CEC Ontario

This update includes key activities from both the Special Education Policy and Programs Branch, and the Special Education Strategic Planning Branch, led by Barry Finlay, Director.

The 2007/08 Special Education Grant (SEG) is projected to increase by over $79 million to a provincial total of over $2.07 billion. As work continues on developing a new funding approach, the $79 million will:

1. • Stabilize the High Needs Amount (HNA) funding at 2006-07 levels for boards that have declining enrolment;

 

2. • Increase HNA funding for boards with enrolment growth;

 

3. • Increase the salary benchmark components of the SEG;

 

4. • Increase the number of highest needs students accessing support through the Special Incidence Portion (SIP); and

 

5. • Address increased need in the special education sector by supporting growth in the Special Equipment Amount (SEA).

 

The 2007/08 school year represents a transition as the government continues to implement the recommendations of the Working Table on Special Education

The ministry will be consulting with school boards as it continues to review the various components of the SEG. The ministry remains committed to working with the sector on the evolution of the special education funding approach to support students with special education needs and to improve student outcomes.

This special education funding approach will support:

1. • Special education programs and services,

 

2. • Continuous improvement of IEPs for students receiving special education programs and services, and

 

3. • Enhanced services to school boards through collaborative initiatives within Education and with other ministries to support students with special education needs.

 

The ministry is working hard to release the details of the 2008-09 Grants for Student Needs as early as possible, to provide school boards with adequate time to plan effectively for the 2008-09 school year.

A pre-election commitment was made by the government to provide $10 million to prepare schools to deliver IBI therapy on-site for the first time.

School boards and school authorities will be required to report amendments only for their 2008 Special Education Plans. The ministry is working on a process to align the improvement planning and reporting processes for the Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat, Student Success/ Learning to 18, and Special Education Plans. These branches will work to align board improvement planning processes. During the 2007-08 school year, the Special Education Policy and Programs Branch and Strategic Planning Branch will work to determine measures of achievement and learning for students with special education needs who benefit from alternative programs with alternative expectations. There will be stakeholder involvement. It is the intent to have one school board planning and reporting process for the 2009 -10 school year. In the interim, special education plans will continue to be amended annually.

In two Deputy Minister memoranda to school boards in 2006, the ministry asked boards to examine their IPRC practices when both the school and the parent agree that the student’s placement should be in the regular classroom. The ministry continues to expect that IPRCs will be held when parents request them or when a self-contained or partially integrated placement is the likely destination for the student.

The ministry wants to ensure that administrative processes used by boards are actually leading to improved outcomes for students. It also wants to ensure that these processes are not acting as barriers for students to receive timely and effective special education programs and services.

In June 2007, each school board in the province received a detailed individual feedback report regarding the IEPs it had submitted for review in November 2006. All school boards also received a report on the provincial common trends.

As an outcome of the IEP Collaborative Review, a new web-based electronic template has been developed by the Special Education Policy and Programs Branch, working collaboratively with the Technology and Business Solutions Branch. The template was made available to boards September 1, 2007. Training sessions occurred by region in September via teleconference.

Six school boards (including one school authority and provincial and demonstration school) have agreed to provide feedback on its regular use of the electronic template from December 2007 to June 2008.

In collaboration with the Technology and Business Solutions Branch and the SEPPB, the second phase of the project has begun to explore options for making the template compatible with board’s Student Management Systems for the 2008-2009 school year.

The Ministry is in the process of developing a ’read-only’ version of the template to be made available to parents by boards. As well, the Ministry is developing a version for the Faculties of Education for the purpose of teacher training.

Follow-up IEP training sessions have been provided to those boards upon request.

Funding is being provided to the Learning Disabilities Association of Ontario (LDAO) to work collaboratively with the Ministry of Education and parents across the province to develop a website that will be a resource to parents and students regarding their consultative role in the development of the IEP.

The LDAO will establish a provincial advisory committee that will solicit perspectives from parents and school boards to inform the project development. The website will be designed to reflect the needs of both the English and French-language parents and students.

The project commenced January 2008 and will be completed by March 31, 2009.

The Provincial Advisory Committee on Formal Dispute Resolution Regarding Programs and Services is co-chaired by Alison Morse, representing parents, and Jean-Luc Bernard, representing educators, and has been meeting since April 2007 to provide advice to the Special Education Policy and Programs Branch on formal processes to resolve disputes arising from special education programs and services and the design of a pilot for these processes in selected school boards.

Six school boards were selected to participate in the pilot (4 English and 2 French). The pilot boards developed implementation plans following a meeting with Ministry staff in October 2007. Implementation plans from the six selected school boards have been approved, and the selected boards will begin piloting dispute resolution processes. The pilot will run until the end of the 2008-2009 school year.

