment have been found to directly impact an individual’s opportunities to access the employment market. Persons with disabilities who completed higher levels of education were shown to be more successful in obtaining and maintaining full-time employment than those who completed less than secondary grade levels.

Context of education and learning supports in Alberta

The latest national Health and Activity Limitation Survey reports that approximately 7% of children, 15 years and younger and residing in Alberta households, have one or more disabilities. For funding purposes, Alberta Learning classifies students with disabilities into severe, moderate, and mild categories.

A 2002 Alberta Learning study of 11,033 Kindergarten to Grade 6 classes showed that there were 7,884 classes that had students with special needs integrated into the classrooms. There were 402 special needs classrooms that provided education to 4,587 students with special needs. Special needs refer to students registered in the Alberta school system and identified as gifted, severely disabled, and mild or moderately disabled.

Among the integrated classrooms:

• 38% (4,147) of the classes reported having students with severe special needs.
• 7% (716) of the classes reported having students with mild/moderate special needs.
• 27% (3,021) of the classes reported having students with mild/moderate special needs and students with severe special needs.

Given the demographics of disability amongst Alberta’s children, the Alberta government has attempted to respond to the learning interests and needs of all Albertans by supporting a lifespan of education programs. These include early childhood services, primary, secondary, and post-secondary integrated and specialized classrooms.

It is difficult to account for the nature of education supports used by students with disabilities because Alberta Learning does not collect data on the number or type of education supports used by students who receive special needs funding. This report relied on various qualitative studies and anecdotal accounts of types of learning aids used by students with disabilities as reported by teachers, students, school personnel, education consultants, and rehabilitation specialists (as provided by the Alberta School Board Association (1999) and Alberta Learning (2001)).

A second source of information about education supports was the distribution of special needs funding across various disability categories. The majority of special needs funding for students registered in Kindergarten to Grade 12 programs was allocated to persons with disabilities categorized in the mild/moderate special needs program. The largest minority of special needs funding was given to students categorized as having severe special needs.

Without a data source for how the money is being used in the identified special needs categories it is difficult to comment on the nature of education supports within those categories or compare the variability of those supports across various populations of students with disabilities. Alberta Learning does collect data on special needs codes that each registered student with disabilities is assigned when funding is allocated to them.

Early Childhood Services

Parents of children with severe disabilities who are two and half years old may access education supports and programs through Alberta Learning’s Early Childhood Services (ECS) program. Parents of children with mild or moderate disabilities cannot access ECS funding until the child is three and a half years old or older. The goal of the ECS program is to provide children with a foundation for learning prior to their entrance into kindergarten. The scope of the ECS funding covers one-to-one instructional programs, learning resources, adaptive technology, and assistive devices.

In 2001, there were 5,380 ECS students receiving mild/moderate special needs funding for education supports and services and 3,881 ECS students receiving severe special needs/program unit funding for education supports and services.

ECS programs provide a critical foundation for future learning opportunities for Albertans. It is important that early identification and support is provided to parents/support persons of students with disabilities before the child is registered in kindergarten.

Primary and Secondary Education

The range and scope of special needs programs and supports varies significantly among schools and school boards. Although Alberta Learning cites a philosophy of inclusion as a priority, the absence of education supports in the schools can quickly result in the (unintended) warehousing of some students.

The nature of a learner’s disability and characteristics of his/her learning needs dictate the intervention and types of education supports that enable individual learning. Although a student’s assessment dictates the amount of funding provided to schools, the student’s school ultimately determines how the special needs funding is collectively utilized for the special needs population registered at the school.

Parents and support persons of students with disabilities report frustration that schools do not fund some individualized programs or specialized education supports. School board representatives and school personnel express frustration at the lack of resources to provide the education supports recommended by others. They also feel burdened by the responsibility for ensuring that limited special needs funding benefits the greatest number of students. Existing education budgets do not readily allow for flexibility with individualized accommodation of education supports.

There are significantly more students with mild/moderate special needs than those with severe special needs. The allocation of funds reflects this fact. There is enormous variability in the education supports that may be required in the learning environment of persons with severe and mild/moderate disabilities. It is difficult to comment on the equity of education supports in the Alberta school system without data to assess the availability and nature of education supports for Alberta’s students with disabilities.

