Tag: #ReasonableAccommodations

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Should I tell the school I filed a human rights complaint?

Good question.

There is strategy in this.

This is a worthy question to sit with and think about.

If you aren’t filing to fast-track your complaint, the current wait list is 2.5 years long. Just to find out if your complaint was accepted. (If it is not accepted, you won’t have to wait so long. The ones that are accepted sit in the queue longer until they have the case management capacity for them to proceed.)

The current wait time is long!

When you file a complaint, the school will be unaware unless you tell them. They will only find out if/when your complaint gets accepted.

So, the ball is in your court. What do you want to do?

Here are my reasons for you to consider telling them you filed a complaint. If you talk to other people, which I encourage you to do. They may have different lived experiences. But here are my reasons.

  1. Damage Period. Schools will always try to reduce their liability. In this case, this is good for us. They will try to reduce the harm your child is experiencing so that they won’t have to pay as much or reduce their risk in you being successful at a hearing. Supports that they previously said couldn’t happen will suddenly start to happen. Magic. (They will try to make it seem like it has nothing to do with your complaint.) So telling them they have a human rights complaint coming their way may get your kid more support. If they don’t think you have a case at all, they won’t be concerned. BUT, even still, it puts you in a different category. See reason #2. AND – If nothing else, you will get district eyes, and they will be investigating what is going on.
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  2. Parent advocacy. Parents threaten things all the time. All. The. Time. It’s a regular Tuesday for them when a frustrated parent threatens something. I have seen some of the emails. Folks are creative! A much smaller percentage of parents actually file complaints. So if they know you have crossed that line, your threat level just increased. Schools don’t care if you threaten a human rights complaint; they care if you do it. They analyze you by your behaviour. Do you follow through on what you say you will? How far are you willing to go to advocate for your kid? They focus on your behaviour, not your words. If the school thinks you are all bark and no bite, file a complaint. Keep in mind that certain behaviour can kick you out of the advocacy game. 5 Rules on How to be Untouchable. And yet, the school has the duty to provide your child an education regardless of what your advocacy is like.
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  3. Retaliation protection. There is retaliation protection built into the legislation of the Human Rights Code. They are not allowed to retaliate against you or your child, which public schools are well aware of that, and if they do, there is an avenue to address that. You can have extra costs given to your child just for the retaliation. People are often scared that filing a complaint will put their child at risk, however, in my experience, it is the opposite. My children got supports they never would have received otherwise, and I felt they were quite protected. The school district knew I could amend my complaint at any time and start adding to it. They knew if I was frustrated, I was more likely to fight and more likely they would then have to justify their behaviour and decisions to the tribunal. When they know external eyes could be looking at this, it can be very helpful.
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  4. Resolution time. Because the school is aware, you may wish to see if they want to resolve this sooner rather than later. They may be willing to do that. Some people have had their lawyers send a demand letter or you can even approach them on your own, looking for a solution. They may be interested in talking, as it will be the cheaper route. Or they may not want to take the early resolution route, knowing how long the system takes to process these things. Based on the context of everything, they are strategizing too. They often like to use delay in their favour, but sometimes they realize it’s in their best interest to resolve this now, then feel like they have this hanging over their heads.
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  5. Keep it hanging over their heads. It may take a really long time just to find out a complaint has been accepted, and if they are aware of it, they will be on their best behaviour. So use it. Tell them about the complaint, and just let it sit there. They will sit up straighter and just keep it hanging over their heads. Sadly, this is what we need to do just to get our kids their rights, but desperate times call for desperate measures, and that may mean filing external complaints and learning about avenues you never expected to need to have skills in. This is another example of using the system to get our kids an education. It sounds horrible that the wait time is long. But. Then again. They love to use delay on us and hope to exhaust us. We can flip it and use delay to keep them upholding our kids’ rights.
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Here are reasons you may not want to tell the school.

  1. Retaliation. Even if there is retaliation form to fill out to hold them accountable for their behaviour, it will still be sitting in the long queue, and it won’t help you in the present. Some people do experience really unusual retaliation because the person they are dealing with is unusually spiteful. (It will come back to bite this person later.) You just don’t know how the school is going to react. They might start to do little things that build over time, and your child is now refusing to go to school, and they have managed to weed you out. If they feel like they can’t control you or you are unmanageable, they have a history of knowing how to make people (or your child) so uncomfortable they “choose” to leave on their own. No one knows for sure how the school is going to respond. I can’t promise you anything or guarantee you any kind of response. You know the players on the field. I have never met these people at all. Districts differ. Some district admin have integrity and more of a moral compass than others.
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  2. Emotional readiness. Maybe you just aren’t emotionally ready to tell the school. There is no rush. Once you submit it, you can wait until you are ready and you have your plan thought out.
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    If you do decide to tell them, I suggest you email the Superintendent and the Secretary-Treasurer together and don’t cc: anyone in your child’s school.

    Let the school staff pretend that they don’t know what is going on, and build the relationship with the school staff as much as you can, until you think it is beneficial for it to be out in the open. I would suggest you let it play out a bit after you inform the senior administration and then make the call if and when you ever want to be open about it with school staff. That’s just my two cents.
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Sometimes filing a human rights complaint can be the move that gets you off the hamster wheel. The human rights tribunal is also not the only complaint avenue. There may be other avenues that are more suitable for your issue.

I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be filing complaints against the school when my kids started kindergarten. Never. Being in an adversarial position is a position no parent wants to be in. We aren’t entering these external complaint systems with glee. It’s heartbreaking when you think of it. But these systems are tools. This is Hunger Games. We are thrown in the pit by the system. We didn’t ask for this.

We are reacting to reality.

I have zero regrets. These systems kept my kids afloat in an education system that was never designed for them. It scares me to think what might have happened to them, and to me, if I never went this route.

Here is an overview of your external complaint options.

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Threat Level – BUILD THE FILE

Do not think for a moment that school administration isn’t assessing your threat level.

They are.

Whether you want them to be or not. They won’t ask your permission.

It most likely will NOT be the teacher, but the SENIOR administration absolutely is, and so is the Principal.

They aren’t just assessing you; they are assessing the cost of the situation as a whole. The details and context of your situation. For example: the cost of an extra EA v. lawyer fees. The details of your allegations with the possible outcome of the tribunal, with wait time, with providing current accommodations etc,. The lawyers will be giving them their advice on how concerned they need to be.

I hate that lawyers cost so much, but in this circumstance it can actually work for us. EA’s are way cheaper than lawyers. I used to wonder how on earth the school district lawyers do what they do and sleep at night. They sleep in silk sheets and sleep absolutely fine. Bless them for being so expensive. The insurance company will not be impressed with the bill. School administrators are also very busy and their time is very valuable. If you want to rack up the bill in money and time on an issue, you can absolutely do so. Be expensive in multiple ways.

