VAL Surbey remembers the classroom teacher who said her child with Down syndrome “belongs with his own kind.”

Surbey retorted that in a regular classroom, “he is with his own kind.”

“My children are not special-education students - they’re students,” Surbey told a Manitoba summit on inclusive education Thursday.

Every year is a new struggle with new teachers and sometimes new schools for parents of special-education children - the system’s term for kids with disabilities that Surbey finds infuriating.

This year, she said, “My two 14-year olds are in high school.  We are again breaking new ground.”

With adoptions and two blended families, Surbey and her husband have 11 kids, three of whom the public school system considers special-needs children, she told the conference.

“You have to talk to (teachers), you have to familiarize them with the issues that surround your child,” Surbey said.

And it is often an annual process to apply to the provincial government, which decides if a child’s disability warrants a full-time or shared teacher’s aide.
Lisa Mitchell, a student with Down syndrome who graduated several years ago from Vincent Massey Collegiate, told the conference that when she went to kindergarten, other students “formed a natural circle of friends.  I loved school so much - I’ve always loved to learn.”

But when she went to high school, “the principal didn’t think I had a place in the school.  He was a big intimidating man,” she said.

Her mother, Roberta Mitchell, said it was a constant struggle to have Lisa accepted, but credited her choral and drama teacher with making Lisa part of the school.

Before the high school years were over, I was worn out,” said Roberta Mitchell, who emphasized that the administrators with whom she had problems have since left the school and division.

“Take the time to know your students as people,” Mitchell urged teachers.

Education Minister Peter Bjornson became visibly choked up when he spoke about recently seeing a letter sent anonymously to the parents of a special-needs student in rural Manitoba, telling a mother that her child should not be in a public school.

Bjornson said that a the recently passed Bill 13 guarantees students the right to receive appropriate educational programs.  That means “meaningful involvement and equal access,” he said.
 

But Bjornson acknowledged that Bill 13 covers policies and programs, but does not cover funding.

Edie Wilde, an assistant superintendent with Seven Oaks School Division, said her division believes “all children belong - you don’t try and hide behind policies.”

But Wilde said there is a backlog of at least two years in making schools accessible.  One school in her Division has five staircases to challenge wheelchairs.

It’s about staffing, professional development, funding, access - we cannot carry the burden all by ourselves.”
In order to get provincial money, divisions must identify and label students through psychological assessment, but “the shortage of school psychologists is a dilemma,” Wilde said.

Manitoba Teachers’ Society staff officer Joan Martin said the most common complaint teachers hear is that other students should have the right to be in a classroom without disruption by special-needs students, and should have the right to the same attention from the teacher that special-needs children get.

“Other students have rights, but not to the exclusion of special-needs students,” she said.

It’s up to the province and school division to put the proper supports in place, such as smaller class sizes, resource teachers and teachers’ aides, Martin said.

“Children are sent home on a regular basis for the sake of the other children and the sanity of the teacher. This is not acceptable,” she said.

“Class size and composition are key elements,” she said.  Martin cited a teacher who asked for a transfer - she has a split class with students in Grades 5 and 6, with 32 “regular” students, four special-needs students and four aides A kindergarten teacher had 27 students and eight special-needs children last year.

“Bill 13 speaks to standards, but it doesn’t touch funding. That’s going to be challenging,” said Carolyn Duhamel, executive director of the Manitoba Association of School Trustees.

“The two key things I heard (at the conference) are attitude and relationships - not everything costs extra money,” Duhamel said.

But if a key to inclusion is smaller class size, “that’s where your big dollars are, in staffing,” she said.

The Canadian Association for Community Living will hold a national summit on inclusive education in Ottawa Nov. 24 to 26.

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