Directorate of Ontario
Jurisdictional Scan – Education
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11Jurisdictional Scan – EducationIn this section of the report, we summarize the findings from the jurisdictional research. All Canadian provinces and territories were in scope, as well as the United States, California, Arizona, New York, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, New Zealand, Sweden, Singapore, and Spain. The summary tables are divided into three sections. The first section details the standards and regulations in each jurisdiction that relate to education and accessibility, such as provincial school or education acts. The second section covers overarching educational policies for students with disabilities and any relevant programs to support these policy objectives. Such policies and programs include goals for inclusive education, with detailed programs like Individualized Education Plans to support the educational goals of the student. The third section summarizes grants and loans that are available to students with disabilities, to help cover the costs of schooling and any assistive equipment that may be needed. Grants and loans can include provincial and federal student loans, loan forgiveness programs, and financial supports that do not have to be repaid. For more detailed information on research findings, please see Section 10: Appendix. |
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Jurisdiction |
Regulatory Requirements and Standards |
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Canada |
UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD): Canada ratified CRPD on March 11, 2010. - Federal government has overall responsibility for compliance, provincial, and territorial governments also have obligations under CRPD. |
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Alberta |
Building Accessibility Regulations: The accessibility standards set out the requirements for the safe design of accessible and barrier-free environments regulated under the Safety Codes Act. Municipal Affairs works in partnership with the Safety Codes Council to coordinate and encourage barrier-free design and access for anything, process or activity regulated under the Act. Barrier-Free Design Guide: In partnership with the Barrier-Free Council of the Safety Codes Council, Safety Services has developed the Barrier-Free Design Guide to provide further interpretation and understanding of accessibility requirements under Alberta Building Code. Service Dogs Act: The Service Dogs Act complements the Blind Persons’ Rights Act by providing Albertans with disabilities who use qualified service dogs the right of access to public places. Individuals with disabilities who are accompanied by qualified service dogs must be allowed access to any location where the public is allowed. Alberta School Act: This goal is consistent with the learning interests of Albertans with disabilities that are: ○ Responsive: The learning system is able to meet the education needs of all students, community, and the economy. ○ Flexible: The learning system is flexible by providing a wide scope of programs through various learning modalities. ○ Accessible: All Albertans can access and participate in the learning environment. ○ Affordable: Cost will not be a barrier to inclusive learning environments. The learning system is affordable to all Alberta students regardless of learning needs. |
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British Columbia |
Accessibility 2024 lays the roadmap for making BC the most progressive province in Canada for people with disabilities by 2024. The government is focused to: ○ Ensure all government-owned and leased customer service building stock is fully accessible by 2020 (where possible given heritage constraints) ○ Work with BC technology companies to be early adopters, and to highlight and test new accessibility technologies in BC government buildings ○ Develop guidelines for accessibility that communities can incorporate into their Official Community Plans ○ Continue to update the building code to be the most accessible in Canada British Columbia, School Act: The School Act requires the parent of a student to consult with the student's teacher or a school principal about the student's educational program, when requested to do so. |
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Manitoba |
The Accessibility for Manitobans Act: The Accessibility for Manitobans Act (AMA) was implemented on December 5, 2013. Under this landmark legislation, the Manitoba government will develop mandatory accessibility standards. Each standard will address barriers for Manitobans in key areas of daily living. Standards will apply to Manitoba‘s private and public sector organizations. Transportation Support: Regardless of distance, or whether or not the pupil resides in a city, town or village, school divisions are obligated to transport resident pupils attending the designated school. Public Schools Act: In Manitoba, all students have the right to an appropriate education; this is guaranteed under The Public Schools Act. With information from the disabled children and their parents or guardian, the school administrators develop the best program for the children. Manitoba The Human Rights Code: In education, universally designed schools, classrooms, curricula and materials provide all students with access to the resources they need, regardless of their diverse learning needs. |
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New Brunswick |
New Brunswick Education Act: The New Brunswick Education Act (2001) stipulates that an exceptional student receive special education programs and services in circumstances where he or she can participate with his or her competitors in regular classroom settings to the extent that is considered practical, having due regard for the educational needs of all pupils. |
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Newfoundland and Labrador |
The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador is committed to enhancing the inclusion of persons with disabilities in all aspects of society. This commitment included engaging persons with disabilities in developing recommendations and strategies to address barriers to public services, education and employment. The Government conducted fully accessible public consultations in the fall 2010. Building Accessibility Requirements: ○ From an entrance that is ordinarily used by the public and employees employed in the building and capable of accommodating persons with disabilities provide an acceptable means of making accessible to persons with disabilities all floors to which the public and employees employed in the building have lawful access; and ○ In respect of floors that are required to be accessible to persons with disabilities, have those floors at the same level throughout or have any levels of those floors connected by a ramp. Parking: In a parking area provided for a building there shall be at least one lot or 4 percent of the total lots, whichever is the greater, designed, and designated for use by physically disabled persons. |
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Nova Scotia |
Accessibility Standards for Website Design and Content: These standards arise out of the Government of Nova Scotia's Internet Policy of April 1, 1997. |
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Northwest Territories |