School is categorized as a service. If you were to walk into a store, in order to obtain something from that store (a service), you need money. It is the currency of that service. You see something you like; you look at the price tag. Chicken is $25.00. Gum is $1.75.

Your threat level is your currency in your child’s education. (How sad is that.)

You don’t need to threaten anyone.

In fact if you do…. your strength just crashed.

They will view you as weak. They know they will be able to control you, poke you and watch you create your own documentation to weaken your cause. Human rights complaints get dismissed due to rudeness, insulting language, swearing etc, etc, etc. They would LOVE for you to destroy your own case by losing your shit. They cross their fingers for it.

Your strength, your muscles, your flex is going to be documentation and the language you use in your emails.

Why?

Because those will allow you to be successful if and when you file external complaints. That is the threat. They know you are “building your file”. That is what lawyers do. They also build the file in case it ever goes for a Judicial Review. If an employer wants to fire someone they don’t like, they start padding the file. HR departments do this all the time. They pad the file with little things, whether it’s true or not. It all builds over time. Everything builds. Lawyers argue over the smallest things and never let anything go because they know that it’s the little things over time that could be what tips the scales and you win your case.

BUILD YOUR FILE.

Document. Everything.

You may say to me… Kim…I can’t.

I don’t have the capacity.

I don’t have the resources.

I am barely hanging on.

How do I get the school to accommodate my child?

I say, yes, it is unfair. Totally.

The unfairness doesn’t change reality or my response.

I am so sorry.

But here it is.

You may need to file complaints to get yourself off the hamster wheel. So, BUILD your file now.

You may not have the capacity now. You may not have the resources now. You may not be mad enough now. But a few years from now… you just may be. You may have the capacity that you never expected to have. You can’t predict the future. And you will be thanking your younger self for creating this document trail that will now elevate your human rights complaint when you are ready to file. It will give you options. It will give you choice. That is power.

People will naturally think that they are tough and that they are sticking up for their kid when they make a lot of noise, when they get angry, when they threaten the school. I friggen get it. I was so mad, I told the district I was going to gut them like a fish. So, I totally get it. But if you REALLY want to scare the shit out of them and increase your threat level, BUILD YOUR FILE – gather your evidence, document in emails.

Parents threaten the school all the time. It’s just background noise to them. They don’t care. Truly. You think you are having an impact on them. You aren’t. The only arena they are concerned about is the legal one and public relations. If they know you don’t have the documentation (evidence) they are not concerned one bit. Not one bit. You think they are worried because of what you wrote, but they aren’t. They know the one thing that triggers concern in them is documentation, and if you don’t have it, you are nothing to them. They don’t need to do anything. They will flick you off like an annoying bug.

So please,

Document.

Be strategic.

Hearings are years from now, and the tribunal will rely on it.

Elshazly v. Vancouver Police Board 2026 BCHRT 195

This hearing was 6 years after the event.

[11]          The witnesses testified about events that happened in a short period of time, nearly six years earlier. I consider that over this length of time, memories have understandably faded, shifted, or hardened around a particular version of events: Clarke v. City of Vancouver and another, 2024 BCHRT 298 at para. 24. In my view, no party’s account of the incident is completely reliable. ………

[12]         On most issues, I have found that the most reliable evidence is contained in documents created at the time of the events, including the audiovisual recordings put into evidence. I have used these documents as a “reliable yardstick against which to compare and assess the reliability of the witness’ testimony”: Boschoff v. Inspired Retreats, 2014 BCHRT 6 at para. 8; Clarke at para. 24.

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Your documentation = your muscle.

** AND, the building of your file now may just be what creates the change so that you will never have to file a complaint. Because the school will know. They will see your muscle flex.

Build your file.

It will benefit you in ways you will never even be aware of. The people who are not building their files will absolutely be walked over.

You are teaching the school how to see you.

The best gift you can give your kid, whether you are comfortable doing this or not, is to build their file.

Don’t wait until you feel comfortable doing this, just do it. You wait until you are ready, you’ll be waiting until a crisis hits. Be uncomfortable and do it anyways. The alternative is worse. Trust me. Way worse.

It may be the very thing that keeps you out of the external complaint system.

We can build an army. A well-informed, knowledgeable, empowered army of passionate parents. All building our files.

Everything the system uses against us, we can reverse and fling it back at them.

They use delay.

We can drag them through YEARS of litigation.

You want to throw delay at me?

Oh honey, I can file complaints, and this isn’t going to be over for you anytime soon.

They will want to limit their damage period.

If I were to ever wish anything for anyone starting out in education with a disabled child, it would be three things.

  1. Get connected to your community. You aren’t alone.
  2. Become knowledgeable of your rights and your child’s rights. Learn about the duty to accommodate.
  3. BUILD YOUR FILE.


THE LANGUAGE to build your file – IS THE DUTY TO ACCOMMODATE.

Blogs on this topic
Documenting for Advocacy ** Key blog
School Protection Program – School Districts – Lawyers: The Three Musketeers
Riddle: Who has the final decision making power?
Liability in Education
This is an Emergency! Serious School Incidents

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Documenting for Advocacy

Documentation is KEY to your success as an advocate for your child. Absolutely KEY. Without documentation, any success you experience will be due to pure luck.

I have blogs on this topic:

Documentation
Improper Conduct – Hiding Disclosure – What documents to ask for
Why is Documentation so Important?
Evidence of Harm. Effective advocacy in Education
How to Gather Evidence
BCHRT – You need evidence. Hearsay from your child will not be enough.
Getting Documents

But before you get to the blogs. I want to front-load you with this list first.

  1. Email is the best way to record all important communications. Store and organize your emails. Keep ALL of them. You never know what will be useful. Some people like having a separate email just for communicating with the school. You need to not just document what is not working, but also what is working.
  2. After a meeting or a phone call, summarize what was said and email them to confirm that you have captured what was said. Give them an opportunity to clarify anything if you misunderstood. Note the next steps or any actionable items that were agreed upon.
  3. All external complaints require you to try and resolve your issues at the lowest level possible. You will need to send in your emails as evidence that you have made these attempts and that they were unresolved. These emails are going to be what will assist you with getting your complaint accepted by these organizations.
  4. Without evidence, your human rights complaint will go absolutely nowhere. When people have evidence or there is a lack of evidence of the school doing anything (ignoring your emails, not attempting to provide any accommodations, etc) that will all be needed.
  5. All external complaint systems need evidence for their decision-making.
  6. Your emails will trigger certain human rights obligations based on what you say in your email. You will need that information documented.
  7. If it has not been documented, it is like it never happened. Hearings are years after you filed a complaint. Witness memories fade. But when it has been written down in an email, it is like a diamond. Forever.
  8. Emails are not private. Multiple people will be reading them and examining them. Write your emails like they will be read out a tribunal.

