Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Some years ago the government introduced an Inclusive Schooling Policy. Over the years it’s become accepted practice for our schools to include every child in the classroom, no matter their mental or physical capability. Students in our schools who are special needs students range from those with minimal needs to those with very severe needs. Of these, according to a Canadian average, about 5 percent of these have severe needs for many different reasons. These children cannot manage in a classroom on their own and require a full-time aide to assist them every moment that they are in school.
The cost to the school board is about $70,000 per year to provide that aide. If a child is in school from kindergarten to grade 12 with perhaps an extra year or two required along the way, the cost to the board becomes enormous.
Yellowknife Education District No. 1 is the largest school system in the NWT and has excellent programs with excellent staff to handle their high needs special needs students. But in the last seven years, the district has seen a number of high needs special needs students, those who need a one-on-one aide, increase dramatically from seven or eight in 2004 to 25 in this school year, with another two expected next year. The percentage of special needs students who will need a full-time aide is increased from 4 percent in 2004 to almost 9 percent this year, twice the national average. Needless to say, if those student numbers increase, so do the costs. YK 1 is looking at less inclusive schooling dollars next year but more high needs students.
The GNWT provides an excellent level of funding to education authorities. Over the years, ECE has recognized the high cost of inclusive schooling. They have provided steadily increasing dollars to fund the implementation of the policy, until now that is. The 2010-11 budget before us proposes a reduction in inclusive schooling funding. Yellowknife school boards are concerned. ECE’s funding formula assumes that high needs students are at 5 percent or less of a board’s total special needs student population. If that percent rises, the cost to provide the extra aide required is borne by the school board.
Yellowknife Education District No. 1 brought this concern to the attention of the Minister of Education almost a year ago, Mr. Speaker, but there doesn’t seem to be any recognition of the problem by the Minister and his department. Is this large increase in high needs students an anomaly for YK 1? It would seem so to them.
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted.
Or is this perhaps a trend all NWT education authorities are experiencing? The only way to know for sure, Mr. Speaker, is to undertake an independent count of the severe needs students in NWT schools. It is highly unlikely there will be an even distribution amongst all schools, but that’s what the current funding formula assumes.
Boards with a higher incidence of severely disabled students must be funded to a higher level, Mr. Speaker. ECE needs to reconsider how education authorities are funded under the Inclusive Schooling Policy. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