Northwest Territories Education Act: At the written request of a student’s parent or the principal, a District Education Authority may designate one or more persons to assess the student on its behalf to determine whether the objectives of the education program are too challenging for the student or do not challenge the student sufficiently, and where this determination is made, the principal shall recommend to the student’s parent the development of an individual education plan for the student |
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Nunavut |
Nunavut‘s Education Act: Children with special needs have the right to be in a regular class with children their own age and in their own community. Extra supports such as student support assistants, Individual Education Plans, and specialists provided through Health are available. |
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Prince Edward Island |
School Act: The School Act states that the Department of Education has the responsibility to establish outcomes and standards of performance for all students in the public school system. |
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Quebec |
Quebec, Education Act: According to the Education Act, schools must provide instructional services to students with special needs until they reach 21 years of age. The Education Act has set up various procedures in school boards for parents, to voice their concerns if they feel their rights are not being respected or their child is being treated unfairly in school. |
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Saskatchewan |
Accessibility for people with disabilities is a Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission priority. The Saskatchewan Human Rights Code and The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects people with disabilities from discrimination and protect and promote equality rights. |
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Yukon |
National Building Code: The National Building Code (NBC) is the standard to which dwellings must be constructed for safety, reliability and systems standardization. Yukon has adopted the NBC often with supplementary laws or regulations to the requirements in the national standards, however the City of Whitehorse has a local code governing construction within its boundaries. |
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United States |
Architectural Barriers Act: The law applies to federal buildings, including post offices, social security offices, federal courthouses and prisons, and national parks. It also covers non-federal facilities, such as public housing units and mass transit systems, built or altered with federal grants or loans. Coverage is limited to those funding programs that give the federal agency awarding grants or loans the authority to establish facility standards. Four agencies establish the ABA standards according to guidelines issued by the Access Board: the General Services Administration (GSA), the Department of Defence (DOD), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the US Postal Service (USPS). No Child Left Behind (the Elementary and Secondary Education Act): The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was signed into law in 1965 by President Lyndon Baines Johnson, who believed that "full educational opportunity" should be "our first national goal." ESEA offered new grants to districts serving low-income students, federal grants for text and library books, it created special education centres, and created scholarships for low-income college students. Additionally, the law provided federal grants to state educational agencies to improve the quality of elementary and secondary education. Americans with Disabilities Act: ○ Prohibits discrimination against People with disabilities (PWD) to state and local governments, regardless if they receive federal funding and include local schools. ○ Buildings constructed after 1977 must be fully accessible. For older buildings, the law requires that the program or activity must be accessible, which can be done by relocating the program to another building that is accessible. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act: The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) ensures that all children with disabilities are entitled to a free appropriate public education to meet their unique needs and prepare them for further education, employment, and independent living. Prior to IDEA, over 4 million children with disabilities were denied appropriate access to public education. Many children were denied entry into public school altogether, while others were placed in segregated classrooms, or in regular classrooms without adequate support for their special needs. Section 504, Rehabilitation Act of 1973: No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the US, shall, solely by reason of his or her disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance or under any program or activity conducted by any Executive agency or by the US Postal Service. |
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Arizona |
Public education agencies (PEAs) are required by state and federal statute to provide accessible instructional materials in a timely manner to students with print disabilities. Policy for Web Accessibility: The Arizona Department of Administration – Arizona Strategic Enterprise Technology Office shall develop, implement and maintain a coordinated state wide plan for information technology, including, adopting state wide technical, coordination, and IT policy and standards. |
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California |
Web Accessibility Regulations: Web accessibility became a popular issue in 1998 when Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 was amended. It mandated that federal agencies and their contractors ensure that their Web sites were fully accessible to persons with disabilities. Section 508 incorporates sixteen rules for Web-based intranet and internet information and applications. Of the sixteen rules, eleven were adopted directly from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) that had been recently developed by the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). The California Department of Education (CDE) adopted its first set of accessibility standards in 2001, which were based almost entirely on the Version 1.0 Checkpoints from the W3C WCAG. In 2003, the State of California enacted Government Code (GC) Section 11135, requiring all of its agencies and departments to comply with federal Section 50. The Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act: It is the California law that says people with developmental disabilities and their families have a right to get the services and supports they need to live like people without disabilities. |
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New York |
New York State Education Law: New York State Education Law provides that students with disabilities may be educated in approved private schools at public expense if it has been determined that school districts do not have appropriate programs to meet the needs of these students New York State Human Rights Law: The New York State Human Rights Law makes it illegal for non-sectarian educational institutions to deny their services to students based on race, colour, religion, disability, national origin, sexual orientation, military status, sex, age, or marital status, and for such institutions to allow students to be harassed based on any of those characteristics. |