A researcher has been hired to evaluate the effectiveness of the formal dispute resolution processes in dealing with issues related to special education programs and services offered to students with special education needs.

The ministry is currently undertaking a special education program and financial pilot review in selected school boards. The purpose of the pilot review is for the ministry and school boards to work collaboratively to collect information about program and financial decision-making processes related to the planning and delivery of special education programs and services and to determine if successful outcomes are resulting from the special education programs and services.

Boards that were selected for the review have representation of diverse program delivery models in the area of special education. For example, some boards offer special education programs in regular classrooms, while others offer a range of classroom placements. Some offer special education programs only to students who have been identified as "exceptional" through the Identification Review Committee (IPRC), while others offer such programs to students who have not been formally identified as exceptional.

To date, the pilot review has been completed in five district school boards (four English and one French-language). Four of the participating school boards have received a report that summarizes the findings from that board. The remaining report is in the approval process. The decision regarding an extension of this project to include additional district school boards is pending. The Assistant Deputy Minister will meet with all of the Directors of Education involved in the review to date to discuss their involvement in the project. Upon completion of the project, the Minister of Education will receive a report outlining the trends that were noted in the boards reviewed that will include: successful practices and challenges; and recommendations for a process of cyclical reviews for all school boards to review their planning and provision of special education programs and services.

The project work is on-going, and the outcomes are thus far positive. A full report of the project outcomes for the two years of the project is available on the CODE website at: http://www.ontariodirectors.ca/

"Effective Educational Practices for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Resource Guide" was created by the ministry and released in September 2007. Hard copies were distributed in September 2007 to school board personnel, all members of Special Education Advisory Committees (SEAC), and to all schools in the province. The resource guide is also available on the Ministry’s website http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/general/elemsec/speced/autismSpecDis.pdf

The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Children and Youth Services are collaborating with relevant community agencies to support models for collaborative service delivery for students with ASD in 2007/08. There are seven sites for models of collaborative service delivery involving eight school boards. The sites for models of collaborative service delivery are establishing their Regional Leadership Teams. These teams will engage those who can play a critical role in developing supports for students with ASD so they can experience success in school.

The eights school boards met on December 7, 2007 with the Provincial Advisory Team Co-Chairs, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Children and Youth Services regional office staff, and, special education/special programs staff. The first meeting of the Provincial Advisory Team for Supporting Models of Collaborative Service for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is taking place on February 25, 2008. The Provincial Advisory Team will monitor implementation of the initiative. The Provincial Advisory Team will provide support to the school boards and advice to the ministries of education and children and youth services. The advisory team includes representation from the participating school boards, an autism expert, service providers or community agency representatives, and parent representatives.

Work is underway to develop a process for the posting on the ministry website of relevant, evidence-based effective practices for students with ASD. The Editorial Advisory Board for an Autism Research Registry Website met for the first time January 18, 2008. Membership includes: Chair Dr. Kathryn Bennett, McMaster University: Dr. Ian Brown, Chief Psychologist, Durham Catholic DSB and President of the Association of Chief Psychologists with Ontario School Boards; Dr. Raymond LeBlanc, University of Ottawa; Dr. Elizabeth Starr, University of Windsor.

As required by PPM 140, members of the Ministers’ Autism Spectrum Disorders Reference Group who wish to be involved, were consulted at the June 2007 MACSE meeting regarding the implementation of PPM 140. The next consultation is scheduled for the February 2008 MACSE meeting.

In 2006, the government invested $5 million through Geneva Centre for Autism to provide training for teachers' assistants who work or may work with students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In addition to core materials being made available to all Teacher Assistants, training, coaching and mentoring options are sufficiently flexible and customized to meet the unique needs and interests of school boards, schools and school personnel.

Geneva Centre established a Project Advisory Group comprised of researchers, practitioners and key stakeholders to inform the development, implementation, evaluation and public reporting. It is expected that the project will be completed in two years (2006-2007, 2007-2008). To date, approximately 2900 teachers’ assistants have participated in this training program.

The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Children and Youth Services and Geneva Centre for Autism work collaboratively on this initiative to ensure that this training initiative compliments and does not duplicate any services provided by the School Support Program - Autism Spectrum Disorder, funded by MCYS.

The OPA established a provincial advisory group that includes educators, psychologists, occupational therapists and speech/language pathologists to inform the project development.

A Promising Practices Guide is being produced in year two of the project by the OPA and will be shared with all of the school boards to foster sustainability and knowledge mobilization of enhanced school board assessment practices. The guide is scheduled for release October 2008.