Now you are ready for the deeper dive into the blogs.

Note: I just want to acknowledge how emotional it is to realize that this feels like another job. That you are entering into another profession. It sucks. I want to hug you. I have been there and lived this. It is uncomfortable to feel like you are creating “evidence”. The parents/caregivers that resist this reality and don’t feel it is necessary to create documentation, to send thoughtful advocacy emails, will spend their years spinning, getting absolutely nowhere. The system will walk all over you because they can. This sucks. I hear that. It doesn’t matter. While you are grappling with this reality, please document. You can feel uncomfortable and document at the same time. Your child needs you to do this. You are either going to feel uncomfortable watching the harm continuing or you are going to be uncomfortable creating a document trail. Take your pick. What uncomfortableness can you live with? Who are you prioritizing? The adults? Or your child? Advocating for your child’s human rights is not being aggressive. It can be done in a very non-aggressive and respectful way. Document. Document. Document.

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When a preferred EA is no longer supporting your child.

This case is from Ontario, not BC. It may be influential and cited by the school district’s lawyers.

M.B. v. Toronto District School Board, 2026 HRTO 801

This case is about a parent who felt that when their child’s 1:1 EA (this specific person) was removed, that the school failed to accommodate their child.

Continuity of care is a topic that many parents are passionate about. Your child’s EA works so beautifully together with your child, and your child is doing so well; it can be very concerning when that specific EA is no longer supporting your child. What can you do?

There are a couple key learnings that we can takeaway from this case. There is no point in parents who are struggling with similar issues continually entering the human rights tribunal arena to have all their complaints dismissed.

Reading education cases can be very valuable as we learn what the tribunal will expect in terms of evidence and what we need to prove our case. We take this learning forward with us, and we are like the marshmallow man in Ghostbusters. As a community, we’ll just get bigger and bigger. It is because of their determination that we can learn from their decisions and be better prepared if you ever decide to file a complaint over similar issues. I hugely thank all parents willing to take this path. Every decision is GOLD.

Key Learnings

  1. Stating your opinions or your feelings about how your child is not going to meet the bar of evidence required. You need documented evidence.
  2. You need to be able to explain in detail events/areas of frustration & unmet needs, not just make vague assertions about your beliefs.
  3. The school is documenting everything. Including what you say and what you DON’T say.

As always, I encourage you to read the case in full.

The student’s preferred EA was Mary Valmas. The applicant is the student’s parent. The EA, Mary Valmas was no longer working with the student in 2019-20.

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[25]      Both applicant witnesses testified as to their belief that the claimant had done academically well when provided 1:1 services from SNC Mary Valmas and, after Mary Valmas was moved to another school, the claimant no longer received 1:1 support from Mary Valmas or any other SNC, the claimant was disadvantaged in no longer being able to fully participate or access meaningful education.

[26]      I understand and accept from the two applicant witnesses that Ms. Valmas had a positive working relationship with the claimant and his mother. The evidence was that Ms. Valmas is very dedicated to her role and she wished for the success of the claimant. It is clear from the evidence that the claimant’s mother loves her son very much and the claimant’s mother was happy with the working relationship between the claimant and Ms. Valmas. On that basis she wished for it to continue.

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The school district had their witness, Ms. Jones.

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[29]      The claimant’s mother testified as to her belief that the claimant required the specific supports. However, I did not hear why, other than the claimant’s mother’s general belief that the claimant required disability-related accommodations at school and the accommodations of 1:1 support specifically with Ms. Valmas had been up to that point a positive experience for the claimant. As stated above, I agree and accept that the claimant required accommodations and I believe the mother that the claimant worked well with Ms. Valmas, but this testimony alone fails to adequately establish that the claimant required the 1:1 support by Ms. Valmas or another full time SNC.

[30]      I preferred the respondent’s fully uncontradicted documentary and oral evidence from Michelle Jones. Ms. Jones’ testimony was fully supported by documentary evidence that were filed as exhibits. Ms. Jones testified that she was the Assistant Curriculum Lead of Special Education at John Polanyi Collegiate Institute (“John Polanyi”) with the respondent school board during the 2019-2020 school year. Ms. Jones testified that on January 25, 2016, the claimant’s family participated in an Identification, Placement, and Review Committee (IPRC) meeting before the claimant started secondary school at John Polanyi. At that IPRC, the claimant continued to be deemed “exceptional” with the exceptionality being a Mild Intellectual Disability.

[38]      Rather, I preferred the respondent’s fully uncontradicted documentary and testimony evidence from Michelle Jones. Ms. Jones testified that in the 2019-2020 academic year the claimant was successful and arguably more successful than he had been in the two study years prior. I further reviewed the claimant’s Ontario Student Transcript, which showed that he earned all 8 of his credits taken during the 2019-2020 school year, whereas during the 2018-2019 school year, he only earned 7 credits as he did not pass mathematics and needed to repeat it and in the 2017-2018 school year, the Applicant earned 6 only credits, as he did not obtain his English or mathematics credits in his second semester.

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Here is the big thing right here.

If you don’t write about concerns, then the assumption is that everything is fine.

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[39]      Moreover, Ms. Jones testified that during the 2019-2020 school year, she received no concerns by the claimant or his supports about any of his academic accommodations, social-emotional health, safety concerns or any concerns about how the supports being provided were failing to meet his needs.

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Document. Document. Document.

Keep a timeline of “events”, issues or areas of frustration.

Email concerns you have about unmet needs not being reasonably accommodated.

If you bring your case to a hearing, this brings up the issue of parents providing evidence when they are not physically in the school witnessing anything and they are relying on their children’s information. That becomes a problem if you are going to testify and not your child.

Parents’ credibility is under scrutiny. For more information on this topic, I give you this blog. Does my Child Need to Testify?

This is why we rely on emails to document what is happening. What are the signs of distress or unmet needs that you are seeing at home? Keep a log. Write it down and then email the school and tell them. It will trigger meaningful inquiry. Part 7 – Applying the duty to accommodate – focus on needs.

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[42]      For the reasons set out above, the Application is dismissed.

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Here is some excellent advice from a fellow parent advocate:

“This relates to something that I tell parents. If an individual staff member is providing an effective support to your child, make sure that you document in the IEP.

Many parents mistakenly assume that if one staff member implements successful accommodations, then that will continue through to the next year. But if its not in the IEP, a staff member doesn’t have to provide it.

Staff members often won’t be able to spontaneously tell you about successful supports they are implementing, as it’s often an inherent part of their teaching/support style. Asking questions and documenting responses when things are going well is just as important as doing it when things are not going well.

