Special education in schools

People for Education, 2002.

Five years after 1998 changes to the funding formula, tracking showed students stranded on waiting lists until their needs become so severe that they qualify for emergency service.

The funding formula is divided into separate spending envelopes, and is based on an arbitrary distinction between classroom and non-classroom spending, and on overall spending limits. A child who doesn’t fit neatly into a spending envelope either gets left out completely or only gets his or her most easily categorized need met.

There are significant regional differences between Northern and Southwestern Ontario and the rest of the province in the ratio of special education students to special education teachers, and in access to psychologists, social workers and speech and language pathologists.