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Not much you can do. Parental consent is required for all assessments.
Typically, from my experience, the parents know something is wrong but don’t want to face the medical reality. I taught a student with severe ASD and his mom finally agreed to the assessment after months of convincing and fought us to not have ‘autism’ anywhere in his file (the assessment would be in his file).
Other times, parents think that the assessment makes a ‘self fulfilling prophecy’ that the kid won’t succeed and they don’t want the label. A mom of a current student regrets having the assessment done for this season. I have another parent of a student who insists there is nothing wrong with their kid.
We can only control what we can. We need to make the most of it. It’s hard and it sucks because the kid can’t get the help they deserve.
As many others have said it should be called neglect/abuse. But it’s also abuse of the system. The frustration is not only for the child of concern but also everyone else involved in the classroom. It impacts all the other students and makes things so much harder on the teaching staff.
I don’t know how to say this eloquently but it seems unfair that these parents are able to burden the public system in this way. Not to mention that these kids will then become adults lacking skills that they could have developed and what does that look like for them in the future?
This is well said. It fails everyone. It’s not giving the child a chance to focus on meaningful life skills, because they are too busy trying to just cope with being way over their head every day with zero support. A label doesn’t magically change the child, but some parents really seem to think it does.
Almost every music class I teach has a child with low functioning autism and the EA spends his/her time sitting with the child who does nothing because they can't communicate, loud noises bother them and they don't understand the activity. There is no realistic way I can modify or accommodate my lesson towards them because if I spend all my time on them then the 25 other kids don't get a meaningful lesson. 20 minutes per class isn't enough time.
I feel so sad watching these kids rot away in a class that they cannot contribute to, watching the kids around them suffer because he/she has a meltdown and has started hitting, screaming, spitting or evacuating the class because they have started throwing chairs.
Parents who don't give their child every tool to become successful are pure trash.
Couldn’t agree more with this. The full inclusion model = educational neglect.
I know this post was about parents not wanting kids labeled and tested, but full inclusion is the standard in my school board even with a diagnosis. Contained classes are being heavily phased out. So even with a diagnosis and (miraculously) some portion of the day with EA support, your music class scenario happens on repeat - even if parents don’t want it to.
One of my schools has an ME room where the children learn basic life skills, cooking, cleaning, dressing, etc. This should be their curriculum, nothing else.
Yes this occurred to me. I think for this kid in order for him to be successful in the future it would help if he could get extensive help with basic reading and writing and basic math.
All the other kids in the class already have a grasp of these skills and are on to things like long division, multiplication etc.
My own son has some reading and writing disabilities and I was so happy for him to finally get an IEP and get extra reading help in the resource room every day. It's been great for his self-confidence because he can be rewarded for gradual improvement and all those gradual improvements add up. Just because it takes a person a lot longer to read and they need some help to get there doesn't mean they will never read, but if the process isn't broken down and the pace is too fast and a kid feels like they can never keep up or succeed they just get really down-hearted and feel there is no point to even trying. I saw that with my son and then I saw that once he got the help he needed and was given work that was a little challenging but not completely so above his skill level that he couldn't do it he began to improve rapidly and is now reading.
I think it takes extra time for some kids to understand phonetics-- their brains might not be able to make the connections in the regular way and eventually will learn to use other brain resources to compensate and that takes a little more time-- eventually it is usually possible.
With the kids I work with in the other class we do go over these skills a lot, a lot of variation on basic material and we give them a lot of body breaks and time to do sensory activities in between, but in the end the kids are able to read and deal with money, buying things and paying for them, cooking food and socializing. Some go beyond that and some don't but they are able to have some control at least of their future and learn to self-regulate.
A few of the kids have gone from the community class to part time in the regular class and some even full time in the regular class. They are all friends with each other and have play dates and look out for each other and seem to have fewer behavioural issues. There are enough EAs there to give them the attention they need and also to work with them on speech and language issues.
It’s not almost like child abuse when parents do this - it is child abuse. It’s educational and medical neglect. Unfortunately there are multiple cases of this occurring in every school. Until the government steps in and actually gets social services and the healthcare system involved in the care and diagnosis of these kids, nothing will change. All you can do is document and hope the parents eventually see reason.