So if a teacher says in an IEP meeting that your child is writing amazing essays, ask what it looks like for supporting your child through completing that activity. Then, get any successful supports documented, so if your child starts struggling to write essays the following year, you can reference the IEP support that was proven to be successful.

Make them know from experience that you will follow up and hold the school accountable to implementing IEP accommodations. That way, they are more likely to carefully consider which staff members are going to be most able to implement those accommodations based on their personal support/teaching style. I find this often helps with them putting more thoughtful consideration into class/EA placement.”

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Cease and Desist Letters

There are parents who have received a cease and desist letter. I don’t hear this often, but it does happen. Or they will be threatened with being given one.

Here is one example that went public.

Mom threatened with legal action after questioning B.C. principal who’s now accused of misappropriation

2014 letter from school board lawyer warned against ‘defamatory statements’ about Tricia Rooney

CBC News · Posted: Jan 25, 2023 4:12 PM PST | Last Updated: January 25, 2023

Mom threatened with legal action after questioning B.C. principal who’s now accused of misappropriation | CBC News

This parent knew something was wrong, and when she was questioning the spending she was served with a cease and desist letter. Years later, Tricia Rooney is investigated for misappropriating funds.

From the article:

“Last week, Lee’s phone “blew up” with messages from fellow parents when news broke that Rooney, also known as Tricia Low, was accused of misappropriating about $170,000 from Britannia Elementary, where she was principal from 2017 to 2020.

Lee says she felt somewhat vindicated by the news, but she was also angry.

“I have to unpack all the feelings that I have,” she said.

The allegations about misappropriation at Britannia are contained in a notice of claim filed against Rooney earlier this month on behalf of the school board, alleging “conversion, theft and fraud” from the tiny east side school. It includes allegations that she stole donated gift cards intended for families in need.”

One parent whom I am aware of, in another province, was served a cease and desist order because they were on a public platform and they were crying over what was happening with their child. The school district wasn’t aware, but this parent had retained a lawyer for over a year and they were building their case. After the cease and desist order, the lawyer hit them with with something so severe, that they would have begged for a human rights complaint. I thought, oooohhhhh these school district lawyers have made a BIG mistake. They had no idea who they were messing with. It’s a risky move for them to send this to a parent. You are poking the bear.

If you get served a letter like this, I would highly suggest you consult a lawyer.

Depending on what they are wanting you to stop doing, if anything, it may be appropriate to use it in your human rights complaint.

Here is my lawyer referral list. There are paid and free options on this list.

Lawyer Referral – Parent Advocacy Tribunal Help (School Advocacy)

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Part 7 – Applying the Duty to Accommodate – Focus on Needs

Two years ago, in the month of July, I wrote a six-part series on the Duty to Accommodate.

Part 1 – The Power of the Human Rights Code
Part 2 (a) – The Discrimination Test
Part 2 (b) – The Reasonable Justification Test
Part 3 – Meaningful Inquiry
Part 4 – Duty to Consult
Part 5 – Duty to Facilitate
Part 6 – Pulling it All Together

My goal was to make it more accessible and show people, through the trail of case law/tribunal decisions and Human Rights legislation (written authority), the rights their child actually have. Not just what the school district tells them – which is more focused on their own administrative processes and how they compartmentalize students administratively.

Most people when interacting with tribunals and specialized courts are self-represented. Law is not for the highfalutin lawyers. Law is for everyone. Knowing, understanding and applying our rights is a part of life, like grocery shopping and laundry. When we expect people to uphold our rights it does not mean we will automatically be engaging with lawyers either. School employees are duty bearers. Students are rights holders. Schools have the obligation and responsibility to uphold the students rights. (They just may not realize this.)

The pros (+) of the Human Rights Code:

  • It supersedes all school legislation, school board of education policy, administrative procedures and teacher classroom autonomy, etc, when in conflict (discrimination occurs). It is above all laws and policy – so powerful.
  • Every child has the legal right to be accommodated and receive an education.
  • It can create movement sometimes when nothing else has because of the accountability mechanism – human rights complaint process – the damage period.
  • The school knows if you file a complaint, they will have to justify or prove with evidence that they have accommodated your child up to the point of undue hardship.

The cons (-):

  • It only goes up to reasonable accommodations, not ideal or preferred accommodations.
  • The school is considered the experts, and they get to decide the accommodations, not you. You are there for consultation, but you are not the final decision maker.
  • If you don’t want your human rights complaint dismissed, you will need to facilitate reasonable accommodations whether you agree or not.
  • They get to decide class placement in “the best interest of the child,” not the parents’ wishes.

Pro (+) & Con (-)

  • Your rights are defined by case law (this is both very good and challenging). It’s how your rights are defined.
  • You are co-parenting with the government. For some reasons, this is fabulous, like the case law examples in the Co-parenting blog. For other parents they are going to find this frustrating, especially when you feel that you know more about disability and your child’s disability than the educators who are sitting in front of you.

The Duty to Accommodate will get your child into the classroom with barriers removed, which is HUGE. However, the school, with limited training in disability, has a lot of decision-making power and their own ideas on how to assess the functioning level of your child’s disability and remove those barriers. Add in layers of ableism with myths & stereotypes about disability.

Many teachers are still not aware that:

  • Accommodations are not rewards. No child needs to earn their accommodations with good behaviour.
  • They must follow a child’s IEP. It’s not optional or a nice to have or when there is time.
  • The Human Rights Code supersedes teacher classroom autonomy.

Parents are also struggling with educators not following their child’s IEP. There is, after internal advocacy, an accountability mechanism for that. Teachers’ standards are also a very important tool.

BUT….as I digress….

An important part of applying the duty to accommodate, after learning the language for email communication, is knowing where to focus your energy and what to focus on. This is a marathon, not a sprint. If you start taking extra side trips along the running path that are unnecessary and will lead to no where, you will exhaust yourself and deplete your capacity faster. You will burnout constantly trying to scale walls that are unscalable.

What do you focus on?

NEEDS.

You start with their needs. What are they struggling with?

This is how we apply the duty to accommodate.

As a parent, you are witnessing your child’s behaviour and communication at home. Whether they are hiding in their room, crying, having meltdowns after school, what they say, what they don’t say. You feel the energy shifts. The mood changes. The person you knew morphing into someone else. Behaviour is communication. You know your kids in ways that no one else does.

This is where you begin.

Because, since you don’t get to pick the accommodations your child will receive, you focus on the “problem” to be resolved. Which is the area of frustration.

I saw this book online. I haven’t read it. “Fall in love with the problem, not the solution.” It’s actually a book for entrepreneurs. I saw it on some book thread. It was talking about how people create products for life’s problems. An area of frustration. They will invent something that they make into a product and try to sell it to the public because it solves a problem. But if you really want to unleash your creativity, focus on the problem and not get overly attached to your solution.