Post-Secondary Education

In order to fully participate in post-secondary learning environments some students require education supports. According a 1991 national survey on Canadians with disabilities, 9,040 individuals were identified as participating in a post-secondary program. Some of the required education supports identified by these post-secondary students included alternate communication mediums, and adaptive technology and assistive devices.

A number of Alberta’s post-secondary institutions have an on-site disability resource centre, such as the University of Alberta’s Specialized Support and Disabilities Services, the University of Calgary’s Disability Resource Centre, Grant MacEwan College’s Services to Students with Disabilities, NAIT’s Services to Students with Disabilities, and NorQuest College’s Learning Supports Services. These centres support new and on-going students with awareness of needs like accessing adaptive technology or requesting education supports from the faculties.

Generally speaking, the financial responsibility of funding education supports in post-secondary learning environments rests with the post-secondary institutions. Post-secondary institutions have a duty to accommodate students with disabilities, unless the institution can establish that it would experience undue hardship. Where there is conflict of opinion, a student or the institution have the option of a quasi-judicial or judicial interpretation of the relevant laws.

There are two funding options available for students with disabilities to access education supports:

• 1. Canada Study Grant: Up to a maximum of $5,000 per academic year is available for students with disabilities for funding education supports. These may include a tutor, interpreter, personal assistant, assistive device or adaptive technology, and learning disability assessments.
• 2. Maintenance Grant: Up to a maximum of $6,000 per academic year is available to disadvantaged students (single parents and students with disabilities) for financial assistance with a disability-related expenditure related to their learning needs.

A Need for Education and Learning Supports

The context of education supports has identified an accessible learning environment - including access to information and accessibility to a learning environment – as important. The most recent information available about the national context of education supports provides little information on this topic.

The physical accessibility of the learning environment is essential to a student’s participation in social, emotional, and academic aspects of his/her studies. In a national study, students identified accessible transportation (9%) and accessible classrooms (8%) as important to their full participation in school.

There is a need for greater understanding of education supports for people with disabilities throughout the learning spectrum. Program evaluations and research studies that concentrate on school expenditures and funding codes are only a part of the information that is required for identifying and planning an equitable learning environments in Alberta.

Challenges Associated with Education and Learning Supports

There are a number of issues in Alberta that have the potential to restrict full and equitable access to lifelong learning opportunities. Two examples include budget restraint programs that have reduced support for children in classrooms with special needs, and inadequate preparation of teachers, instructors and professors for working with students with disabilities.

Outcomes and Strategies

Specific Outcomes

1. All persons will have the support they need to participate in education at all levels and throughout their lives.

2. All persons will enjoy choice and self-determination in planning for their primary, secondary, post-secondary and lifelong education needs.

3. Alberta’s education system will be responsive, accountable, inclusive, and accessible.

4. Alberta’s education programs will be culturally sensitive and respect diversity.

Visionary Outcome

All Albertans will have access to the educational opportunities required to reach for and achieve their full potential.

Short-term Strategies

Strategy 1: Review the appeal process at the elementary and secondary level, with a view to:

• Making appeals quasi-judicial.
• Speeding up the process. Current appeals often take one to two years and in the meantime learning opportunities are missed.
• Ensuring objectivity. Current appeals are rarely independent. The final arbiter is generally a senior school board official, which means that the family is appealing a decision made by an employee of that board.
• Ensuring that students and their families know about their right to appeal and have the advocacy support necessary to appeal effectively

Strategy 2: Link and integrate educational supports to make learning truly lifelong.

Alberta has some very effective programs for supporting pre-school, elementary, secondary and post-secondary students and for additional training related to career/employment needs. However, available supports vary with the administrative unit, the level of education under consideration and the level or type of disability.

The proposed enhanced Community Supports model (see Personal Supports section) would help to ensure that supports are in place at all ages. In any case, priority must be given to coordinating and/or integrating the learning supports provided under the following policies:

• Services to Children with Disabilities/Children with Special Needs.
• Early Childhood Services.
• Educational Placement of Students with Special Needs.
• Special Education Policy.
• Special Transportation Funding.
• Access to learning objectives of Employment Assistance for Persons with Disabilities (EAPD).
• Education, financial and assistive technology supports policies of Disability Related Employment Supports (DRES).

To make this linkage strategy work, assessments would have to be relatively standardized across the province and would move with the student or learner. Assessments would move from one program to another, from one part of the province to another, from one level of learning to another (e.g. Early Childhood Services to elementary to secondary to post-secondary).

