This Windsor family is fighting to keep their son in school all day

It's 12:05 p.m. and Courtney Cameron is picking up her four-year-old son, Davis, from Marlborough Public School in Windsor, Ont. It's more than two hours before school officially ends for the day. 

Davis has autism, and Cameron is picking her son up early because he needs an education assistant (EA) with him in the classroom.

With the other children Davis's EA supports, a second one is needed to help Davis for the second half of the day — and right now, Cameron says there isn't one available.

When Davis is home, Cameron and Davis's dad, Terry Graham, say they help him with his education as much as possible through educational toys and TV shows.

Cameron says she wants Davis to go to school for the full day. 

Cameron says she was told there is a vacancy at Davis's school, and they are looking for someone to fill it. 

According to Cameron, the school said Davis's end time would be extended until 12:45 beginning in January — but she now worries that won't happen when the school's principal retires this year.

Cameron says she relies on the Ontario Disability Support Program, requiring hip surgery and suffering from autism, anxiety and depression herself. 

"The way that the world is right now, I have to push myself to go to work and I can't because he's not in school long enough for me to be able to even get a job," she said.

"Then if I do get a job and he was in school full time, there's that fear that they call and say, 'Come pick up your child', because that happens a lot."

Shortage of EAs nothing new

The struggles for Courtney, Davis and Graham come as school boards across the province face a shortage of EAs. The Greater Essex County District School Board (GECDSB) is no different, says Chris Boulay, the board's superintendent of human resources.

Boulay says how many EAs the board is short varies from day-to-day, depending on factors like staff absences and professional development activities.

"We work with families, teachers and principals collaboratively to ensure that student needs are met given the resources that we have on hand that particular day," he said.

Tyler Campbell is the president of educational support staff for the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF). 

He says the board is short anywhere between 30 and 40 EAs, and the shortage affects the mental health of the EAs that are there.

"Their mental health is deteriorating because they're trying to stretch themselves out between working with the usual of two to three kids," Campbell says. "Now, they're working with up to 10 kids.

"The workload is extreme and they're burning out quickly."

All of this has an impact on the teachers, too, says the union representing elementary teachers.

"You're trying to do more with the same amount of students, but not the staff that you're used to having," said Mario Spagnuolo, president of the Greater Essex branch of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario. "So the one-on-one attention might not be there that they need or are supposed to be receiving."

Spagnuolo says this has also impacted the number of violent incidents in classrooms.

"When our support staff is not there…some students will exhibit behaviours that perhaps would not have been there if there was a support staff [member] in the room," he said.

Provincial funding for school boards

A public letter from Ontario Minister of Education Stephen Lecce says they are providing record-level investments in the provincial system.

"Our government is providing more than $27 billion to school boards for the 2023-24 school year, including $700 million more in base education funding, and $180 million in a new strategy to boost literacy and math rates, supported by the hiring of 2,000 more educators," Lecce says in the letter.

Lecce's parliamentary assistant said they have and will continue to support students who need EAs.

"We have worked a lot better in the ministry to really work on supporting students, especially our most vulnerable students or students with special needs," said Patrice Barnes.

"We continue to work with that and continue to advocate and to consult with the autism community to create programs that give the best supports for our kids."

But Cameron says that for all the province's funding, she hasn't seen any improvement.

She says she applied for funding from the province through the Ontario Autism Program (OAP) in February 2021.

Courtney has been on a wait list since then, and in conversations with fellow parents, says she's not alone. 

But according to Barnes, the parliamentary secretary, once a child reaches six years of age they are not eligible to receive funding.

Barnes says the province works in tandem with the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services to provide support in school and at home for children like Davis.

Regardless of what happens, Cameron says she'll continue to fight for Davis to be at school all day. 

"I'm not going to sit down and just wait for this to happen," she said. "Davis deserves to be in school and he deserves to have full days and that is going to come."