I thought, wow, this really applies to advocacy, actually. We see the problem (what is not working), and we get attached to our solution. And if PAC, schools, Trustees or other people don’t adopt our solution, then we get incredibly frustrated. But if they don’t adopt our solution, we still have the problem. So toss it back to them. You don’t like my idea. Fine. Solve the problem – remove the barrier. And they need to make “the ramp” go all the way up the stairs, not just halfway.

We can’t tell schools what to do. We are here for consultation. But they are expected and responsible for solving the problem (removing the barrier). There may be multiple solutions. But they need to try and pick the best one (which is what we are here for) for our child and be willing to be flexible and try something else.

Fall in love with the problem, not the solution. In other words, focus on your child’s unmet needs.

Meaningful inquiry —–All you have to do is tell the school that your child is struggling, and this struggle is connected to their disability, and THEY have to investigate and figure this out.

While it is true…..

*******

Wells v. Manitoba (Human Rights Commission) et al., 2025 MBKB 86


 The school must be given some discretion with respect to the specific programming and supports it provided to its students based on medical documentation and ongoing assessments.  As subject matter experts in delivering education, it appears that the school would be in the best position to determine how to provide academic accommodation to students in accordance with its assessments and available medical documentations.

********

Ok, then people. You want to be the experts. Be the experts. I’ll be here to consult and provide you with information on my child to help you figure out what the best accommodations are. But the responsibility falls on you. It doesn’t matter how fiercely parents advocate or if they don’t advocate at all; the school is still legally required to provide your child with an accessible education.

A quick nod to self-advocacy when it comes to students.

********

 Student by Parent v. School District BCHRT 237.

[90]           Generally, it is the obligation of the person seeking accommodation to bring forward the relevant facts: Central Okanagan School District No. 23 v. Renaud, 1992 CanLII 81 (SCC), [1992] 2 SCR 970. This can be challenging for children, and especially challenging for children with invisible disabilities. I agree with the Parent that children who require accommodation in their school are in a different situation than adults seeking accommodation. Though they have a role to play in the process, that role will be age and ability-specific, and the burden cannot be on a child to identify and bring forward the facts necessary for their accommodation.

********

Note to educators: If you are an educator and you are feeling overwhelmed or that you are not trained or educated enough in the area of disability or science-based reading interventions, you are NOT alone. I am fully aware that the system is setting you up for failure, and you all feel squeezed between a rock and a hard place. Get it. A lot of times, educators don’t know what to do, and they blame the child as their escape hatch. Even kids as young as grade one! For a lot of people, this seems to be a knee-jerk reaction. Is someone telling you to do this? I don’t get it. Communicating with the child is great. Blaming the victim after the fact. Not great. I really hope conversations are happening at union levels, administration levels, and teacher post-secondary levels are having conversations about proper professional development in disability and reading. Nothing from the 1950’s please.

Parents, you don’t need to accept excuses from staff for all the reasons they cannot accommodate your child or their blaming your child for not advocating enough. Staffing issues aren’t your problem. They are responsible for figuring this out. They aren’t allowed to give up on your child. They have to keep revising, monitoring and adapting.

If I were to bestow upon you all of the riches from all of the lands, it would be a support system and the duty to accommodate. Using human rights language does not mean we are foaming at the mouth in attack mode. Advocating for your child’s legal rights can be right in line with being pleasantly persistent. Some parents feel that rights-based language is too aggressive and they don’t want to feel unwelcome at the school. Don’t wait until you are so raging mad you are ready to storm the fortress. Build it into your advocacy from the start. Rights-based language is only aggressive if you make it to be. It can be very preventative. It can be what keeps you out of the human rights complaint process.

The duty to accommodate and accessibility legislation all focus on a disability-related need and removing a barrier.

For example:

Student with ADHD. – Teacher is noticing that your child is continuously not handing in their homework and relays this concern to you.

Disability-related need: Executive function skills that involve planning and memory. Focus; may have missed the instructions. Homework isn’t coming home. When it does come home and is completed, it doesn’t get handed to the teacher in the morning. It’s not because of a personality flaw or a character defect. Always look for how the areas of frustration are connected to disability features. Our kids aren’t lazy or unmotivated. They have neurological reasons for their behaviour and they need accommodations.

Barriers (Physical, Attitudinal, Structural) – Attitudinal & Structural (rules) – teacher feels the students are old enough that they shouldn’t have to prompt kids at the end of the day to remember to bring their homework home. Teacher doesn’t want to specifically ask for homework at the start of the day. They want the kids to put it in the homework bin “independently”. Physical – lack of visual prompts for homework reminders. Child is handwriting down instructions, and the printing is illegible. Parent doesn’t know how to support the child in their homework at home.

Focus on the needs. How does the teacher plan on removing the barriers? How can you manage the classroom and make it more inclusive so everyone is being prompted to take homework home and hand it in?

A parent might jump to the solution and want an EA to check in on them at the beginning and end of the day and be very frustrated when told there is no EA time for their child.

Focus on the need: the teacher needs to remove the barriers and figure out how to get your child’s disability-related needs met. If an EA isn’t available for individual prompting, how can they apply prompts for the whole class and make the supports inclusive to everyone? Maybe the teacher uses their classroom website to post homework to assist with parent support for completion. It’s up to them to figure this out. Maybe the student takes a picture of the instructions with their phone.

They need to remove the barriers and resolve the disability-related unmet needs. They need to consult with you, as you know your child, and figure out what will work for your child.

A KEY part in how we uphold our child’s rights is we DOCUMENT. I won’t regurgitate my documentation blogs here, so take a look through the blog list category.

Applying the duty to accommodate means creating a document trail.

I would argue that you are not engaged with rights-based advocacy if you are not creating documented communication between you and the school. (TIP: you may want a separate email address just for school communication. Never delete anything.)

Applying the duty to accommodate means you are aware of all of the duties under the duty to accommodate, you understand that it’s reasonable accommodations, not ideal, what your role is and the responsibilities of the school. You focus on needs. Unmet needs and barriers.

Generally….

Your role:

  1. Documenting your consistent communication. Communicate, communicate, communicate.
  2. Expressing unmet disability-related needs
  3. Consultation through the IEP process/accommodation meetings
  4. Whatever excuses the school gives you – they are responsible for figuring this out and resolving the barriers to your child’s disability related needs. Human Rights supersede.
  5. Be persistent. It will show them that your eyes are on them. Document the progress. What is working and what isn’t.
  6. Communicating needs is also really important so later they can’t claim hindsight.

