Parents gathered near Ottawa City Hall Saturday afternoon to protest a proposed phase out of alternative schools and changes to grade structures in the city’s largest school board. Many were seen wearing shirts and holding signs at the Human Rights Monument supporting alternative schools in the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB), which offer programs for children with special needs. Parents are concerned the cuts will have a major impact on their children’s education if required to attend mainstream classes. “How can you support children, whether they’re on the spectrum or neurodiverse in other ways, if you’re actually cutting the very supports they need to be able to successfully reintegrate into a mainstream classroom?” said parent Michelle Bertram. The board approved parts of the Elementary Program Review Tuesday night but opted to reject a proposal to phase out 26 special education classes in the primary gifted program, the language learning disabilities program (primary and junior), and the learning disabilities semi-integrated program (junior and intermediate). Trustees voted to approve consolidated elementary programming into Enhanced English and French Immersion and to gradually phase out alternative schools, when the last cohort of Junior Kindergarten students entering the program in September 2025 completes Grade 8. There will also be changes to “grade structures” at 18 schools and altering the boundaries to dozens of others, requiring up to 1,500 students to change schools in 2026. A total of 116 specialized program classes will be continuing, including autism spectrum disorder, behaviour intervention, deaf/hard of hearing, and developmental disabilities classes, dual support program, junior and intermediate general learning, junior gifted, physical support program and primary special needs. The OCDSB launched the review last spring, saying the goal is to offer programming in English and French at each school and to have “community-based education” for students and reduce costs. Bertram worries a desire to cut costs will come at the expense of children’s education. “If you don’t support children with special needs, the other children in those classrooms won’t be able to focus on math and literacy, especially when incidents of violence in the classroom are already at a historical high,” she said. The board says it is committed to redistributing resources from special education programs back into mainstream classrooms. “This will allow for more students to be supported across the system. Supports for students may include in-class support, with targeted withdrawal as needed. The focus remains on creating flexible learning environments that are equitable and accessible for all learners,” the board says on its website. Parent Kelly Campbell doesn’t believe the board has been listening to families and says she hopes they will work with parents before the final version of the review is approved next week. “We’re asking to slow this down, to follow your own legislation, and to look at community by community solutions,” she said. “We’ve presented across the city school plans that we would look at implementing this in a way that works. So just listen and work with us parents.” Campbell says she is concerned by the lack of costing and data being shown to parents that show improvements to special education programs. “The way these changes are going forward are extremely problematic. They’re not informed by data. There is no costing. There’s no implementation plan,” she said. “That’s really scary.” Trustees will finalize the Elementary Program Review next Tuesday. With files from CTV News Ottawa’s Josh Pringle and Josh Marano
