(file photo/paNOW Staff)

By Jaryn Vecchio

Concerned Parent

Mother hoping for more support for special-need students after autistic son causes school lockdown

Feb 23, 2023 | 5:00 PM

A mother in Meath Park is hoping to see more provincial funding to help schools better support special needs students.

Dawn Borle’s 13-year-old son has autism and earlier this month, he had a meltdown which caused a lockdown at the community’s public school.

She told paNOW he’s been struggling this school year and not much has been done to properly help him cope.

Her biggest issue has been the lack of an updated Inclusion and Intervention Plan (IIP) which highlights the student’s situation, issues they’re facing while learning, strategies to help them, among other strategies.

“I’ve been asking repeatedly for this plan to be done and for supports to be put in place,” Borle said.

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She claims she started asking for a new IIP back in February 2021, several months before the next school year.

Garette Tebay, the Superintendent of the Saskatchewan Rivers Public School Division (SRPSD), explained she couldn’t go into details about any specific IIPs, but did note they do take them seriously.

“The division is committed to ensuring that students’ needs are appropriately planned for and in some cases that does include an IIP.”

While that has been frustrating for Borle, she believes the school division needs more funding to ensure all special needs students are properly supported.

“Additional support would make my son more successful,” she said.

According to Tebay, this is also top of mind for the SRPSD’s board.

“One of the number one advocacy pieces that our board is attending to is ensuring we have sustainable and appropriate funding to meet the needs of all students.”

She explained that this topic was recently discussed at both of their meetings in January.

In an email sent to paNOW, the Saskatchewan Ministry of Education said they’ve allocated over $300 million during this school year for “supports for learning.”’ This includes hiring professionals that support the classroom such as psychologists, counsellors, speech-language pathologists, and educational assistants.

They noted the SRPSD will get $14.8 million of this funding. They didn’t clarify whether it’s already been given.

Meanwhile, Borle believes there’s a chance having an IIP in place could have prevented the lockdown from happening.

She added with additional support, like a professional who could work one-on-one with her son, this would have definitely been avoided.

In the meantime, a VITRA (Violent Incident Threat Risk Assessment) is ongoing meaning her son can’t attend school.

The SRPSD wouldn’t state when the assessment would be completed, only that each student in this process is given access to online learning.

Borle said her son hasn’t been offered any chances to learn online, however, she noted that even if he was given an opportunity he wouldn’t do the work as he already has a tough time focusing on his school work when he’s in class.

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Jaryn.Vecchio@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @princealbertnow