School’s role:

  1. Remove barriers and provide your child with what they need so they can “access their education”.
  2. They will need to have evidence that they are providing your child with reasonable accommodations and that they are reviewing, adapting and responding to the changing needs of your child, whether you are advocating or not.
  3. They need to offer an opportunity for meaningful consultation with parents/caregivers.

Key Takeaway

  1. The duty to accommodate is powerful. (Please read the six-part series as your foundation.)
  2. It’s not going to get you 100% of what you want – it’s how your child’s rights are defined. School gets final decision power. “Reasonable” accommodations. Are they making reasonable decisions?
  3. Focus on your child’s needs. It doesn’t matter if they get a designation or an IEP. The schools’ obligations and legal duties don’t change. They still have to accommodate a child with a disability no matter how they administratively process your child.
  4. Be persistent, consistent and document your communication. You need that document trail, and writing about your child’s unmet disability-related needs should trigger meaningful inquiry. Then you are ready to go!

Conclusion:

Learning about the duty to accommodate and learning how to advocate is a life skill every person should have. Disabled or not. I have met adults with privilege who have horrible advocacy skills and are terrified of advocating. Just think of this as free training. You’ll become so good at this, that it will assist you in other areas of your life. (We had a car dealership sell us a car that had the wrong brakes in it. They thought they could wiggle out of it. I am not a door mat. They said to me, “What has happened in your life that you do not trust me?” LMAO. After weeks of persistent and consistent advocacy and calmly informing them I will take them to small claims court, they paid for our brakes to be replaced. They were tough. They really put up a good fight and they thought we would go away using the same strategies that school districts use. Nope. Sorry. Nice try. They don’t work on me. I know what to do.) Thank you school district for all of the advocacy experience and the ability to sharpen my skill. Conflict resolution, relationship building, advocacy – I am very ready for life.

I wish you all the best in your advocacy journey. I highly suggest you find your people for support. You are certainly not alone and you don’t need to do this alone either. There are a lot of parents out there walking the same path as you. If you want, you can find them.

Start here…

BCEdAccess Society
Family Support Institute
Inclusion BC

Here is my GET HELP page.

Best wishes,

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Teachers Regulation Branch (TRB) Decision

Here is an important TRB decision about a teacher who was too rigid and the impacts of their rigidity impacting students differently. More so for Indigenous students and neurodivergent students.

“Polishak did not generally adjust his manner of teaching, classroom expectations or assignments to support students’ individual learning needs. A parent of student (“Student A”) asked for Student A to use headphones in class while working on assignments to assist with focus, which is a helpful strategy for students with ADHD. Polishak did not allow Student A to use headphones and did not allow it for some time after the School principal advised him to do so.”

ALSO:

“In the 2023-2024 school year, Polishak generally used rigid classroom rules, which he rarely modified to support the individual needs of all learners in his classes. These rules negatively impacted some students more than others. Over one-third of the students in the School were Indigenous and many of them bussed to and from the School. Polishak’s rules included:

a. Students were required to value all of the class time by not being late. When a student had a history of lateness, Polishak sometimes refused to let the student enter the classroom. Polishak required late students to wait in the hallway for up to 15 minutes, which resulted in students missing more learning time and sometimes falling behind on in-class assignments.

b. Polishak required students to complete all assignments. He did not usually modify or adjust assignments to meet a student’s individual needs. Polishak imposed a “homework detention” on students who had not completed assignments, by which the assignment had to be completed under his supervision before or after school, at lunch or during the flex block.”

There is more to this decision.

Here is the decision in full:

Jonathon Tyler Polishak

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Reasonable Accommodations for “General Education”

This is a new education case that was posted on June 16th, 2026. This is from Alberta. While it is not binding in BC because it is from a different province, cases from other provinces are still influential and are used by human rights tribunal decision makers to help them interpret and apply human rights law to the case they have in front of them.

JF obo DF v Calgary Board of Education, 2026 AHRC 68

There are some paragraphs in this case that succinctly outline the duty to accommodate. As always I recommend people read the case in full. Lots of details in there about the specific circumstances of the case.

Duty to Accommodate

[26]      The starting point for an analysis of accommodation is found in Central Okanagan School District No. 23 v Renaud,[8] where the Supreme Court of Canada described accommodation as a “multi-party” process:

The search for accommodation is a multi-party inquiry. Along with the employer and the union, there is also a duty on the complainant to assist in securing an appropriate accommodation…

To facilitate the search for an accommodation, the complainant must do his or her part as well. Concomitant with a search for reasonable accommodation is a duty to facilitate the search for such an accommodation. Thus in determining whether the duty of accommodation has been fulfilled the conduct of the complainant must be considered.

…

The other aspect of this duty is the obligation to accept reasonable accommodation… The complainant cannot expect a perfect solution.

[27]      The Alberta Court of Appeal stated in Callan v Suncor Inc.[9] that a complainant “is not entitled to dictate the accommodation he or she will accept” and that “[t]here is no duty of instant or perfect accommodation, only reasonable accommodation.”

[28]      As Chief Oviatt stated in RS obo CS v Edmonton School Division (RS)[10] in respect to the above decisions:

These decisions bear on the Complaint. The respondent had a duty to arrange the complainant’s learning environment in a way that he could meaningfully access general education. It also had a duty to reasonably accommodate his disabilities to the point of undue hardship. Undue hardship is a high threshold that places a significant obligation on the service provider. At the same time, all parties must participate and cooperate in the accommodation process. Ultimately, the respondent was best suited to determine how to reasonably accommodate the complainant in light of its operations, and the complainant’s parents had a duty to accept reasonable, not perfect, accommodation.

[30]      In RS, the parents raised complaints in respect to the provision of safe spaces, speech supports, and a one-on-one educational assistant, among other forms of requested accommodations; which are also issues raised in the Complaint. In RS, the Tribunal determined that:

The respondent was obliged to provide reasonable accommodation to the complainant to ensure he had access to general education, and it was entitled to inform its decision using all available information. The physician’s March 2022 medical recommendation was undoubtedly one piece of that information. So was the complainant’s behaviour at school and the respondent’s ability to meet the same objectives by using a classroom educational assistant who prioritized the complainant’s needs. The respondent was entitled to apply its expertise in education to determine a reasonable level of support.

[31]      Finally, in Moore, the Supreme Court of Canada emphasized that “a margin of deference is…owed to governments and administrators in implementing [education policy].”

[35]       There is no information in the records indicating the respondent has failed to provide the support indicated in the January 4, 2024, report to DF. Nor is there any information suggesting any available resources were withheld or that the respondent failed to reasonably accommodate DF considering its operations. Rather, the records include hundreds of pages of correspondence confirming accommodation steps being taken by the School, Student Support and Safety Plan documents from September and October 2024 setting out plans for how School staff will assist DF, and a Learning Plan from October 2024 derived from specialist recommendations.

