Some Ontario students are being sent home because schools can’t meet their special needs: auditor

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Students with special educational needs in three Ontario schools boards, including the TCDSB, are facing long wait times for help and inconsistent supports, a new report by Ontario’s auditor general finds.

“Our audit concluded that the Ministry and the school boards selected for audit did not always have procedures in place to support consistent compliance with legislation, regulations and Ministry policies for special education programs and services,” Auditor General Shelley Spence wrote in a new report tabled Tuesday.

Among other things, Spence found that Students with special needs were sometimes excluded from school without formal tracking or documentation.

An average of 239 students receiving special education services were reported as excluded each year between the 2020/21 and 2023/24 school years, the report found. There were 23 school board across Ontario that reported no exclusions of students with special education needs each year.

However a teacher survey conducted by the auditor found 39 per cent of teachers had observed at least one undocumented exclusion during the school year. Among those teachers, a third indicated it had happened more than five times.

“Our audit found that students with special education needs were sometimes removed from their school or classroom without the incident being formally documented as an exclusion,” the auditor stated.

Speaking with reporters, Spence said she’s not able to say how much exclusions are being underreported.

“That was actually our issue with doing the audit, is that they’re not tracking that data,” Spence said. “And so we can’t tell you how underreported it is, but we do know it is underreported.”

She said if stringent reporting requirements for formal exclusions are hampering tracking, she’d like to see less onerous but more consistent tracking so that the ministry can better identify why children are being excluded.

“Is it because of staffing issues where their assistant isn’t there that day, so it’s unsafe for them to attend school? It’s a perfectly reasonable reason not to send the student, but not knowing that that’s happening is, I believe, part of the problem,” she said.

Responding to the report, Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra acknowledged he found some of the details about exclusions “troubling” and that “more needs to be done on the special education file.”

“If you look at the report, it talks about how many of these special education children, their level of suspension is higher than others. Is that because we’re not providing the appropriate level of service for them? Potentially, yes,” Calandra said.

However he added that additional money might not necessarily be the problem.

“We can talk about additional resources. We can talk about money. I say it all the time. It doesn’t matter that we’re providing more money than ever in the history of the province. Who cares if the result isn’t what is needed for the student? Then something else has to be done.”

The auditor’s report noted that while special education funding from the ministry increased by 15 per cent from 2019/20 to 2023/24., total spending on special education by school boards over that period increased by 19 per cent.

“Across Ontario’s 72 school boards, 46 boards collectively spent $397.9 million (14%) more than they were funded for special education in 2023/24. The remaining 26 boards underspent by a combined $51.2 million, representing 7% less than their funding,” the report found.

Inconsistent resources for families, oversight of education plans

In addition to the undocumented exclusions, Spence found families were not always provided with proper resources to help their child succeed and that special education plans varied in terms of the completeness and clarity of information.

“The Ministry did not provide clear guidance on the circumstances under which schools could refuse a student’s entry, which contributed to situations where students were excluded informally without a documented rationale,” Spence found.

“This resulted in students with special education needs being sent home when schools could not meet their needs.”

The three school boards selected for the audit of special education programs were the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB), the Peel District School Board (PDSB) and the Upper Canada District School Board (UCDSB).

Spence also found poor oversight when it came to implementing individualized education plans.

“Standards were applied inconsistently, and the implementation of supports outlined in them was neither monitored nor assured,” she wrote.

She also found variation in identification criteria and placement practices, high rates of unfilled absences among special education staff and long wait times for professional assessments.

Parents with special learning needs have long said that children are not receiving adequate supports within the education system. Advocates have said the problem has gotten worse since school board trustees were suspended at many boards, leaving parents with fewer Points of access to navigate the system when it is not working for their child.

Spence tabled 15 recommendations in total and she said the ministry and school boards have agreed with 13 of them.

Critics slam education system as ‘ableist’

Responding to the auditor’s report, Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario President David Mastin called it a “damning indictment of a government that has abandoned its responsibility to Ontario’s most vulnerable learners.”

“After more than a decade of chronic underfunding and policy decisions that have stripped supports out of classrooms, school boards simply cannot meet the needs of children with disabilities. The system isn’t just strained; it’s fundamentally ableist.”

Speaking with reporters, Ontario Opposition Leader Marit Stiles called the report “shameful” and said it validates concerns previously expressed by parents.

“Time and time again, we hear horror stories about children not having the resources they need, educators and educational assistants hanging by a thread, unsafe classrooms and students being sent home without any documentation or explanation,” she said.

She added that “at every step, this government is failing children with special needs.”