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Australia |
Disability standards for access to premises: The Disability (Access to Premises-Buildings) Standards 2010 (Premises Standards) aims to ensure greater and dignified access to and use of buildings by people with a disability as well as to provide certainty to the building industry in meeting its obligations under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992. The Premises Standards came into effect on May 1, 2011. Disability Discrimination Act 1992: The Federal Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA) provides protection for everyone in Australia against discrimination based on disability. It also aims to promote equal opportunity and access for people with disability. Disability discrimination occurs when people with a disability are treated less fairly than people without disability, and when people are treated less fairly because they are relatives, friends, carers, co-workers or associates of a person with disability. Disability Standards for Education 2005: The Disability Standards for Education 2005 seeks to ensure that students with disability are able to access and participate in education and training free from discrimination and on the same basis as other students. UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Australia ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on 17 July 2008. By ratifying the convention, Australia joined other countries around the world in a global effort to promote the equal and active participation of all people with disability. |
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Germany |
All new buildings as well as major modifications of or add-ons to existing governmental buildings must be designed and constructed barrier-free according to the general technical standards. This especially includes the requirement for wheelchair ramps, extra-wide entrances, elevators and suitable restrooms as well as tactile signs. Projects with a capital expenditure of more than EUR 1 million are deemed to be major modifications or add-ons. All other public construction, public ways, squares and streets have to be designed and built barrier-free as well. |
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New Zealand |
Education Act 1989 – Section 8 Section 8 of the Education Act 1989, as described on the New Zealand Legislation website relates to special education. The Act says, "People who have special educational needs (whether because of disability or otherwise) have the same rights to enrol and receive education in state schools as people who do not". All children and their parents should be made to feel welcome when approaching any school to enrol. If a local school has an enrolment scheme, then a child usually has to live within the school’s enrolment zone.
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Spain |
Appropriate school building facilities: All educational establishments must meet the hygienic, acoustic, habitability and security conditions stipulated in the current legislation. The places devoted to instruction must have ventilation and natural lighting. Special adaptations to the curriculum: Schooling at the various levels and stages of the system for pupils with special educational needs (SEN) linked to personal disabilities will begin and end at the ages set down by the education regulations The legislative framework governing and guiding the Spanish education system comprises the Spanish Constitution (1978), the Organic Act on the Right to Education (LODE, 1978), the Organic Act on Education (LOE, 2006) and the Act on the Improvement of the Quality of Education 8/2013 of 9 December (LOMCE, 2013) which develops the principles and rights established in it. |
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Sweden |
People with disabilities have rights enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The Swedish Agency for Participation is the expert agency in the disabilities area and works to enable everyone, regardless of their functional abilities, to participate in society. Disability policy is a factor in all policy areas. People with disabilities must be able to participate in society on equal terms to people without disabilities. National education system: All children who are blind or visually impaired without severe additional disabilities are taught in mainstream compulsory schools. The Swedish Education Act stipulates that children have the right to special support in order to develop and receive an education based on equality, participation, accessibility and companionship. Financing for Students with Disabilities: Local authorities are bound by law to provide a number of basic services, of which the provision of childcare and pre-school, compulsory and upper-secondary education are a major part. Municipalities are free to use collected taxes and state funding for whatever services and systems are deemed to be best for their respective areas. Many municipalities delegate budgets directly to individual schools. |
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United Kingdom |
Building Accessibility Regulations: According to Building Regulations Act, 2010, people, regardless of disability, age or gender, should be able to: ○ Gain access to buildings and to gain access within buildings and use their facilities, both as visitors and as people who live or work in them; ○ Use sanitary conveniences in the principal storey of a new dwelling. Equality Act, 2010: The Equality Act was passed in April 2010 and the first provisions became effective from October 1, 2010. The Act consolidates and streamlines previous anti-discrimination legislation which includes the Disability Discrimination Acts. England: The legislative framework for transition planning in England has been established by: ○ Disabled Persons (Services, Consultation and Representation) Act 1986; ○ Disability Discrimination Act 1995; ○ Education Act 1996; ○ Special Educational Needs Code of Practice 2001; ○ Disability Discrimination Act 2005; ○ Apprenticeship, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 Examples of National Transition Planning Programmes in England: ○ Preparing for Adulthood (PfA) Programme ○ Transition Support Programme (2008-2011) Scotland: ○ The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 and the revised Supporting Children’s Learning: Code of Practice outline the statutory framework for transition planning for young people with learning disabilities in Scotland; ○ A number of government policies impact on the transition planning process, some of which relate exclusively to young people with disabilities, while others, such as the post-16 education strategy, are universal in scope; ○ In Scotland, education authorities have the lead responsibility for planning the transition from school to post-school life; ○ As there is only a basic statutory framework for the post-school transition planning process in Scotland, the procedures can vary in practice depending on the education authority and the extent of the young person’s additional support needs; ○ A number of local transition planning projects are being run by voluntary organizations in Scotland |
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