Losing educational assistants
I have had a great school year this year. Actually I have had a great school year the past two years.
There is a reason for this. I have 8 fantastic teenagers in my special needs class and 4 educational assistants (E.A.s) (AKA teaching assistants) and one community nurse to look after the medical needs of one of my 8. Your E.A.s can make or break a special needs class. Because of my E.A.s and their temperaments, compassion, leadership, teamwork and personalities I have been able to run a fantastic and meaningful program for my students. Granted my current students are not dangerous to themselves or others, but they are still challenging to work with, and they still need support.
Some may look at my kids and think they are just teenagers working on primary level academic expectations [due to a wide variety of diagnoses and disabilities (autism, developmental disability, fragile x, williams syndrome, aspergers, mild intellectual disability, cerebral palsy, and on and on)]. But with my team they have been able to be enrolled in at least one mainstream class a semester, participate in dance recitals and music concerts, practice work skills at work placements in the community, earn credit in hands-on classes, and build life skills which will help them once publicly funded programming ends for them at the end of high school.
Next year I will have 10 students and 2 E.A.s and the community nurse. Will my kids be safe? yes. Will my kids be at school? yes.
Will they be able to participate in the mainstream school in integration classes and special performances? no
Will they all be able to have work education placements? welllll... no
Will they get the individualized attention they need to build important life skills like money handling, reading comprehension, and functional writing skills? definitely not
During the 30-45 minutes each morning and afternoon that it takes to change the diapers of those who need changing as well as the additional 10-15 minutes needed to put kids in standers and take them out again, will the remaining 9 who not being changed/stood have any E.A. interaction at all? nope
Will the two students in my class who need 1:1 support to accomplish anything physically (including using a mouse/joystick/touchpad/switches) magically be independent during the times that there is no one to work with them? um... no
Soooo... because my kids don't hit people... they don't get the support they need?
I have been near tears all day, I am losing two good people, and I am going to have to take major chunks out of my program for these students next year
Thank you ontario government
