Staff shortage means disabled Kamloops student excluded from school activities

One child’s needs were deemed too much to bring them along for a Kamloops school event, until her mother spoke up.

Her mother happens to be the head of the school district parent’s advisory council, who said what’s already common will only be aggravated as the Kamloops-Thompson school district heads into next year’s budget cuts.

“We aren’t seeing staff, teachers and school supports able to keep up with demand,” Bonnie McBride said.

She chairs the District Parent Advisory Council and she’s the mother of a child with disabilities. Now in the tenth grade, her child’s needs have led school staff to exclude her from school activities for a decade.

She said teachers have routinely suggested her daughter stays home for field trips or other activities over the years due to resource constraints.

“(The district) keeps allowing staff to find an out and that shouldn’t be happening,” she said.

Brocklehurst Secondary is hosting an Indigenous Exploration Day this month with a list of field trip options and in-house activities.

Shortly after McBride learned about the event, school staff contacted her with the “opportunity” to keep her child home that day.

“It was presented as a benefit they are offering us,” she said.

She later spoke with the principal and the school offered to support her daughter with an education assistant, but a new issue arose.

“The challenge we’re having is she’s struggling to decide if she wants to go now,” McBride said.

The proposed exclusion has her less interested in going at all, McBride said.

McBride said her daughter isn’t the only student facing such challenges. She’s currently in contact with two other families whose children have been excluded from activities likely also due to a shortage of staff.

School District 73 did not respond directly to McBride’s circumstances, but a spokesperson said the district is “committed to providing supports for students with diverse needs,” adding that it “prioritized” support staff in the upcoming budget.

“As a district, it is always our goal to provide equitable access for all students to participate in field trips. As part of the District’s Field Trip planning checklist, school teams work together to plan for provisions and accommodation to be made for all students, including those with disabilities,” a written statement from the district read.

It went on to say the school district encourages parents and caregivers to reach out to their school administrators if they have concerns about accessibility for students.

For McBride, access for students with disabilities is hampered because of provincial education policies.

“We have decided in BC we’re going to practice a specific kind of inclusive education… where we’ll meet their needs within the room in a way nobody would probably notice they’re getting additional support,” she said. “We’re about ten years into a model like that and it’s not working. it’s created incredibly complex and challenging classroom spaces.”

While she proposes students with disabilities, like her daughter, would be better served with education more focused on their specific needs and smaller classrooms, if not one-on-one settings, that’s unlikely as the Kamloops schools lose more jobs.

The school district recently moved to cut dozens of jobs, affecting both Kamloops schools and others in more rural communities.

Around two dozen teaching jobs will be cut next year, along with more than 45 support staff. How many of the latter will include Certified Education Assistants or other jobs isn’t yet clear.

The school district needed to cut $6 million from its roughly $250 million budget as provincial funding per student fell short of its need, a pressure felt by school districts across the province.

While Kamloops-Thompson schools maintain funding for core education services, other areas like libraries or support for students with disabilities are expected to feel the budget cuts more directly.