Strategy 3: Dramatically expand counseling support.

Currently, individualized program plans tend to be driven by medical, psychiatric and psychological assessments and prescriptions. More involvement of both the learner and the family is required, as full citizens have the right to information, options and personal choices.

Counselling support will help facilitate positive education and training experiences that translate into achievement of life goals and/or appropriate employment. The approach would build on the provincial government’s Student Health Initiative that links service providers and involves the counselling support and peer mentoring capabilities of Alberta’s disability organizations whenever possible. Ideally, student counselling should link with the career counselling of Employment Assistance for Persons with Disabilities employability initiatives.

Strategy 4: Implement and monitor the recommendations of Alberta Learning’s Review of Special Education in Alberta Final Report.

The issues raised in this review should accurately reflect the concerns of persons with disabilities, their families and support persons, and involved professionals. Persons with disabilities and their advocates will further review the 66 recommendations as the process unfolds, but they appear to make eminent sense. The final report also contains many additional suggested solutions that will guide continued debate and discussion for the next few years.

Recommended Strategies

Accountability

96. Require school boards to use a monitoring system to ensure that funds are actually being used in the designated manner.
97. Make programs for persons with disabilities a requirement for all school boards and all post-secondary educational institutions. They should not be an option, given the high rate of disability in our communities.
98. Conduct an overall review of school board initiatives to assess progress towards the goal of including persons with disabilities in home schooling and classrooms, with appropriate support.
99. Revise evaluation systems to recognize that students and parents/guardians are full partners in the education of their children. Measure student and parent/guardian satisfaction levels with learning opportunities, supports and administration.
100. Make funding policies more flexible to permit persons with disabilities to re-enter adult education programs easily if they have had to interrupt their studies because of the disability or an illness.

Portability

101. Require all school boards to use a common definition of disability.
102. Implement technical and personal supports that can move with the learner without need for re-application.
103. Provide assurance that other special needs funding can move with the individual, as program needs change or mature.
104. Have education supports stay with the students as long as they are in full-time education, without disruption at age 17/18. This measure is best handled in the context of an enhanced Community Supports model but is required even if such a model is not implemented in the near future.
105. Establish a relationship with the federal government to ensure that the same level of supports follow a First Nations person from off the reserve to on the reserve.

Assessments

106. Conduct timely assessments. Revise the Alberta School Act to state that school boards shall identify children with disabilities.
107. Ensure that assessments account for cultural biases that may misrepresent a child’s needs.

Early Childhood Services (ECS)

108. Continue the partnership of Alberta Learning with other provincial government ministries, school boards and community organizations to develop and support early childhood school programs for children with disabilities. Current examples that have enormous potential include the Student Health Initiative, the Aboriginal Head Start program and the Children’s Mental Health Initiative.

School-Based Recreation and Physical Education

109. Increase the physical education/recreation budgets for school boards so that programs and facilities can be made more accessible and inclusive.
110. Make funding available for the purchase of necessary adaptive equipment to facilitate student access to all school programs.
111. Develop guidelines to determine when special or alternative programs are appropriate and to identify the funding required.
112. Make a focused and collaborative effort involving school boards and the Active Living Alliance for Canadians with Disabilities to orient schools to the need, perspectives, skills and equipment required to include children and youth with disabilities. (The program is in place, but additional resources are required to get the message out.)

Access to Schools and Learning

113. Increase funding under the Building Quality Restoration Program so that all Alberta schools have the potential to be utilized by persons with disabilities.
114. Ask Alberta Learning to undertake an inventory of the number of schools that are not accessible, establish a standard of accessibility or “visit ability” and establish an appropriately funded upgrade program to help schools achieve the desired standard.
115. Ask Alberta Learning to review the adequacy of current provision for alternative communications in classrooms and libraries (e.g. voice recognition programs and interactive computer technology). The review should be based on the Alberta government’s Alternative Communications Guidelines.

Funding for Post-Secondary Education

116. Give special consideration to repayment of student loans by persons with disabilities.
117. Work towards integration of the policies and support initiatives of Alberta Learning and parallel programs of Alberta Human Resources and Employment and Alberta Health and Wellness.
118. Seek increased recognition and involvement of persons with disabilities in this area.