Directorate of Ontario

38Leading Practices

39Inclusive Education Practices

New Zealand has been making significant strides towards inclusive education. Their goal is to have a truly inclusive education system. In their words, “confident schools, confident parents and confident children, where every day every child learns and succeeds.”⁵⁴ They set a target goal for fully inclusive schools by 2014. New Zealand has implemented an extensive programme of programs and activities to achieve this goal. Some of the main activities include:

Measuring schools’ performance⁵⁵

7. 
   An Education Review Office (ERO) report in 2010 found that only fifty per cent of schools surveyed were fully inclusive, 30 percent were partially inclusive and 20 per cent were not inclusive.
   
8. 
   ERO will now measure and report on schools’ performance in achieving a fully inclusive school. They have useful information on their website for schools and parents:
   
9. 
   the indicators of an inclusive school,
   
10. 
    questions parents and caregivers may ask schools when enrolling their child, and
    
11. 
    a self-review questionnaire for school.
    

12. 
    This will ensure that parents get a consistent response from the Ministry when they make a complaint about a school. The Ministry will take an active role in facilitating a resolution between a parent and a school.
    

13. 
    An additional 1,000 students every year now have access to the Ongoing Resourcing Scheme (ORS). Meantime, the reviewable part of ORS has been removed so that students will receive ORS for all of their school career. The Ministry has also extended the Communications Service to an additional 1,000 students aged 5-8 with complex and significant communication needs who don’t qualify for ORS.
    

14. 
    The Ministry has distributed best practice guidelines to schools to help with transitions from school to post-school life. The guidelines include 10 best practice principles based on New Zealand and international literature.
    

In Canada, Newfoundland has also been seeking to make schools not just accessible, but also fully inclusive communities.

In March 2009, the Inclusive Education Initiative began with the goal of making schools in Newfoundland and Labrador places where all members of the school community feel safe, accepted and included.

A phase-in approach was adopted with new schools joining the initiative each year until June 2017, when representatives from all public schools will have received training in inclusive practices, differentiated instruction and collaborative teaching.

Australia is additionally acting to improve the inclusiveness of its schools. The overarching view for inclusive education in Australia is that education is vital to having a productive, sustainable, and inclusive future. Currently in Australia, there remains a significant gap between students with disability and those without, notably in the attainment of year 12 or equivalent, vocational education and training qualifications, and participation in university studies. Targeted support is needed to assist people who are disadvantaged in education and in the workforce, but mainstream education programs need to be designed for people of all abilities.

One of the main policy directions for the country is to strengthen the capability of all educational providers to deliver inclusive, high quality educational programs for people with all abilities, from early childhood through adulthood.

40Extended Schooling

In Singapore, to respond to the increasing number of children identified with special needs in Singapore, several key initiatives were launched by Ministry of Education (MOE) and National Council of Social Service (NCSS) in the past several years. More resources have been committed to meet the needs of students with special needs. Over the last five years, six purpose-built schools were completed, namely Rainbow Centre – Yishun Park School, Fernvale Gardens School, Woodlands Garden School, St Andrew‘s Autism School, Eden School and Pathlight School. To enhance the quality of special education, MOE has seconded principals and teachers from the mainstream schools to the special education (SPED) schools.

To raise the quality of education for students with special needs, MOE also announced in March 2007 the extension of special education (SPED) graduation age to 21 years for children taking mainstream secondary curriculum or pursuing vocational education programs. SPED students, with the potential and ability to do so, are now able to obtain industry-recognised or nationally certified skills or academic qualifications. Prior to 2009, there were no SPED students graduating with vocational or academic certification. This initiative has enhanced the potential of SPED students to secure open employment or higher education.

