Quebec schools opening with less support staff for special needs students after budget cuts

Quebec school boards are scrambling to finalize budgets and find money for staff and services after millions in cuts.

Over the next two weeks, students, parents, and school staff will likely start seeing the effects of the Quebec government’s multi-million-dollar cuts to education.

School support staff, who work with special needs students, could be one of the hardest hit areas, laments Kim Watson, vice president of the union representing support staff (APPA) at the English Montreal School Board (EMSB).

She explains that the EMSB had planned to hire 40 positions for the 2025-26 school year, but was forced to cut an additional 24 instead.

“When you look at what their wish was versus reality, that’s a loss of 64 people in the classroom helping our students, the ones who have the greatest needs,” said Watson. “We don’t know what we’re going to do with those yet because we’re waiting to hear if the budget cuts have affected that as well.”

One school board source, who could not speak on the record for fear of repercussions, said that though tenured staff are returning to their classrooms, the “tremendous amount” of important contract hires remains on the sidelines as there is no budget for them.

“There are a lot of positions that are not being filled,” the source said. “It’s much worse than anyone thought.”

That fear of uncertainty is being echoed at other school boards across the Greater Montreal area.

Riverside School Board (RSB) Chairperson Christopher Craig said he couldn’t confirm specific cuts, but admitted that officials often first look at cutting help for students with special needs.

“When cuts like these come down, we do end up having to look towards additional services that we provide,” he said. “We provide a lot to our students with some different learning styles or special needs, and unfortunately, we may have to cut back in some of those areas.”

Additionally, Watson points out that service staff who work behind the scenes do not often have the same job security that teachers do.

“It goes by needs, and it goes by the budget that the government provides the school board in order to determine what they can staff,” said Watson, noting that all the schools are in the same position, “scrambling and having to cut lots of activities that they would have had normally for the students to come in because they just don’t have the money to spare this year.”

Unknown budgets

CTV News asked the EMSB, RSB, New Frontiers School Board (NFSB) and Lester B. Pearson School Board (LBPSB) for specific examples of cuts to staff, services or supplies, and all said they are still working on their books.

“We will not know our budget situation for some time,” said EMSB spokesperson Michael Cohen. “We [school boards and service centres] are starting the year with no operating budgets, just a draw to meet mixed expenses.”

LBPSB also said it did not yet know the full picture.

“We’re still analyzing the budgetary challenges, situation resulting from the government cuts,” said spokesperson Darren Becker.

The NFSB is trimming as much as possible.

“We have been able to staff our schools and centres, but will have to monitor any extra employee hires very carefully,” said NFSB director general Mike Helm. “We have made significant reductions in the areas of travel, professional development, purchasing, and overtime.”

“There was some lack of clarity around how we would move forward,” noted Craig. “We’ve spent the summer trying to get everything in place, but knowing that student numbers change between now and even the end of September, we’re not quite sure yet.”

97 per cent hired

Quebec Education Minister Bernard Drainville said this week that 97 per cent of teachers had been hired to fill positions in public schools, and the ministry intends to make sure the shortage of teachers in classrooms is limited.

“We have an extra week to hire more teachers, so we’re working very, very hard to give our kids the best back-to-school day and period as possible,” he insisted.

Drainville made the statement following several budget announcements.

Last December, the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government announced it would cut $200 million in education.

On June 12, the minister announced the sector would be slashed by an additional $570 million.

However, in July, Drainville announced a $540 million addition in funding to “finance direct services to students, not for anything else.”

Drainville also said the ministry intends to make sure the shortage of teachers in classrooms is limited.

Quebec’s provincial association of teachers pointed out that 10 per cent of teachers don’t have an education degree, and Craig said the recently announced funding came with “a lot of strings attached.”

“We’re still not thinking that that’s going to be beneficial for our students,” he stressed. “We realized quite quickly that those cuts would be detrimental in terms of our students, and we realized that we had an opportunity to push back.”

Riverside, along with the EMSB, LBPSB and other English boards, are now suing Quebec over the budget cuts in the hopes of staying the order to cut funding.

“This is something that we’ve decided is important enough to stand up and fight over, push back over, and we’re hoping that, that push back will make a difference,” said Craig.

He said Sept. 30 is the “magical date in education” when boards report final student numbers to receive funding.

At that time, schools should know how many students they have and which have special needs, the amount of money they can work with and what they can afford for the year.

“The bigger picture framework is in place, and everybody’s going to be ready to be greeted right away at the beginning of school, but how things are arranged between the beginning of school and the end of September could change,” he said.

Watson pointed out that even if money appears for staff, some employees may look for other work and won’t be available.

“As long as there is uncertainty, of course, employees, they will start to look elsewhere because they need to have a job,” she said. “These are the people who sit right beside the students, helping them out, helping them learn to cope, helping them get through their anxieties, their difficulties in learning, dealing with whatever they have in their personal lives. That makes them require that kind of extra help.”