Schools denying education to hundreds of vulnerable students, advocate says

Hundreds of students in the New Brunswick school system are being denied their right to an education, according to a provincial watchdog.

In a report issued Thursday, child and youth advocate Kelly Lamrock said school districts are increasingly putting students with disabilities or behavioural challenges on a partial-day plan.

That practice involves removing students from classrooms and providing instruction in an alternative setting.

Lamrock saidhis office found hundreds of cases where children were put on a partial-day plan, but were not receiving any educational instruction for partial or entire school days.

WATCH | Lamrock's breakfast sandwich analogy for inclusion failures:

Kelly Lamrock says school districts are breaking promises and the law

4 months ago

Duration 1:12

New Brunswicks child, youth and seniors advocate Kelly Lamrock released an educational inclusion report today that says school districts are illegally denying hundreds of vulnerable, high-needs students an education. And he used a breakfast sandwich analogy to make his point.

His office found344 students in the anglophone sector are in that category. The francophone system does not track the number of students on a partial-day plan, but Lamrock estimates it is close to 150.

"They're simply not being educated for huge portions of the week," he said at a press conference in Fredericton.

That time away from school can vary from months to years, he added.

These cases are a violation of education laws, he said, which allow students to be placed in an alternativelocation but does not allow for those students to go without service.

"It is not the removal that is automatically illegal, it is the subsequent denial of any services at all," Lamrock wrote in the report. "To claim that there exists legitimate authority for partial day plans, the Department must justify why a complete denial of educational services to a child during a school day is legal."

When the advocate's office asked the department for that justification, it identified Policy 322,which saysa "variation of the common learning environment" is allowed when teaching a student in a common setting poses"undue hardship."

But even when that's the case,Lamrock said, the duty to educate the child remains.

"Placing a child in a setting where they receive short-term, targeted, and appropriate interventions to help them gain skills or master behaviours that they will need to return to the classroom is a variation of a learning environment," he said.

"Sending a child home with no educational services is not a variation of the learning environment. It is a denial of any learning environment."

The school districts did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

Education Minister Bill Hogan told reporters at the legislature the department would review how many students are on a partial-day plan.

He would not say whether he agreed with Lamrock's assessment that the districts are breaking the law.

"When districts use partial days, a personalized learning plan needs to go along with that, because every child has a right to an education and we have to ensure that they get that education," Hogan said.

The minister said it would be "of great concern" if hundreds of students were at home without teaching materials, as the advocate's report found, but questioned whether that's the case.

"They wouldn't all be home without plans. What our challenge is going to be is to make sure they have plans. And if they don't have plans, then they need to have them."

Haley Flaro, who is executive director of Ability New Brunswick, told CBC News on Thursday that she has heard from clients about their concerns with partial-day plans.

"The report is unfortunately not surprising. Sending children home has become the easy solution to an inclusive education system that is often under-resourced," she said in a statement.

"Ability N.B. works with many children with a disability where the parents have had to leave jobs, lose their homes due to the lack of disability supports available from the school and Social Development."

Lamrock's report also highlighted cases where parents lost jobs and a home because their child was put on a partial-day plan. In other cases, youth sent home eventually becamehomeless, incarcerated, or developed an addiction to drugs.

He noted children in care of the Department of Social Development were almost 20 times more likely then their peers to be put on partial days.

Flaro noted the province's Integrated Service Delivery program is supposed to help address these gaps, but it often doesn't have enough resources.

New Brunswick Teachers' Association president Peter Lagacy also pointed to resource shortagesin an emailed statement.

"As we've stated repeatedly, the government has failed to fill daily staffing vacancies. This has led to resource teachers and guidance counsellors being pulled into classrooms and students missing out on essential services," he said.

"Students deserve better. Teachers deserve better. We urge government to do better."

Lamrocksaid he plans to follow up on the issue in 12 months, and expects government to clarify the law to districts and teachers.

"Yeah, we've got to deal with class composition, and yeah, we need some resources, but whatever the response to all that is, it can't be to take the 500 most vulnerable kids and send them home and say, 'Good luck, we'll see you when you're homeless or in jail,'" he said.

"And that's what we're doing right now."