EDMONTON — The Alberta government wants to move children with special needs back into the main classroom to learn alongside other students.
Education Minister Dave Hancock says schools should emphasize what children can do rather than focus on their limitations.
He also says it’s time to stop spending education dollars on individual students and start directing money to classrooms.
The government’s decision comes after 1 1/2 years of public consultations and a special committee report.
But at least one MLA says that putting special needs students in regular classrooms will put more of a burden on teachers.
Rob Anderson of the Wildrose Alliance says charter schools are integrating special needs students into social and extracurricular programs instead.
Parents, teachers and school boards have been complaining for years that the existing special education system is failing children because of arbitrary classification and a lack of funding and staff.
Teachers have voiced frustration that without additional help in the classroom, they can become overwhelmed by the needs of two or three special education students.
So the province set up a review and formed a study group that came back with recommendations to phase out the current approach and replace it with a more flexible curriculum to fit each student’s needs.
Hancock said last year that it was wrong to start with the presumption that every child needs an aide.
“You take a look and say, ‘What does this child need to be successful in this classroom? What does this classroom need to be successful with this child?’ And then you resource it from that perspective,” he said at the time.
“I think that creates a much more inclusive attitude.”
There are about 67,000 students in the province with learning needs. The government spends roughly $270 million a year on special education.
It’s not clear how reintegrating all students into one classroom would be funded. The government says establishing a financing model is the next step.
Health Minister Gene Zwozdesky said the goal is to use “that same pool of monies differently.” Parents of special needs kids need not worry that the government is trying to bring in a new system as a cost-cutting measure, he said.
The cost of the ongoing consultation has so far reached $2.5 million.