Hundreds of students with disabilities or various disorders are deprived of school each year because of behavior deemed too disturbing or dangerous. Parents, destitute, must supervise their child at home. The Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ) intends to table a bill shortly so that they are entitled to the same services as other students.
“We are violating their rights,” says Liberal MP for Westmount–Saint-Louis, Jennifer Maccarone. There are children who are sent home for almost a year, it’s ridiculous and heartbreaking. We have to put an end to this. The mother of two autistic children has made access to services for students with special needs her priority for several years. It wants to amend the Education Act to enshrine the right of students with disabilities or social maladjustments or learning difficulties to have services equivalent to those provided by the school.
The Ministry of Education has documented the phenomenon with results that should be considered with caution due to the method of data collection and the variable definition of service interruption from one institution to another. A total of 1,481 preschool, elementary and secondary school students found themselves in a “break in service” situation in the winter of 2021, despite compulsory schooling up to the age of 16. In the winter of 2022, there were 1,379 students.
“If children do not have access to the same services, the same programs and the same support as others, they will not have the same success,” stresses Jennifer Maccarone. The Minister of Education has a responsibility to tackle this and put an end to it. »
Lack of resources
Marie*, who resides in Repentigny and does not wish to divulge her real name to protect the identity of her minor-aged son, was taken aback when told that her child would be in “clinical arrest”, for then be withdrawn for an indefinite period. The six-year-old boy, who attends kindergarten at the neighborhood school and has difficulty dealing with his emotions in a larger group, punched his teacher in late February.
He is now awaiting an evaluation at the Lanaudière Integrated Health and Social Services Center (CISSS), which suspects an autism spectrum disorder. But, for lack of a special education technician available to accompany him to class, his son remained suspended from school for several weeks.
“The school says it works with us, but I don’t think that’s the case at all, drops the mother. They were supposed to send me the class activities so that he could follow what the group is doing, I never received them. She bought exercise books, which he quickly filled out. Her boy has become more sensitive, because he is less socialized.
She contacted her MP, caquiste Pascale Déry, whose constituency office intervened. Her son was finally moved to another school on Monday morning, where he has access to specialized services. “We had to put pressure on things to change, before it was just closed doors,” says her mother.
These are complex cases, recognizes the Center de services scolaire des Affluents. “Know that, regardless of the context, we always offer support and accompaniment to parents,” wrote a spokesperson in response to the Duty.
“When our resources allow it, we offer a form of schooling when the child is available for learning,” we add. We work in collaboration with several partners to ensure continuity of service. »
“Inspiring Practices”
The Ministry of Education, for its part, participates in an interdepartmental committee “on complex situations at risk of service failure”, which “proposes possible solutions” to “make corrections to current situations in order to better serve students in risk of service failure. The ministry, which says it has “long been concerned” about these issues, did not respond to our request to speak with a representative of the committee.
A research project, “MultiCo”, is currently underway in collaboration with the ministry to better support students, and the results should be released this year. “There is a lot of collaboration between the school and health communities, but often the family and the child are not included in this process as much,” emphasizes Marie Hélène Gervais, research coordinator.
The expert is also working with Audrée Jeanne Beaudoin, researcher at the Integrated University Center for Health and Social Services (CIUSSS) in Estrie, as part of another project that documents support for schooling among autistic students. The experts are interested in “inspiring practices” across Quebec to prevent service interruptions. “What really stands out is acting earlier and preventively,” says Audrée Jeanne Beaudoin. Sometimes the collaboration comes late, when the breakdown has happened and everything has exploded. »
“Often, the first instinct is to say that there are not enough people on the floor, adds Marie Hélène Gervais. But there also seems to be a lack of knowledge and collaboration. There is also an issue of behavioral perception. »