For disabled students, school may not be a safe, supportive place
By Louise Kinross
A flurry of recent reports indicate disabled students in Ontario aren't getting the education they deserve. Last week we learned some students wait over a year for diagnostic assessments, that education assistants who support disabled students are often absent due to stress and “student-related physical injuries;” and that teachers struggle to implement Individual Education Plans. That’s in this Auditor General’s Report.
Last month the Ontario Autism Coalition released its Special Education Survey for 2024-25. It estimates nearly 22,000 students with disabilities were fully excluded from school that year. They didn’t attend at all.
A year ago, Crisis in the Classroom by Community Living Ontario found disabled students had been held down by educators at school, locked alone in a room, or told to stay home or attend part-time.
The province does not track or report these incidents.
Shawn Pegg is director of social policy at Community Living Ontario. We decided an interview was in order.
BLOOM: Has anything changed since you released that report in 2025?
Shawn Pegg: No. Nothing at the provincial level has changed in a meaningful way to impact restraint and seclusion. It’s incredible to me that there is zero Ontario policy or guidance around the use of restraints, involuntary seclusion or informal exclusion, which includes shortened days. I was happy to see last week that Minister of Education Paul Calandra said he has concerns about seclusion and will be taking a look at that issue.
BLOOM: But the government has made no changes in response to your report?
Shawn Pegg: No, not that I'm aware of.
BLOOM: What are the most common school challenges you hear from parents now?
Shawn Pegg: It’s the lack of classroom supports. A definite lack of education assistants and class sizes being too large for teachers to manage. I got an e-mail from a parent today whose child has been excluded from school, and she doesn’t understand what to do or how to change that.
Parents often contact us when something changes—a child goes to the next grade or a principal or vice-principal leaves, and the people replacing them don’t really understand how to include children with specific needs in the classroom. There is also this emerging narrative of increasing classroom complexity that we hear from teachers and principals, which I think requires more examination.
BLOOM: I noticed the Auditor General’s report said the number of students with disabilities is growing, and school boards are spending hundreds of millions of dollars more than they get from the province to support them. How are the boards responding to the funding challenges?
Shawn Pegg: In some boards we’re seeing segregated specialized classrooms being reduced. On the other hand, in the Toronto District School Board we’ve also seen autism-only classes being added. We’ve also seen specialized classrooms for students with developmental disabilities having their maximum student number increased.
So I don’t think it’s possible to say everything is going in one direction. What we’re seeing is school boards struggling with finding the resources to support all students and trying different approaches. And there isn’t broad agreement among disability-focused groups or parents as to whether inclusion is the right way to go, or more specialized, separate classrooms are needed.
Adding to this, the experience of students being in a regular classroom without needed support is very common, and this is clearly impacting support for greater inclusion.
BLOOM: Is it getting harder to get classroom supports?
Shawn Pegg: The Auditor General’s report does a really good job of pointing to the problems people are experiencing. Kids can wait more than a year just for a diagnosis. That holds up access to therapy and in-school supports.
One in five education assistants are absent on any given day, and they can’t find supply assistants in more than half the cases.
It’s difficult to talk about this without talking about the Ontario Autism Program. Young autistic children aren’t getting access to the supports they need early on, so they’re not ready for the school environment. And the school environment is so unfriendly to kids with environmental sensitivities.
Minister Calandra has talked about wanting to work more with the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services. I think that’s a good idea. The work of the two ministries is so connected. For example, MCCSS has a role in preparing kids in the early years to be ready for school, and the education ministry has the role of preparing older kids to leave school and be ready for the next step in their lives.
BLOOM: When I posted a question about school concerns on a parent Facebook group, one parent said their child was only allowed to go to school for 15 minutes a day. What recourse do these parents have?
Shawn Pegg: In addition to the shortage of staffing in school, I think staff who are there aren’t being trained to really understand the causes of the behaviour they see. I think the approach across most school boards is reactive, and there is a lack of proactive understanding and knowledge of things like co-regulation, where staff model calmness and empathy to help students manage their emotions.
You have teachers and support staff who are overwhelmed by staff shortages, and you combine that with a lack of training in special education and trauma-informed practice.
BLOOM: It sounds like the environment is set up to trigger students.
Shawn Pegg: More resources are absolutely needed, but they also need better training and a better approach. A lot of students need a different philosophy and mindset from the people supporting them. I think often students get blamed for acting in certain ways, when the school culture and environment are just as important, if not more important.
BLOOM: What advice do you offer parents whose children aren’t getting what they need?
Shawn Pegg: We tend to walk people through a conversation about “who do I talk to next?” We have a special education guide, Strategies for Success, we developed with Pooran Law. For example, if you’re not happy with the classroom teacher's response, the next step is to go to the principal to get things changed. If that doesn’t work, then you think about the superintendent, the director of education, and your trustee if you have one.
BLOOM: I noticed Strategies for Success has sections on education laws, who does what, processes like IEPs and IPRCs, and human rights. Student Attendance, Discipline and the Right to be in School does a great job covering suspensions, expulsions, exclusions, seclusion and the use of restraint, including Ontario statistics. Is there a parent advocacy group you would recommend?
Shawn Pegg: One is Ontario Parents for Education Support. They’re very active on Facebook. They have ideas on how to advocate and can connect parents to other parents in their region. And of course Inclusion Action in Ontario has been a strong voice for many years
BLOOM: What do parents need to know about school restraint and isolation practices?
Shawn Pegg: Any parent who has a child who may engage in externalizing behaviour should absolutely be meeting with the principal before the school year starts to understand the principal’s philosophy. Most school boards have a policy on the use of restraint, and some have one on seclusion. The parent will want to know what is actually happening in that school.
Are teachers allowed to restrain students? Are there rooms for seclusion? When and in what cases are these practices used? What type of training do staff receive? Does the school's approach align with the expectations of the parents?
If there is a risk of externalizing behaviour, I think it makes sense for parents to put a safety plan in place. If they’re not connected to a children’s treatment and rehabilitation centre, I would recommend that.
Unfortunately, we often hear that parents aren’t listened to, and it can help if they come in with some backing from a professional, like a psychologist, on what the child’s triggers are and the best ways to prevent them.
When it comes to self-harm, parents are the experts at developing preventative strategies. They should be heavily involved in deciding, for example, what are the cases when a staff person can and should intervene if a student is self-harming? What are the best ways to do that? What might make it worse? What will prevent it? It is important to have a productive relationship with the school, and to have a plan documented by a professional.
BLOOM: Has Ontario given any indication it plans a province-wide policy on restraint, seclusion and exclusion?
Shawn Pegg: No, it hasn’t. Of the 10 provinces, Ontario is one of only three that do not have a policy or guideline on these issues. That’s inexcusable.
BLOOM: Will Community Living be doing a new report on restraint and seclusion?
Shawn Pegg: We’re redoing the Ontario School Inclusion Survey in June and July this year. So we should have updated numbers in 2027.
Dreaming Safer Schools is a new video series by the Disability Justice Network of Ontario, in collaboration with ARCH Disability Law Centre. The videos are transcribed if you want to skim through quickly for a specific piece of information. Holland Bloorview held a school advocacy workshop for parents led by Shawn Pegg last year. We hope to offer the workshop again in the fall. If interested, please e-mail resourcecentre@hollandbloorview.ca. Like this content? Sign up for our monthly BLOOM e-letter or take our short BLOOM survey.