[36]      In more general terms, it is not sufficient for a complainant to demonstrate that there is a program or treatment that would be beneficial that has not been provided by a school for the Tribunal to find that a respondent school board has violated the Act. This would run counter to the principle outlined in Moore that school boards should be provided some deference in how they meet their obligation to provide meaningful access to education.[13]

[37]      While it is clear from the materials that the complainant’s parents have been dissatisfied with the respondent’s accommodation efforts for some time, the record supports a robust, collaborative approach to accommodation that, although it could be argued was not perfect, reasonably accommodated the complainant to the point of undue hardship.  Prior to the Complaint being filed, and afterwards, hundreds of emails were exchanged between the parties, and many meetings held, to develop, implement, and adapt accommodation plans for DF.

[38]      Therefore, I find the Complaint has no reasonable prospect of success under section 4 of the Act.

*******

This complaint did not proceed to a hearing, and it was dismissed.

One of thing that I know is going to stick out to people reading this is “the respondent was best suited to determine how to reasonably accommodate the complainant in light of its operations, “

One thing to keep in mind is that resources must be distributed equitably. Whatever funding the government gets, and how they decide to organize their operations, are they doing so in an equitable manner?

Parents take Ministry to Court – Win for Equitable Education

[152]      The Charter guarantees equal access to education for all students; the corollary effect is that that the equitable principle must be applied in times of labour or resource shortages.  Here, what is apparent is that there was no consideration of how the reduced resources could be redistributed among all students.  It was assumed that minimal disruption to the system would result by targeting only a sub-set of students – those who use an EA. However, this approach failed to consider that non-disabled students might suffer the least amount of harm since they do not have the same disadvantages as the students with disabilities and could adapt to an at-home learning program more easily, i.e., some non-disabled students switch to at-home learning to free up more resources for complex-needs students, or some of them, to attend school in-person even with the EAs presently unavailable.

There is a zone.

Not getting access, barriersGetting Access “Reasonable Accommodation”Ideal Accommodation
Discrimination, cannot be justified.Having “a ramp” – barrier is removed, it doesn’t promise a certain level of demonstrated ability via grades, just access. An opportunity. Dismissed complaint if parents are expecting ideal and refuse to accept a reasonable accommodation.


X by Y v. Board of Education of School District No. Z, 2024 BCHRT 72

[110] …. Not all negative experiences are discrimination. Even accepting that these incidents occurred, I did not hear evidence that could establish, on a balance of probabilities, that X’s disability was a factor in the conduct of the adults involved in these interactions.

[120] …..by reviewing the Diagnosis Report, developing an IEP, making various support people and strategies available that were incorporated into the classroom and outside, reviewing progress and changes, and adapting its approach in response……

Even if they can argue that their decisions aren’t discriminatory, you can still appeal a decision under Section 11 if you don’t agree with it and you think it is harming your child.

Not a single person has wide-sweeping rights under the Human Rights Code or the Charter. It is how your rights are defined, and that is defined in common law. Created by tribunal decisions and courts.

The duty to accommodate is our strongest form of advocacy, but there is a ceiling. It’s not unlimited. It can bring your child up to reasonable accommodations and barriers removed. It may not be the educational experience you wish for them. It doesn’t mean that your kids won’t experience negative experiences or that it won’t be hard. It doesn’t mean they wont experience harm from the education system as a whole.

We need to advocate through multiple pathways, have multiple teams of people in various roles and positions, all advocating for systemic changes. Laws need to be applied. It takes people and organizations to do that. Our education isn’t operating to the fullest it can in implementing human rights for children with disabilities. But it will only bring us up to “reasonable”. If we want our ideal, we need other forms of advocacy and relationship building to bring us the rest of the way.

Here are systemic blogs you may find interesting.


Advocating for Systemic Change
Complaints are the Ultimate Protest
Systemic Imperfection
Who does Society care about?
Why Can’t we Just Sue the Government?
Systemic Impacts of Scarcity in Education


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Disability – Related Adverse Impact (Dismissal Application)

School Employee Files Human Rights Complaint

This is an employment case, and the employee is in the school setting. I have only ever written on two other staff employee cases. I don’t focus on this at all, but every once in a while, a case will come along that is very helpful for others to know about. The legal test for employment and human rights can be very specific.

Here are the two other cases:

School Employee
Education Assistant – Employment Human Rights Complaint
A HR Decision for School Employees

This case will now be added in that section as the third one.

Dismissal Application – School Employee

This is a short dismissal application decision. It’s a pretty simple one, and for that reason, this is a great one to highlight some key points.

Misiak v. Board of Education of School District No. 36 (Surrey), 2026 BCHRT 98

[17]           At a hearing, Mr. Misiak would have to establish that he has a disability, that the District treated him adversely, and that the adverse treatment was connected to his physical disability: Moore v. BC (Education),  2012 SCC 61at para. 33. Mr. Misiak is not required to prove the complaint at this time but need only point to some evidence capable of taking the complaint “out of the realm of conjecture”: Berezoutskaiaat para. 24. The threshold to move the complaint forward to a hearing is low.

[18]           The District says there is no evidence that Mr. Misiak has suffered a disability related adverse impact and his compliant has not been taken out of the realm of conjecture. I agree.

*******

He had an injury to his elbow from 2018 that limited what he could do with his left arm.

********

[20]           The materials show WorkSafeBC advised that Mr. Misiak was limited in performing repetitive motion with his left arm, and forceful or sustained gripping with his left hand. The undisputed evidence of the District is that Mr. Misiak was placed in a job that does not require repetitive motions with his left arm or any forceful or sustained gripping. Mr. Misiak has not identified any accommodation that was recommended by WorkSafeBC, or that he requested, that was not implemented.

[19]           ……..The District provided detailed evidence of the recommendations made by WorkSafeBC and how they implemented each recommendation. While Mr. Misiak says in his response that his WorkSafeBC claim was denied and he was not accommodated, the evidence before me shows the District implemented all of the recommendations made by WorkSafeBC.

[22]           Mr. Misiak’s submissions are general complaints about the conduct of members of the health and safety committee at meetings, and the quality of air filters in schools. It is unclear on the materials what equipment Mr. Misiak is saying he had to supply for himself. He says the District took a long time to purchase and install new drill presses for the school’s woodworking program but has not pointed to how this is related to any physical disability he has. Similarly, Mr. Misiak alleges someone stood in front of him during a health and safety meeting and he was unable to respond to questions. Mr. Misiak has not provided any information that links his experience at a meeting to any disability. The District points out that there is no evidence to support Mr. Misiak’s allegation that he was not paid for his work.

*******

Four points to highlight

* The test to move a complaint past the dismissal stage is LOW….but you still have requirements you must meet.

