By Erin Parks
Parents of students at Centennial Public School and other Ottawa schools have enlisted the help of lawyers and law students to challenge the constitutionality of provincial cuts to special education.
“It’s extremely short-sighted for the provincial government not to meet these children’s needs because the long term cost will be much greater, both the human and financial cost,” says parent Eileen Inrig.
Inrig says the province is required by law to provide equal access to education to all students.
She says cuts to special education mean that students with special needs do not have equal access.
This prompted the parents to launch a human rights case against the province.
Last January, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board announced cuts of $20 million from their special education budget because of provincial cuts to funding.
The cuts to special education classrooms and speech and language therapy, are to take place over a three-year period, beginning this school year.
The parents sought help from Joseph Magnet and Lawrence Greenspon, two lawyers who teach a class on constitutional litigation at the University of Ottawa. The lawyers have asked their class to do the research.
In the process of this research, law student George Brown thinks the group should look to Centennial as a model for special education programs that work.
“I look at Centennial and I get the feeling that this is the way it should be. If all our schools were like this we’d be doing well,” he says.
Brown says Centennial is unique to the Ottawa board, and unusual in North America.
The school has a mix of both congregated and integrated classrooms, drawing students from many neighbourhoods.
But Bronwyn Funiciello, another parent involved in the case, says the cuts are being felt even at Centennial.
Her eight-year-old daughter, Stephanie, has a language expression disability. She was in a congregated class at Centennial for language arts.
Funiciello says because of the recent cuts, Stephanie was in a combined class of Grades 1-3 and the curriculum was set at the lowest level.
“Her most basic language needs were being met, but in a class of five to eight year olds, she was learning at a five year old’s level,” says Funiciello.
Stephanie now attends school closer to her home in Rockcliffe.
Brown says generally, Centennial is coping well with the first round of cuts.
“I got the impression they survived this round, but any further cuts will definitely have an effect,” he says.
But Principal Doug Tateishi says it is difficult to tell how further cuts will affect Centennial.
“Yes there are going to be further cuts, but we don’t know what they are going to be,” he says.
“But we have a great staff, and I’m optimistic that we can continue to offer great services.”
Funiciello says the group hopes to have an injunction by the end of this year to stop any further cuts until their case is heard next year.
Brown thinks their chances of winning the case are strong.
“We have to show that the children are not getting access to an education which will help them achieve their potential. It’s difficult to show, but I believe we will.”