More students sidelined from school due to behavioural issues: advocate

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The New Brunswick government is continuing to break its own law by leaving students with behavioural issues to sit at home during the school day without educational resources, according to the province’s child and youth advocate.

More than 200 New Brunswick students are on partial day plans, according to data from the Office of the Child and Youth Advocate. These students can be sent home for up to days and weeks at a time while they work toward the goal of successful full-time studies in a common learning environment.

But many students aren’t receiving the proper educational support to make a return to full-time classroom learning, according to Kelly Lamrock, the province’s child and youth advocate, whose office has handled 27 partial day cases within the last year.

“We have actually received complaints where parents have had to quit their jobs and go on social assistance because their child is on partial day, so you’ve got cases where in addition to not helping the child at school, we’re also putting families in situations where they’re unable to meet their bills and financial obligations and sometimes pay for services,” he told a legislative committee last week.

Lamrock plans to soon release a legal guidance memo for school administrators to explain how they should navigate situations where children are struggling in the classroom. Under the Education Act, school-aged children who reside in New Brunswick have a right to receive educational services.

“School districts first need to bloody well learn that they’re accountable for providing service to the child,” Lamrock told media after the committee meeting last Thursday. “The child is not responsible for proving themselves fit to receive the service.”

The system is not serving those kids. They’re spending time at home that would be better spent at school, but the resources don’t seem to be there at school to support them.

David Coon

Progressive Conservative MLA Jeff Carr says he’s anxious for the release of this memo based on the calls he’s received at his New Maryland-Sunbury constituency office.

“Sometimes these kids just don’t have the support at home to complement the needs at home if there is a (partial day) plan put in place,” said Carr, who is a member of the Standing Committee on Procedure, Privileges and Legislative Officers.

“It’s difficult. It’s tricky.”

A fund should be set up by the province’s education department for schools to cover the cost of out-of-pocket educational resources for partial day students, Lamrock told the standing committee last week.

“It is appropriate at times if you’re going to help that child return to the common learning environment to get them services outside of the classroom, but you cannot send them home to nothing,” he said.

“The department is breaking its own law repeatedly, and frankly it’s time, I think, to ensure that if the school cannot accommodate, they need clear guidance on when they can get services outside of the classroom and they also need resources so there are actually some services to help that child for a brief, therapeutic and appropriate amount of time to return to the common learning environment.”

In a statement Tuesday, New Brunswick’s education department described partial day programming as “a strategy, used on an interim basis and in exceptional circumstances, to assist students to be successful at school while respecting Policy 322 (Inclusive Education) and Policy 703 (Positive Learning and Working Environment).”

“The anglophone sector has guidelines for partial programming,” spokesperson Diana Chávez wrote in an email. “If the school-based Educational Support Services team determines that services other than those readily available at school are necessary to meet the student’s needs, they will work collaboratively with district personnel, parent/guardian, and partner agencies to determine how best to proceed.”

In “exceptional situations,” Chávez said a school district may need to reach out to the regional operations committee or provincial integrated support committee for resourcing.

The francophone sector doesn’t currently have partial day guidelines, she noted, but it will start working on them in the spring.

Data collection has been difficult for advocate’s office

The Office of the Child and Youth Advocate recently raised its concerns with the growing use of partial day plans through the province’s consultation process for new accessibility legislation.

But data on the usage of partial day plans – including how long students are being kept out of the classroom and the support they’re receiving during that time – has been difficult to nail down, according to Lamrock, who is preparing a report with that information.

New Brunswick’s education department doesn’t require school districts to report on their usage of partial day plans, so “some districts refuse to track or report on their use of the practice,” he said in an email to Brunswick News.

Of the school districts who’ve shared data, more than 200 students have been reported to be on partial day plans. Ninety-two partial day students are in the province’s care, Lamrock said, which represents almost 10 per cent of guardianship cases.

Liberal MLA and committee member Marco LeBlanc says the province’s education and social development departments need to work cohesively to “ensure all kids have access to proper education.”

“Right now we’re seeing too many school districts – I think Anglophone West is one of the ones most concentrated – who are simply saying, ‘Well, we’ll send kids home and hopefully things will get better,’” Lamrock told media.

“You can’t just deny a kid educational services.”

In a lengthy statement Tuesday, Anglophone School District West (ASDW) superintendent David McTimoney and Wendy Cumberland, the district’s acting director of education support services, addressed concerns over the district’s use of partial day plans.

While ASDW has 110 students on partial day plans, the district pointed out that figure represents only 0.45 per cent of the 24,511 students enrolled this school year.

“The number of partial day plans has decreased by 12 compared to last year, whereas our overall enrolment has increased by 803 students in this same time period,” the statement reads.

The district also noted that partial day plans are only initiated after “a series of many other responses and interventions” had been first utilized.

“There is an accountability factor with a partial day plan in that an official from the district office must review and approve the plan before it moves forward,” the statement reads. “Consultation with district education support services staff prior to the implementation of a partial day plan is the preferred route and ASD-W ESS staff continue to raise the bar when it comes to this type of planning.”

Still, ASDW officials say they’re looking forward to Lamrock’s partial day recommendations “and reflecting on how we can improve as a system in support of our students.”

Green party Leader and committee member David Coon says he receives calls regularly from parents with children who are on partial day plans.

“The system is not serving those kids,” he said. “They’re spending time at home that would be better spent at school, but the resources don’t seem to be there at school to support them.

“In the context of the just-announced $247-million surplus, there is an opportunity to bolster those resources in the schools to make sure those kids can actually attend school.”