Disability and return to school: where’s the equity?
When the Ontario Ministry of Education announced the parameters for return to school in September, students with a “high level of special education need” were offered a full five day a week schedule. This is compared to secondary school students who will spend 50% of the time in their school building.
At first glance, this accommodation for students with “high special education need” may seem reasonable. Students are getting more in-person support for their learning. However, many equity issues have arisen in local discussions. The first is the very definition of high special education need. Nowhere in the identification of students with disabilities are levels of special education need defined. This vague definition will mean that each school board is able to bring their own understanding. As we currently see with inclusive education, some boards will have students in special classes, who would be in regular education with their peers in another school board. As research has shown, this sets up very different outcomes with those in inclusive settings much more likely to experience success than those in segregated classes. Outcomes dependent on school attended is not equitable education.
Another concern for schools that have inclusive models of education is how they stick to the cohort model with students who are in school every day. If students are meant to travel together, it forces schools to bring the students with disabilities together in segregated settings. The document on school opening indicates that “the Ministry of Education will liaise with designated school boards in support of this goal and will review and approve requests by designated school boards to open small or specialized secondary schools or programs with full time attendance”.
In this opening plan, the Ministry continues to allow the othering of students with disabilities in spite of their documents that say they support equitable and inclusive schools. We treat students with disabilities as different, as separate, as in need of something special rather than working within the context that we have established for students without disabilities in these unprecedented times.
We need to stop thinking of people with disabilities as requiring special things. Adolescents with disabilities want the same things as adolescents without disabilities – to have friends; to learn; to get a job. Yet, we continue to box them in only with other people with disabilities. We shrink their world experiences as well as our own.
The blatant disregard of research support and the work of many schools to create inclusive environments makes me wonder: does the Ministry’s equity and inclusion document really mean all students or are there still some that they consider not worthy of an equitable education? COVID-19 has brought to the fore many issues of equity in schools; the education of students with disabilities is one that cannot be ignored.