Promises vs. reality: Parents say inclusive education still out of reach at Edmonton Public Schools

One day in high school quite a few years ago, Emily Mole noticed a book that one of her friends was using to prepare for mainstream classes. She asked her teacher if she could use it too.

Mole wasn’t in the regular program. Due to her general cognitive learning disability, she was placed in a modified program where students didn’t follow the standard curriculum and required additional supports.

Article content

Her teacher laughed.

“That’s not going to happen,” Mole recalled his response.

“I felt really upset,” said Mole, now at 31.

Mole eventually transferred into some mainstream classes at Notre Dame High School in Red Deer, thanks to the support of another teacher. But she never forgot how that moment felt.

“I have always been a very determined person. And being told, ‘No, that you can’t do this,’ just gave me more of a drive to keep trying,” she said. “I wish I had learned the same things as everyone else my same age. I had to also work twice as hard to catch up to everyone, and I also missed out on a lot of social opportunities. And I think I would have made more friends in the mainstream in school.”

Today, Mole serves as a board member with Inclusion Edmonton Region and is an advocate for people with disabilities and people with type 1 diabetes. Her work involves many duties, including pushing the board of trustees at Edmonton Public Schools to end segregation and uphold the right of all students to attend and be supported in their community schools.

Article content

Last month, the group issued a news release calling on the board to enforce its publicly stated mandate that inclusive education is “the division’s first choice” and to ensure families are not pressured into segregated placements.

A system that isolates

For Genia Akter, a mother of three and a Bangladeshi immigrant who has lived in Edmonton for more than 15 years, the system’s failures are personal.

Two years ago, her eight-year-old son with ADHD and autism was removed from his community school after staff said they could no longer support him full-time. She was told to be ready to pick him up on short notice, which wasn’t feasible for a working mother whose husband lives out of province, Akter said.

“I’m getting calls almost two or three times a week, ‘Come pick up your son,’” she said. “How many times I take days off or time off from my office, it’s just unbelievable. I don’t know, I might lose my job, too.”

Even more concerning, her son often comes home with unexplained bruises.

Article content

Article content

“Last week, I found someone strangled him. Whenever I ask about those bruises, they just say, ‘We don’t know,’” she said, adding that the school claims they can’t provide details due to privacy concerns for other children.

“He speaks but very little. He’s not going be able to tell me who’s hurting him and how.”

Because her son doesn’t attend the community school, she said he’s left out of the neighbourhood’s friendships.

“My son is left alone because he is not going to the same school, so they think that my son is somebody different,” she said.

Nicole Renaud, a mother of three and an inclusive education advocate, has seen similar barriers firsthand. Her nine-year-old son, who is autistic, is in a mainstream Grade 4 class in their community school — but getting him there was a constant battle.

“It was pushed against repeatedly, I should say,” Renaud said. “It honestly started back in kindergarten. Right from the get-go, we noticed his teacher didn’t send any materials home for him, but she did for all the other families.  And when we’d asked for that, she’d say, ‘Oh, don’t worry about it for him, he doesn’t need to worry about that.’”

Article content

Things escalated when they registered him for Grade 1, she said.

“The teacher found out that we’re planning on registering him in a mainstream classroom, and she called me to urge us to reconsider. She said she felt certain that he would fail and not be supported at all, and that he really belongs in segregated classroom interactions,” she said.

“I mean, it’s discrimination, right? I don’t feel great about it. It’s frustrating.”

Renaud said administrators continued to suggest segregation through the years.

“He was being snuck into interactions without our consent,” she said.

“He’s non-speaking, it doesn’t mean he’s non-thinking. And out of all our kids, he’s the one who loves school the most. And he absolutely knows when he’s being treated differently.”

Her experience echoes that of many others, she said, and led to her decision to run for school board trustee in Ward A during the upcoming election.

She says the board has not supported parents, although concerns have been raised over the years, not just at recent board meetings.

Article content

“We’ve raised awareness quite a few times, letting them know that we keep getting pushback from school administrators en masse, which violates their own board policy as well as provincial regulation for inclusion, and there’s no response.”

A call for systemic change

Rajesh Kumar, a parent who spoke at the April 1 Edmonton Public Schools board meeting, said he did so for two reasons.

“One was the capital plan,” he said. “I looked at the previous year’s capital plan, I didn’t see that this Center for Autism was part of that. And then I said, suddenly it appeared on the plan without any much transparency to the people. The public is a stakeholder that should be aware of these actions.”

His second reason was his experience with how the school system treats parental choice.

“Parental choices around inclusive education were really not honoured the way it has been presented on the top level, because I have first-hand witnessed those things.”

Kumar shared his personal experience with his daughter, who has functional autism and was preparing to enter Grade 1 at Johnny Bright School.

Article content

“We were told that we should try segregated learning for her, because that is where she will get better support, instead of offering an inclusive setting,” he said. “Basically what we were told (was) that there will be only one educational assistant for three classes, and then she will not be able to get the level of support that will be required for her to be successful.”

He said the same kind of pressure was placed on another family he supported as a translator, as “the administration guided him to take (their daughter) to the segregated school from the system perspective.”

For Kumar, the concept of parental choice must mean something more concrete.

“Parents are the first and primary stakeholders, they understand their child better than anybody else,” he said. “For me, that is not their job to influence parental choice by putting some things on the table that could be misguidance.”

Does he believe Edmonton Public Schools is serious about inclusion?

Article content

“Based on these stories,” he said, “I don’t think they’re doing just that.”

Division defends choice and inclusion policies

In an email to Postmedia, Edmonton Public Schools responded to concerns raised by parents by affirming its belief in parental choice.

“The division believes in the importance of parental choice. Families have the option to request either a regular, alternative or specialized program for their child,” it stated in its response. “Choice is supported through access to specialized supports and services no matter which school or program parents choose for their child.”

The division added that “the regular classroom shall be the first placement option considered,” and encouraged parents with concerns to contact their child’s teacher, principal, division support services, the superintendent, or their trustee.

“Students who require specialized supports are accommodated in various ways, depending on student need and family choice.

Article content

“In alignment with Alberta Education, in Edmonton Public Schools inclusive education is about providing a learning environment where students are welcomed and feel a sense of belonging,” the division said. “It is also about providing responsive and flexible learning environments to support unique learner needs, whether the family chooses a regular, alternative or specialized program.”

Solutions for inclusive education?

For Akter, the ask is simple.

“I don’t want anything extra for my son. Just do whatever you are doing, whatever support you are providing in the integration program, do it in a community school. So my son realized that he is not somebody that is left alone from society, that he is also a part of the society,” she said.

Renaud agreed, saying she hopes parents understand that their children have the right to inclusive education.

Mole also agreed that everyone “should have the choice to be able to be in inclusive classes,” however, “it doesn’t seem like it’s really going anywhere, it’s been like this for years, and it’s still the same as when I was in school, and that was many years ago. So we’d love to see some real work for students here, especially in Edmonton.”

Article content

cnguyen@postmedia.com

Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add EdmontonJournal.com and EdmontonSun.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.

You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun

Article content