Each school board sent a team of delegates to the symposium comprised of teachers, principals and central administration. Since the symposium, these teams are working to enhance effective and consistent assessment, evaluation and reporting practices in their schools and across their school boards. They will also inform the work of CAPB through regional meetings.

CAPB will develop a new document on assessment, evaluation and reporting that will be ready for distribution September 2009. CAPB provided a working document, Growing Success, Assessment, Evaluation and Reporting: Improving Student Learning at the symposium to support the work of the school board teams.

Since May 2007, the Special Education Policy and Programs Branch has been working with the Ontario Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists (OSLA) to develop a comprehensive resource guide for elementary classroom teachers (Kindergarten to Grade 3). The resource guide will contain evidence-based and curriculum focused differentiated teaching strategies for improving the academic performances of all students but essentially supportive for students with oral language needs.

The Core Project team (CPT) is comprised of both English and French-language Speech-Language Pathologists. In addition, a Provincial Advisory Team (PAT) was formed with both English and French-language representatives to provide feedback and advice to the CPT on a regular basis. The PAT consists of Speech-Language Pathologists, a Special Education Coordinator and Education Officers. At the advice of the PAT, a Teacher Focus Group comprised of K – Grade 3 teachers, English and French from across the province was formed to review and provide feedback on the resource guide throughout its development. The resource guide will be available in both English and French, and distributed to all school boards Fall 2008.

The Web Based Teaching Tool (WBTT) was developed by the Learning Disabilities Association of Ontario (LDAO), with funding support from the Ministry of Education. The WBTT provides teachers with early screening and intervention strategies for students in JK through Grade 2 who are struggling with learning and are at risk for later school difficulties.

As at December, 2007 over 1,455 schools are participating in the WBTT program. A total of 51 school boards and 24 school authorities are registered to use the WBTT in the 2007-08 school year. In November and December, 2007 over 20,500 students were screened using the WBTT program

During the 2006-2007 school year, a case-group study evaluation of the impact of the WBTTs effectiveness on improving student achievement was completed and is showing a strong link between WBTT use by a teacher and the activation of supports for students who are struggling, especially for students in JK an SK as they are twice more likely to get extra resources than students who have not been exposed to WBTT.

This year, additional features are being built to support school boards in managing student information. A school administrator site with an export function has been developed to enable school principals to view their individual student WBTT information. In January and February 2008, over 40 school principals participated in a professional development session on the school administrator site in order to pilot this new WBTT feature. Plans are being made to pilot the export function in the spring. The export function will enable school principals to download WBTT student information into the school boards’ student management system to generate aggregate WBTT student data.

Funding is being provided to Integration Action for Inclusion in Education and Community to work collaboratively with the Ministry of Education and selected school boards to study and document successful practices for the inclusion of students with disabilities in all aspects of their secondary school education. The project commenced in December 2007 and will be completed by March 31, 2009.

MACSE last met on November 28 and 29, 2007.

Minister Wynne attended MACSE’s meeting on November 29, 2007 and was provided with an overview of the first day of Council’s meeting. Robert Stones, MACSE Chair, informed

Minister Wynne that members were pleased that the special education system continues to build on the recommendations of the Special Education Transformation Report and Education for All

1. • Shared Solutions;

    

2. • Education for All to a K-12 document;

    

3. • Creation of a coordinated service delivery model, multi-ministry framework that supports an integrated service delivery model;

 

4. • Progress on the coordination of all Ministry initiatives related to improving student achievement including Student Success, Literacy & Numeracy Secretariat (LNS), Learning to 18, Special Education Transformation and Board Improvement Plans; and

 

5. • OPA funding.

 

Mr. Stones shared MACSE’s appreciation of her support to Council. Minister Wynne expressed her continued optimism about progress in the special education sector including the specific items mentioned by Mr. Stones in his update.

The next MACSE Council meeting is scheduled on February 20 – 21, 2008.

MACSE Minutes can be obtained by contacting Council Secretary, Noorie Kabani at

The call for nominations for upcoming positions on MACSE was sent out to organizations on November 27, 2007. The closing date to receive nominations was extended to Friday, February 1, 2008 upon request from several organizations and individuals.

The communities of interest for which the Ministry is currently seeking nominations for a three year period, commencing April 1, 2008 are as follows:

1. • Principals;

 

2. • Trustees;

 

3. • Teachers’ Assistants;

 

4. • Physical Disability;

 

5. • Deaf and Hard of Hearing;

 

6. • Psychologists;

 

7. • Francophone Community; and

 

8. • Blind and Low Vision.

 

MACSE Web site: http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/general/abcs/acse/acse_eng.html.