(Quebec) Faced with the exodus from the public network of a growing number of professionals who help students with special needs, parents are asking to be systematically consulted in the future when the time comes to develop their child’s intervention plan for the services that are still offered.
The Press obtained the results of two surveys carried out on the social networks of the Federation of Parents’ Committees among its members, in 2021 and in 2023, in order to measure their satisfaction with the services offered to disabled students or students with adjustment or adjustment difficulties. learning (EHDAA). The main findings of respondents in the field, which were maintained between the two surveys, are that:
- “The child must be failing before an intervention plan can be put in place.
- Despite the presence of an intervention plan, it is not always used optimally by all those involved in the school.
- When the child is successful, his intervention plan may be taken away.
- Parents say they are not invited to the meeting [pour élaborer le] intervention plan, whether the plan ends up in the school bag or whether they receive it by email.
- They are given a meeting date, which will take place even if they cannot attend. »
In surveys, nearly one in five parents also said they are not consulted by schools when they develop their child’s intervention plan. They demand to be “essential” players in the assessment of needs.
According to Nancy Gaudreau, full professor in the department of teaching and learning studies at Laval University, whose research focuses, among other things, on intervention plans, involving parents and children in the process can make a difference. real difference in terms of adherence to the measures put in place.
“In certain circles, it has become an administrative document which complies with the law, which is put in a binder, which parents do not know and which teachers end up forgetting,” she says.
Help all children
While the standoff continues between Quebec and the unions representing education professionals for the renewal of collective agreements, parent committees are urging both camps to find compromises.
We no longer even talk about repairing the network, we have to rebuild it. We are there.
Mélanie Laviolette, president of the Federation of Parents’ Committees of Quebec
Earlier this week, the president of the Quebec Federation of Educational Institution Directors, Nicolas Prévost, explained to The Press that the desertion of professionals who help students with special needs means “that we are not able to provide the service because we do not have people [et que] the professionals we have [sont] sprinkled between the students.
“It doesn’t help the students and it burns our resources,” he denounced.
Mélanie Laviolette, from the Federation of Parents’ Committees, adds that in this context, “services are given to children who have the most obvious difficulties”.
“A child who is on the verge of academic failure, but who still succeeds, is perhaps this child who suffers a little more [en ce moment]. We will wait until he fails to give him help instead of catching him when he is on a downward slope,” she laments.
Classroom aids, but what help?
In a context where there is a shortage of both teachers (qualified or not) and psychologists, speech therapists, psychoeducators and specialized education technicians in schools, Quebec is relying more than ever on adding help to the classroom to lighten the workload of teachers.
As part of the most recent government offers to renew collective agreements in the public sector, the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, recalled his objective of adding them in 15,000 public primary classes.
The objective is to “maximize the time devoted by teachers to teaching”, while classroom assistants – especially educators in school daycare – will have the role of providing assistance to students and helping the teacher in her non-teaching tasks.
Line Massé, full professor in the department of psychoeducation and social work at UQTR and director of the research and intervention laboratory on psychosocial adaptation difficulties at school, recalls, however, that classroom assistants cannot replace the work of professionals.
“If people don’t have any training, I’m not sure of the quality of help that will be offered and the support that will be given. It will not develop students’ skills. It will make the student less disruptive. It may be support for the teacher, but it is not adequate support for the student to develop their skills and competencies,” she told The Press.
According to her, Quebec must improve the conditions of practice for professionals so that they stop leaving the public network. The Ministry of Education also reminds that “the specific service for the student who needs it must continue despite the addition of a support resource to the class”.