** You will need to be able to identify your disability-related adverse impact. Not just any adverse impact. It has to pass the discrimination test.

*** You need to point to some kind of evidence that supports what you are claiming.

**** You can have unfair, horrible stuff happen to you, but it doesn’t mean that it is discrimination. There is not going to be legal remedies for all of the negative experiences you have in your life, or for all of the horrible things that people are going to do to you.

You will save yourself a lot of unnecessary pain and deprive the lawyers of their billable hours by understanding what complaint systems can create change and what those systems need from you in order to be successful. There are limitations in all of them, and they are all connected to different legislation. There are also complaint avenues or resolution avenues as an employee that I do not mention in this blog or on my website, as I primarily focus on parents advocating on behalf of their children. Information on complaint system options.

Parents & caregivers, we too have to focus on our kids’ disability-related needs, and how the harm they experience is connected to those needs, to be able to pass the discrimination test. We too, have an education case from the tribunal that has been very clear that not all negative experiences are discrimination.

Discrimination Test

3 questions.

  1. Does your child have a disability?
  2. Did they experience harm?
  3. Was the harm connected to their disability?
    .

X by Y v. Board of Education of School District No. Z, 2024 BCHRT 72

[110] ….I accept that these incidents which X relayed to Y were upsetting to X. I appreciate that the interactions may have fed into X’s general feelings of unease at school, but the fact alone that these events may have happened is not enough, in itself, to establish that X’s disability factored into them. Not all negative experiences are discrimination. Even accepting that these incidents occurred, I did not hear evidence that could establish, on a balance of probabilities, that X’s disability was a factor in the conduct of the adults involved in these interactions.

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Strong Advocacy = Written Authority

School staff have a lot of discretion and power in decision-making related to our children. Not just to their learning but to their socialization. This is given to them by the School Act, other collective agreements, and even human rights decisions uphold their expertise.

At the same time, many of them lack knowledge in education law to fulfil their duties lawfully, and they can easily overstep and make mistakes. This gap in knowledge and a call for more legal training for educators is even written about in education law textbooks. (Education Law in Canada: A Guide for Teachers and Administrators, 2nd Edition. Edited by David C. Young). This book even lacks sufficient knowledge on the Duty to Accommodate, which they admit. This book for 2025, the written content entered was capped at February 2024.

We know that the Human Rights Code supersedes teacher classroom autonomy, but many educators don’t. For some, it is quite the wake-up call when they find this out. Accommodations are required. They don’t get to decide not to provide them because of how they want to run their classroom.

Many of them don’t know the legal obligations around IEPs. They aren’t just words on a page. Many of them are not aware that they can have a Teachers Regulation Branch complaint filed against them if they don’t follow them.

Chances are, if you have read all of my blogs, you will know more about your child’s rights than they will. Which is really a failing for all involved. I don’t think it is fair for teachers to truly not understand what their legal responsibilities are, either. I would feel nervous in that role.

But first, before we dive in: What is written authority?

Written authority is law, policy or some kind of document. Something that is written and acts on behalf of other people, that has power, and people will use it as a decision-making tool. If school staff deny our requests, we always want to ask them something along the lines of: What is the written authority that supports your decision? Basically, says who? Where does it come from? People just can’t just make stuff up.

Staff may feel very confident when making statements. You would swear by their confidence that they are true. Not necessarily. And not that they are intentionally trying to mislead you. Although some people may flat-out lie to you. As I have experienced both.

When they tell us information, especially when it is related to a decision, always ask where that information comes from.

If they tell you that teachers are allowed to _______________________.

Then we can ask them to show us where the written authority is that states they are allowed to do that.

Basically, administrators are very good at spinning stories and making things look very professional. They may legitimately believe what they are saying. We want to cautiously accept what they are saying to us, and always question what they are telling us. We don’t accept vague assertions. How you want to frame your inquiry is up to you. Maybe as a sense of curiosity, and wanting to understand your rights. But you have every right to understand fully where they are coming from, and which written authority they are basing their information on. Sometimes they are correct in what they are telling us, but we also know that the Human Rights Code supersedes policy.

The topic of trust is a layered topic when it comes to education for families with kids with disabilities. We have been hurt over and over again. We know the district operates from a liability lens and they have many obligations connected to staff and the public that go beyond the best interest of our child. We want to believe that they know what they are talking about. But sometimes… honestly…. they just don’t. Or they don’t understand the whole picture.

So what is that zone of trust that we need to enter? Where we can bring ourselves to trust them enought to drop our kids off every day, but also not believe everything they say and be vigilant enough to not assume they are doing everything they can or should for our child?

Ask where that information comes from.

Because you have a lot of written authorities on your side too.

The strongest form of advocacy includes the following: strong documentation, evidence, and written authorities (using law, policy, and other documents created by the school). Follow official internal complaint/advocacy channels. When necessary, file external complaints.

Info to know!

Evidence of Harm
How to Gather Evidence
Email Writing for Schools

Depending on the issue that you are navigating, ground your advocacy in:

  1. Human Rights Law – Duty to Accommodate
  2. School Act & Section 11
  3. Teachers Standards
  4. Students rights
  5. Parents rights
  6. Ministry Policy and Orders
  7. School Board Policy & Administrative Procedures – will be posted on your district’s website
  8. Accessibility Legislation – your district will have its accessibility committee posted on the district website.
  9. Administrative Procedural Fairness (Ombudsperson BC)
    .

Instead of us just taking their word for it, we can ask them to explain

For example: You are telling me they have full autonomy to make discipline decisions. How is the teacher’s discipline decision in line with the Teachers Standard #1?

Or

How has the school’s approach to my child’s IEP development been in line with #4 & #5?

If they have to go in front of the tribunal at the BC Human Rights Tribunal, they will need to provide evidence that they are providing your child with reasonable accommodations. So why not show you this now?

No one anywhere in any profession can just operate in a way or say things that are not grounded in truth, ethics, evidence, or in line with laws and policies. Not nurses, pharmacists, counsellors, car mechanics, engineers, dentists, etc, etc, etc.

We don’t want fluffy conversations that they think they can just float past us and we just accept these without understanding what they are talking about. We don’t accept vague beliefs or opinions. If they are using words that you don’t understand, stop them and ask them to explain. If they state something, we want to know, where is this coming from? Show me.

As you advocate, you will get better and better. You will learn more and more. Your child is getting an education. So are you.

They aren’t breaking you. They are building you. You can take this pile of shit that you are dealing with and turn it into fertilizer.

This stuff isn’t easy. Take it inch by inch. We don’t move mountains in a day. Scream into a pillow and then get to work.

Ask for help!

Here is the school advocacy help directory. These people know their stuff, and they can help you. You don’t need to do this alone. For those who would like to consult with a lawyer, I recommend Kesari Law Corp.