Inclusive education: Ensuring access and quality

Obtaining access to a quality inclusive education for children with developmental disabilities in the regular classroom setting with appropriate supports remains a yearly challenge for thousands of families.

Ask the candidates in your constituency if they, and their parties will commit to:

• Ensuring the right of parental choice for an inclusive education for students with developmental disabilities to be educated in regular classrooms, with appropriate supports for both students and teachers, and that this right be protected in legislation or a ministerial order. 

Seclusion and Restraint in Schools

Alberta Education’s introduction in 2019 of “Standards for the Use of Seclusion and Physical Restraint in Alberta Schools” was an important first step in protecting students with disabilities. However, the use of seclusion and restraint is still permitted, and Alberta Education has provided no transparent monitoring and accountability on the continued use of the practice. A robust investment in training for teachers, school districts and support staff in positive behaviour supports and practices is required, with seclusion and isolation to no longer be considered an acceptable strategy or response for any student.

Ask the candidates in your constituency if they, and their parties will commit to:

• Conducting an external review (inclusive of families, Inclusion Alberta and other relevant parties) to measure the use of seclusion and physical restraint in Alberta schools, assess the effectiveness of the Standards for the Use of Seclusion and Physical Restraint in Alberta Schools (Ministerial Order #042/2019), and provide recommendations on more effective and proven means of addressing behaviour challenges as a means of ending the use seclusion and restraints.

Re-Establishing a Minister’s Advisory Committee on Inclusive Education for Students with Disabilities

For 30 years Alberta’s Minister of Education was advised by an advisory committee of representatives from relevant parties first on special education and later, on inclusive education for students with disabilities. This committee, which had representation from Inclusion Alberta and other family organizations representing children with disabilities has not been convened for more than three years. Teachers, school boards, and superintendents continue to be consulted regularly by Alberta Education but there is no mechanism to ensure that, amid competing perspectives and priorities, the perspective of the parents of students with disabilities is being taken into account in advancing the inclusive education of students with disabilities.

Ask the candidates in your constituency if they, and their parties will commit to:

• Committing to establishing a Minister’s Advisory Committee on Inclusive Education for Students with Disabilities, reporting directly to the Minister of Education, including families, representative organizations, and experts in inclusive education for children with disabilities. The committee would provide advice and recommendations on policy and practice for inclusive education for students with disabilities.

Include the Rights and Values of Persons with Disabilities in Curriculum

Even as the curriculum has changed to advance representation of other historically marginalized groups, both the current experience of people with disabilities and the history of eugenics, institutionalization, stereotyping and discriminatory segregation continues to be ignored in Alberta’s curriculum.

Ask the candidates in your constituency if they, and their parties will commit to:

• Ensure that future curriculum updates consult people with disabilities and their families on the design and content of curriculum, and that the curriculum advances the rights and value of persons with disabilities.

Inclusive Education Fact Sheet AB Election 2023 (PDF)

View/download the full document of Inclusion Alberta’s Election 2023 platform asks here (PDF)

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