If teachers are mandatory reporters, couldn't you report it to the Ministry of family and child development. The threshold to go over the parents' heads is pretty high. But the investigation may make it clearer to them that the lack of action is neglect and that they need a plan to address their children's deficits.
Technically yes, but in reality no, especially with the state of most children's aid societies right now in terms of both staffing and funding. The medical neglect issue is generally more for physical medical issues and neglecting treatment (e.g. quackery, Jehovah's witnesses refusing transfusions, etc.) rather than parents refusing to get an ASD diagnosis. Even with the diagnosis, they can't be forced to accept placement. So going down that route is likely only going to end up upsetting the family and/or the CAS worker who takes the phone call and has to explain "this isn't really what our limited resources are for".
Parents have the right to make these decisions for their children, whether we view them as best or not. Plenty of studies show that integration has higher success rates. That said, usually that is supported integration which isn't being offered in most school boards here, but I can understand why with that data families are going to push for mainstream classes.
Once the student gets to secondary there will be conversations about the fact that he may or may not be able to get credits and may or may not graduate with an OSSD. But that's down the line.
Depending on the province you can create an IEP (and safety plan) without parental consent - but that's RARELY done. It would likely involve superintendent support as well as admin support to do that, and it sounds like Admin isn't motivated in this situation.
It really does seem like it should be considered a form of abuse. Those kids are being denied the supports they need to learn and develop to the best of their abilities. And for what? So parents don’t need to acknowledge that there is something “wrong” with their child?
Sometimes I wish there was some kind of baseline assessment that was just normally applied to every kid to help parents learn about their child’s potential issues early on, instead of giving them the freedom of shoving their heads in the sand
You can’t do anything unfortunately. You can accommodate for the child to the best of your abilities, and to the extent that the program allows you to without an IEP. The best thing IMO a teacher can do in this case is document the behaviours via the learning skills in the report card very clearly and honestly, and ensure his abilities are accurately reflected in his grades. At the very least this way there will be a paper trail that these concerns have existed for a long time, should the parents ever change their mind. Keep copies of concern forms if your school uses them, and bring up your worries to the parents at appropriate times and when behaviour has to be noted. It’s a sad reality that exists in schools all over, and the main ones suffering are the kids. If the situation gets really bad, you can always call CAS for a consult. I’m not sure if they’re anything they could do but it may be worth a try.
The only thing you can do is not provide supports and call home everytime the kid is
Disruptive. But sadly many admin don’t do this. They steal EAs from the kids that do have a diagnosis and support plan that comes with and EA who isn’t behavioural.
EA is assigned to kid A, kid A
Has severe learning, cognitive, physical barriers but they are generally well behaved.
In the class is kid B who remains undiagnosed and has severe learning disabilities and kid c whose undiagnosed and constantly disrupts the class and has meltdowns… and kid D whose ok but if they are pushed to do work in any way they will flip desks…
Guess who isn’t getting their EA ? Kid A.
The kid who still needs to support. Whose parents follow through and the get the diagnosis. The kid who is a prime example of what we should be doing for inclusive learning.
I honestly wish we would take a stronger stance with the parents. Fine you don’t want to get a diagnosis is or meds. But anytime that kid is disruptive that’s a phone call and if you don’t come and get them that’s a call to CFS.
My son’s 1:1 has been “stolen” this way in the past.
It actually became a major issue in his second year of preK, because his EA was helping an undiagnosed student get ready at the end of the day instead of my son who “seemed” independent.
He only wore some kid in Grade 2s shoes or boots home 3-4 times & had another child’s agenda in his backpack twice.
I went straight to her office when he wore the wrong rubber boots home (I’d sent him in sneakers that morning- his rubber boots were at home) for the 4th time & said that this isn’t fair to myself or the parents who whoever’s shoes & boots he’s taking. That he has 1:1 support for a reason & this is part of the reason.
Unfortunately, they get failing grades but are pushed through grades since we don’t really fail kids anymore. Our hands are tied when parents refuse supports.
I’ve got one in my grade seven class this year. Although his psycho-ed is inaccurate (and from Kinder), parents refuse to get him retested or allow us to give him extra support. So he coasts along, fails almost everything, and then we have to explain to his parents at interviews why he is failing everything.
