The Committee for the right to schooling of the League of Rights and Freedoms asks Quebec for a “faster game plan” to remedy the breakdowns in service, which deprive hundreds of students of school each year because of behavior judged too disturbing or dangerous.
“There are students and families who are experiencing this abandonment now. We have to see what we can do so that they are not abandoned for another five or ten years, the time that everyone gets along and that we arrive at a common solution, underlines Laurence Simard-Gagnon , spokesperson for the committee. Improving schooling conditions quickly in schools is a crying need. »
An interdepartmental committee “on complex situations at risk of a service breakdown” is currently looking at possible solutions to “make corrections to current situations in order to better serve students at risk of a service breakdown”. The Liberal MNA for Westmount–Saint-Louis, Jennifer Maccarone, who sounded the alarm on this issue a few years ago, for her part tabled a bill on Wednesday so that students with disabilities or in difficulty can adjustment or learning are entitled to the same services as other students attending the school.
In total, 1,481 young people from preschool, elementary and secondary would have found themselves in a situation of broken service in the winter of 2021, despite compulsory schooling until the age of 16. In the winter of 2022, there were 1,379 students. Parents, taken by surprise, must take care of their children at home and say they do not have access to several services. Some quit their jobs.
For its part, the League of Rights and Freedoms welcomes the fact that the bill wants to “bring back the government’s responsibility to ensure the right to equal education”, but also has reservations and would like clarifications. .
“To give up on the fact that the place of students is not at school, I find that this goes against what we collectively decided on the school, which must be a place of democratization where students are brought into contact with diversity,” believes Laurence Simard-Gagnon.