Track how often you send special needs kids home, advocates urge London school board

Principals with the region's largest school board may soon have to start tracking how often and for how long they send kids home in the middle of the day because of behavioural issues as advocates for special needs children and their families say the number is grossly underreported. 

Currently, the Thames Valley District School Board officially has 15 students who are on what's called a modified day, coming in for part of the day or part of the week because they're recovering from surgery or they have behavioural needs. 

But that's a big underestimate, say advocates for children with special needs, who say the families they deal with routinely get told to come pick up their kids and bring them in for just part of the day because the in-class supports are not available. 

"We do hear from a lot of families that they've been contacted by school staff, even in the first or second week of school, telling them the child can't handle a full week, and that they should start bringing them just mornings, or just afternoons, or this many days a week. I think we need to better understand how we're supporting these families and these students," said Suzanne Young, who represents the London Autism and Disabilities Group. 

"I know from families with children diagnosed with autism that this is quite common." 

Young was speaking at a meeting of the special education committee meeting of the Thames Valley District School Board. 

No educational assistants, other help

School board officials need to better understand how many kids get sent home, how often and for how long. Principals will also be told to not informally send kids home without making sure there are formal reintegration processes for having the child return full-time, the committee was told. 

Some kids get sent home because there are no educational assistants or other staff that can take care of their needs, Young said. 

Families whose kids are being sent home regularly should reach out to the principal or superintendent, said Jeff Bruce, the board's superintendent who oversees special education. "That would be helpful in trying to resolve some of these issues," he said.

"My understand is that these scenarios are not captured within the modified day data even though they're going home."

Getting sent home and not having a full day of school also happens to kids with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, said Craig Read, who represents the fetal alcohol spectrum disorder network in the region.

"Kids with FASD have triggers, especially at the beginning of the school year and school staff are not very familiar with those triggers, so the kids get set off and the parents has to come get the because they're climbing the walls and maybe it's not safe for anybody. It should be tracked because then we can understand how and why these kids are having their days modified," Read said.

"We're talking about kids who are going home on a very regular basis in some instances."