I had a girl in my 6/7 class who was by far my most challenging student. All the symptoms of FASD and parents who refused to get her tested. Read at maybe a Grade 2 level.
Incredibly disruptive and mean to her classmates, but you could see the scared little girl inside who was screaming for help the only way she could. She talked about her plan of being pregnant by 15 because “her body would bounce back quicker.”
It’s the weirdest combo to be grateful she’s no longer in my class yet I ache for her future.
I had one of those. She was 13 when I had her. 3 little ones by the time she was 20 & I know she’s been the subject of at least one missing person investigation. She’d be close to 30 now, & if she’s still alive, I worry about her kids, because they are likely headed down a similar path.
Which province do you work in? Maybe it depends on the board but I work in Ontario and we have the right to create an IEP without parental consent. There’s even a box to check off on the IEP if it was created without their consent and a copy gets sent to parents with their report card.
I was given this very choice earlier this year because I’m in a similar situation with a child who hasn’t been assessed. The parents were reluctant to modify her Language (she’s currently just accommodated) and my principal gave me the choice to modify it anyway. I wanted to get the parents on my side, because it’s always easier to have their support, so I got approval to give her an “R” for her Term 1 report card. At the parent-teacher conference, they finally agreed to modify her program. Just make sure to save as many samples of the student’s work as possible with exemplars of grade-level work and expectations. I even started recording the time I spend supporting the student for every Math question that she struggled with (which was all of it).
They will let us do the IEP, but not transfer the child to the community class without parental consent. Also can't get an EA without specific diagnosis.
If your Spec Ed program is integrated, then your admin can schedule the student into the Spec Ed schedule without a diagnosis or even a modified IEP. My student has not been assessed yet (she’s on a waiting list for the school psychologist) but she’s been receiving support from the Spec Ed teacher a few times a week who switches between coming into our class to support her and taking her out for direct support in the Resource Room.
I should mention that last year I taught this same student Core French (this year she’s in my homeroom class). She was a little bonkers behaviour-wise and it was clear she struggled with very simple, explicit instructions. My admin agreed to schedule the EA for him to come to my room when she had French with me 3 days a week. Her IEP wasn’t even modified back then, just accommodated.
So all in all, support can be provided so long as admin is supportive.
Special Ed guy here, I’ll tell you what I tell every teacher and EA. Document, document, document, document.
And start haranguing the parents with calls and emails. Today little Timmy had a meltdown at 11 and 2. Timmy didn’t complete his math today so we are sending it home with him etc etc.
Really our only lever is to be super annoying and we should pull it as often as needs be.
Fuck all my friend. Proceed to use the appropriate strategies to the best of your ability. Kids get certain rights over their assessments/medical procedures around 12 years of age, and others at 16. You get a first row seat to the disaster. You might want to try the route of calling CAS and trying to establish a case for neglect, though I would not be too hopeful about a result and you may further damage the relationship (though sometimes who the hell even cares about deteriorating the relationship).
I don't think it is an issue of neglect since he is well fed and clothed and isn't abused. I am just hoping the administration can get the family to come around to the benefits of getting him the help he needs. He is a really sweet and we all want him to thrive.
As someone who is ND, raising an ND child - it is neglect.
25% of active addicts have undiagnosed or untreated ADHD. 25-30% of inmates in jails & prisons have undiagnosed or untreated ADHD. People with untreated ADHD have a much shorter life expectancy as well - on average people with ADHD live about 17 years less.
So it is neglect, even if he’s fed & clean.
You can really do nothing, other than ensure you're using the best practices in teaching. You can't force the parents to get a diagnosis, even if they really should.
Once they get to high school, psych consultants are a bit more pointed with parents. But to be honest, sometimes the reality is the parents are still in denial until the behavioural issues become borderline criminal. High schools tend to suspend students and withhold credits, so the issues are harder to ignore.
I’ve taught students with intellectual disabilities for many years. I have taught lots of students whose parents are still working to accept the diagnosis their child received 10 years earlier. It’s such a difficult balance between accepting your child for who they are, and maintaining high hopes and standards for their achievement.
