Provincial spending on inclusive education to end with millions left over

Nova Scotia earmarked $15 million in this year's budget to support inclusive education in the province's public schools, but spending will stopwith millions of dollars left over. The education minister characterizes the unspent money as "savings."

Department of Education spokespersonViolet MacLeod said so far $7 million has been spent on inclusive education andthe province expects that once related salariesare fully paid out, the total amount spent for the 2020-2021 fiscal year will be$11.5 million.

The remaining $3.5 million from this year's budget will roll over and be available to spend next year.

Education Minister Zach Churchill somewhat contradicted his department when speaking to reporters Wednesday afternoon, saying "the money is most likely going to be spent this fiscal year." But he then added that there will be "some savings because of the limitations on professional development."

Most professional development for educators has been put on pause this year because of public health protocols restricting travel and group gatherings. As a result of that,MacLeod said a redesign is underway to put trainingmodules online. They may be ready "as early as this year and after COVID-19," MacLeod said via email.

Nova Scotia has budgeted $15 million for inclusive education for each of the past two years in response to a 2018 report from the Commission on Inclusive Education. Most of the money in years past has been used to hirespecialized support staff like speech language pathologists, teaching assistants and guidance counselors.

Last year173 new positions were added to the system, and 191 the year prior. This August,Churchill said about 85 newinclusive education hires had been made for September. Some hiring was postponed to give teachers and school administrators a chance to assess students, anticipating different needs or wider gaps may have emerged as a result of the spring shutdown during the first wave of COVID-19.

Last week, Churchill told reporters those determinations were still to be made.

"We are getting to the end of our first assessment period, so we're going to take some time to look at the needs of the system from a data perspective and see what additional supports are going to be needed," Churchill said.

On Wednesday, Churchill suggested the needs assessments are now complete, and this year's hiring numbers now around 100 were a reflection of those findings.

"It was determined that ... the new 100hires would be sufficient for the time being," he said.

The relatively low number of new hires, compared to the past two years, is not pandemic-related, he said.