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Nearly a year after release of N.S. inclusion report, parents begin to lose hope

When the final report of the Commission on Inclusive Education was released last March, parents responded with optimism.

But nearly a year has passed with few signs of progress and the sense of hope has begun to diminish.

Allison Garber, an Autism Nova Scotia board member with a child on the autism spectrum in a Halifax elementary school, told the CBC's Information Morning that while there has been some progress, like the hiring of 190 support workers, the changes have been incremental.

"What I'm hearing on the ground from teachers and … from my own child, who is my most important first voice, is that nothing really has changed, unfortunately," she said.

"There needs to be an absolute overhaul of an inclusion model that is absolutely not working here in Nova Scotia."

Some staff not adequately trained

Garber said some of the new educational program assistants, or EPAs, are well-meaning but not adequately trained.

She said that can pose difficulties when EPAs encounter behaviour like meltdowns, when a student on the autism spectrum is overwhelmed by the sensory input in an environment such as a classroom.

Shaina Luck/CBC
Shaina Luck/CBC

"If a teaching assistant who is new, who hasn't been briefed on the strategies to work with the child, … isn't able to diffuse that situation, the child can act out and that's often been perceived as bad behaviour."

This can create safety risks for the assistants and students, Garber said.

The report on inclusive education recommended other supports as well, including parent navigators, who would help connect parents to programs and services.

Garber said she was "incredibly happy" to see the province respond to that recommendation by committing to implementing 11 parent navigator positions across the province.

"I am less happy with the work [the province] has done to date," she said.

The province had stated that the parent navigators would be in place by September 2018, but at this point, Garber said she "has yet to catch wind of a parent navigator [helping parents]."

Education Minister Zach Churchill said the education system is "an old system that has been requiring change for a long time" and that the province is only five months into a five-year plan.

Robert Short/CBC News
Robert Short/CBC News

Churchill said the implementation is on schedule and the province is partnering with Inclusive Education Canada to monitor the process.

"We need to know that the major investments we're making are having the impact that we want," he said.