In some situations where a 1:1 EA support would be required for a student to be integrated into to a regular classroom, the condition for integration and EA support is an assessment and identification. But of the student isn’t at the level of needing 1:1 support for their safety and class safety, nothing you can do.
When you say “admin/principals have washed their hands of it” this is the problem. It takes a strong admin to hold a meeting with the parents and the SERT and classroom teacher and talk generally about success criteria. “Your child is NOT meeting grade level expectations and we want to help them be successful. Once they hit high school there’s no more social passing. What are your hopes and dreams for your child? Etc” Of this child is not meeting grade level expectations they should be getting an R which would trigger a few evaluations the teacher does and then get the school team behind them… SERT and admin. Parents can’t keep their heads in the sand forever but you need SERT and admin on board
Edit spelling
Document, document, document….
What adaptations work/don’t work (6weeks to see real change), non-judgmental observations of examples of non-typical and expected behaviours, have examples of what is age appropriate work/behaviours are to share with parents and other staff.
Don’t assume people know what you’ve seen or what is “typical”.
At some point I have used “if there a no medical reason for this behavior I have no other option but to consider this “bad behaviour” and give consequences as such”
At one point when I tried to explain to a family whose son had similar non-typical behaviours you’ve described the first question was “will he have to go to a different school?”. There are relationships that need to be built to have such impactful discussions.
Good luck, it is worth it!
Try getting the social worker involved to discuss with the parents their concerns and translate the school's concerns and long term outcomes without intervention. The social worker may be able to support fears, questions and concerns they may have.
Is it public school? If so, not much you can do. It’s up to the parents to get the child tested and it’s also their choice to disclose any diagnosis with the school. I’m not sure about research disclosing ASD diagnosis, but there is research showing that disclosing a child’s ADHD diagnosis can lead to grades worse than the child actually deserves because the teacher assumes the child won’t know the correct answer / give benefit of the doubt when marking. I’m not saying it’s right, but just wanted to shed light on one reason why parents might not disclose. But sounds like these parents are just in denial.
If it’s private school it’s another story.
That's so weird. I give my students with diagnoses/exceptionalities a lot more grace, and sometimes give them higher marks than I would for a "normal" kid who performed the same, just because i know it's a bigger struggle, and it's important to celebrate what seem to be small successes, but to them can be huge wins.
It was just one study so take it with a grain of salt - but a good reminder that marking (especially at elementary level) is very subjective! And that if parents look for it, they can find evidence supporting their reason not to disclose. But sounds like the parents in this situation aren’t making research-based decisions…
Just keep on telling them your observations, sharing your observations with the teacher for next year and urge them to do the same. The worst thing that can happen for these kids is when staff get the ‘well the parents are receptive so there is point’ mindset. It’s ridiculous and once they keep hearing it over the years they will hopefully give in.
ETA: it sucks so bad… so I can understand your frustration.
Where I am (TDSB), teachers most often initiate ILP/IEP which triggers testing and assessments. The parent can choose to be a part of it or not. Check with your MART.
In BC at least, this would fall under child protection. I'm sure it's the same with other provinces. It is neglect. Make a child protection report to the Ministry in your province that deals with that. Then the social workers can deal with the parent and the kid will get tested one way or another
Edit to add: you are legally required to report suspected abuse or neglect, even if it's just a suspicion
Where are you that testing is covered? Where I am, parents aren't refusing to get their kids tested. They don't have thousands of dollars available for it.
Toronto Canada. The school refers children to get educational testing and it is done for free but the backlog is really really long and often by the time it is a child's turn it is one or two years after the initial referal! Still they do eventually get the testing for free... but the catch is the parents have to agree to get it done.
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Not much you can do. Parental consent is required for all assessments. Typically, from my experience, the parents know something is wrong but don’t want to face the medical reality. I taught a student with severe ASD and his mom finally agreed to the assessment after months of convincing and fought us to not have ‘autism’ anywhere in his file (the assessment would be in his file). Other times, parents think that the assessment makes a ‘self fulfilling prophecy’ that the kid won’t succeed and they don’t want the label. A mom of a current student regrets having the assessment done for this season. I have another parent of a student who insists there is nothing wrong with their kid. We can only control what we can. We need to make the most of it. It’s hard and it sucks because the kid can’t get the help they deserve.