Another significant achievement was the development of a streamlined and standardised framework of assessment (the Quality Assurance Framework) by MOE and NCSS for SPED Schools to self-evaluate key processes that influence student outcomes. MOE and NCSS have been piloting the framework with the schools over the last two years.
The SPED Curriculum Framework jointly developed by MOE, NCSS, and SPED schools to promote educational excellence was introduced to guide all SPED schools in their curriculum design in November 2011. The draft framework sets out the vision for special education, the desired outcomes that SPED students should achieve when they graduate, and a common set of curriculum standards to guide teaching and learning to achieve the outcomes. The broad categories such as living, learning and working will also provide a common language and direction for educators in the SPED sector in service delivery that is student-outcome-oriented.
To increase mainstream schools’ capacity to support students with special needs in mainstream schools, MOE has implemented a tiered approach that includes basic awareness, deeper understanding and specialised knowledge and skills. At the basic level, all teachers in all schools are provided with an awareness of special educational needs. Since 2005, the National Institute of Education has introduced a compulsory 12-hour module on special needs in the pre-service training for all beginning teachers. Beyond awareness, a portion of teachers in all schools are equipped with a deeper understanding of special needs. MOE has since 2005 offered certificate level training (108 hours) in special needs. The target was for 2,300 teachers (10 percent of teaching staff in all schools) to be trained between 2005 and 2010 with a further 10 percent (i.e. about 1,120) of secondary school teachers to be trained by 2012. At a more specialised level, some schools have additional labour and specialist expertise in supporting pupils with special needs. These schools have been provided with Allied Educators (Learning and Behavioural Support) (AED [LBS]). MOE decided to recruit an additional 200 AEDs (LBS) by 2015 to meet longer-term needs.
The Enabling Master plan 2007–2011 has made significant progress in putting in place the necessary infrastructure for students with special needs to access quality education through the joint efforts of MOE, NCSS and the SPED schools. Moreover, the Enabling Master plan 2012–2016 will continue to build upon this good foundation and address current gaps and emerging issues.

41Regulations and Standards against Bullying

In New York, The Dignity for All Students Act (DASA), a new law in New York State, prohibits:

harassment by employees or students on school property or at school functions and

discrimination against a student based on his/her actual or perceived race, color, weight, national origin, ethnic group, religion, religious practice, disability sexual orientation, gender or sex by school employees or students.

DASA is New York's first comprehensive statewide anti-bullying legislation and stands as a powerful tool against discrimination and harassment in public elementary and secondary schools. DASA will protect New York students while promoting increased tolerance and lessons in diversity.

Incidents of school bullying are at a nationwide high in the US. Students experience verbal and physical harassment often because of their race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity. A recent survey showed that 4 in 5 LGBT students in New York experienced verbal harassment, while 1 in 3 LGBT students experienced physical abuse because of their sexual orientation. Prior to the passage of DASA, only 1 in 5 students in New York attended a school with a comprehensive anti-bullying and harassment policy.
DASA now provides broad and meaningful protections for all students against discrimination and harassment based on a person's actual or perceived race, color, weight, national origin, ethnicity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender, or sex. With the specific inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity, classes of people not protected by federal law, DASA provides important protections for LGBT youth in New York.
Among the provisions of the law, DASA requires all public schools to:

Adopt policies to prohibit harassment and discrimination,

Provide copies of these new policies to students and parents

Incorporate discrimination and harassment awareness and sensitivity training into instructional and counseling programs, and

Report incidents of discrimination and harassment on an annual basis.

Although students with disabilities are not the exclusive focus of DASA, protecting students with disabilities from bullying is an important component of this act. The issue of bullying in schools and the long-term detrimental psychological effects it can have in young people has been well documented and increasingly gaining media attention. New York is one of the first jurisdictions to legislate against bullying and harassment, leading the way for legislative protections against discrimination in school.

42Data Collection

In Australia, from 2015, all government and non-government schools in Australia will be required to participate annually in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability. The first data collection took place in selected schools in October 2013. Over 2013 and 2014, selected schools will participate in data collection under a phased approach before full national implementation in 2015.⁵⁶
Not enough is currently known about students with disability at the national level to enable governments to target support and resources in schools to help all students to reach their full potential, driving Australia to conduct this data collection. The government believes a nationally consistent approach to collecting data on students with disability will give governments, schools and education authorities’ information about how many students with disability are enrolled in Australian schools, where they are located and the level of adjustments provided for them to participate in schooling on the same basis as other students.
They will use this data to gain a clearer picture of the needs of students with disability, and give more support to schools so that they can better understand and implement their core responsibilities under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005.
Additionally, a professional learning resource has been developed by Educational Services Australia (ESA), to help principals, teachers, and other school staff learn about the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability. This resource identifies and guides participants through the four steps for completing the data collection. Other resources have been developed to assist schools with understanding and using the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability – these include fact sheets, frequently asked questions, school stories and notices.
In addition, a number of resources have been developed to help parents and carers with understanding the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability and how it may affect their child – these include fact sheets, frequently asked questions and a privacy notice.

Directory: strong-effective-aoda
strong-effective-aoda -> Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance

Download 1.92 Mb.

Share with your friends: