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February is Inclusive Education Month
What it entails
What we need
Rather than an empty proclamation which leads to little or no meaningful change, we need year-long support and advocacy for all students.
When inclusion leads to exclusion
Our current process requires students (usually their parents) to "prove" they are disabled enough to require supports. This process is usually done by non-disabled, neurotypical bureaucrats who don't (and can't) understand the lived experience of the student they are reading about in a document or application form.
Instead
Instead, students should be given what they need to succeed and thrive, regardless of what paperwork they may have (or not have) to quality for accommodations and supports.
For this to happen
In order for this to happen, a lot needs to change. Firstly, we need to understand that disabilities are dynamic: a person's ability to learn and succeed varies each day, hour, even minute. We can't evaluate or determine what supports someone needs and which ones are effective based on small snapshots of their day.
Funding and resources
As always, a significant part of this comes from the need for increased funding and resources. We need completely different funding and training models for our public education system, better education for staff, and a lot more money for our schools.
Articles about inclusive education
My Three Wishes
Behaviourism Is Not Inclusion
Preventing Seclusion
If inclusive education month were like a genie in a lamp that could grant me three inclusion-related wishes, these would be the top three things I would change about our public education system...
Preventing Seclusion
Behaviourism Is Not Inclusion
Preventing Seclusion
No school should ever have the right to seclude or restrain children. The only time it is ever justifiable is during a serious emergency in which it is the only available option for protecting oneself or another person.
Behaviourism Is Not Inclusion
Behaviourism Is Not Inclusion
Accommodations Are Not Privileges
A break down of a program called Positive Behaviour Interventions and Supports (PBIS), identifying some very concerning aspects about this "positive" approach to inclusion which has strong roots in behaviourism.
Accommodations Are Not Privileges
Accommodations Are Not Privileges
Accommodations Are Not Privileges
Accommodations and needs are not privileges which can be offered or withheld at the adult's whim. They should never be used as a tool to manipulate or force the student into complying.
Inclusive Classrooms
Accommodations Are Not Privileges
Inclusive Classrooms
Making classroom spaces and lessons more accessible for all students. The best lesson plans and classroom management strategies will be rendered useless if students do not feel cared about and safe in school.
Sensory Nightmares
Accommodations Are Not Privileges
Inclusive Classrooms
Schools are bad enough for neurotypical folks, but can be hell for neurodivergent students. Loud bus rides, hallways, classrooms, announcements, recesses, gym classes, music classes, fire drills... all followed by yet another loud bus ride home.
Behaviour Plans Are For Adults
Behaviour Plans Are For Adults
Behaviour Plans Are For Adults
Behaviour plans are useless, unless the adults have developed - and continue to develop - secure relationships with the children in their care. If or when staff develop a behaviour plan, they must centre the child's needs so the plan is written to best support the child, not to make the adults' jobs easier.
The Squeaky Wheel
Behaviour Plans Are For Adults
Behaviour Plans Are For Adults
Behaviour problems or failing academically shouldn't be the only reasons children receive appropriate supports at school. In our under-funded system, children whose parents complain the loudest or whose behaviour is most disruptive are first to get what they need while others go without.
Funding Public Education
Behaviour Plans Are For Adults
Funding Public Education
Change must start at the top, then work its way down. When policy-makers talk about funding models for public education, or about putting more money into education, they often talk about new “programs”.