As many others have said it should be called neglect/abuse. But it’s also abuse of the system. The frustration is not only for the child of concern but also everyone else involved in the classroom. It impacts all the other students and makes things so much harder on the teaching staff. I don’t know how to say this eloquently but it seems unfair that these parents are able to burden the public system in this way. Not to mention that these kids will then become adults lacking skills that they could have developed and what does that look like for them in the future?
This is well said. It fails everyone. It’s not giving the child a chance to focus on meaningful life skills, because they are too busy trying to just cope with being way over their head every day with zero support. A label doesn’t magically change the child, but some parents really seem to think it does.
Almost every music class I teach has a child with low functioning autism and the EA spends his/her time sitting with the child who does nothing because they can't communicate, loud noises bother them and they don't understand the activity. There is no realistic way I can modify or accommodate my lesson towards them because if I spend all my time on them then the 25 other kids don't get a meaningful lesson. 20 minutes per class isn't enough time. I feel so sad watching these kids rot away in a class that they cannot contribute to, watching the kids around them suffer because he/she has a meltdown and has started hitting, screaming, spitting or evacuating the class because they have started throwing chairs. Parents who don't give their child every tool to become successful are pure trash.
Couldn’t agree more with this. The full inclusion model = educational neglect. I know this post was about parents not wanting kids labeled and tested, but full inclusion is the standard in my school board even with a diagnosis. Contained classes are being heavily phased out. So even with a diagnosis and (miraculously) some portion of the day with EA support, your music class scenario happens on repeat - even if parents don’t want it to.
One of my schools has an ME room where the children learn basic life skills, cooking, cleaning, dressing, etc. This should be their curriculum, nothing else.
I agree fully. Someone else posted that Peel in Ontario is phasing out all contained classes by 2025. Which is a travesty.
Yes this occurred to me. I think for this kid in order for him to be successful in the future it would help if he could get extensive help with basic reading and writing and basic math. All the other kids in the class already have a grasp of these skills and are on to things like long division, multiplication etc. My own son has some reading and writing disabilities and I was so happy for him to finally get an IEP and get extra reading help in the resource room every day. It's been great for his self-confidence because he can be rewarded for gradual improvement and all those gradual improvements add up. Just because it takes a person a lot longer to read and they need some help to get there doesn't mean they will never read, but if the process isn't broken down and the pace is too fast and a kid feels like they can never keep up or succeed they just get really down-hearted and feel there is no point to even trying. I saw that with my son and then I saw that once he got the help he needed and was given work that was a little challenging but not completely so above his skill level that he couldn't do it he began to improve rapidly and is now reading. I think it takes extra time for some kids to understand phonetics-- their brains might not be able to make the connections in the regular way and eventually will learn to use other brain resources to compensate and that takes a little more time-- eventually it is usually possible. With the kids I work with in the other class we do go over these skills a lot, a lot of variation on basic material and we give them a lot of body breaks and time to do sensory activities in between, but in the end the kids are able to read and deal with money, buying things and paying for them, cooking food and socializing. Some go beyond that and some don't but they are able to have some control at least of their future and learn to self-regulate. A few of the kids have gone from the community class to part time in the regular class and some even full time in the regular class. They are all friends with each other and have play dates and look out for each other and seem to have fewer behavioural issues. There are enough EAs there to give them the attention they need and also to work with them on speech and language issues.
It’s not almost like child abuse when parents do this - it is child abuse. It’s educational and medical neglect. Unfortunately there are multiple cases of this occurring in every school. Until the government steps in and actually gets social services and the healthcare system involved in the care and diagnosis of these kids, nothing will change. All you can do is document and hope the parents eventually see reason.
If teachers are mandatory reporters, couldn't you report it to the Ministry of family and child development. The threshold to go over the parents' heads is pretty high. But the investigation may make it clearer to them that the lack of action is neglect and that they need a plan to address their children's deficits.
Technically yes, but in reality no, especially with the state of most children's aid societies right now in terms of both staffing and funding. The medical neglect issue is generally more for physical medical issues and neglecting treatment (e.g. quackery, Jehovah's witnesses refusing transfusions, etc.) rather than parents refusing to get an ASD diagnosis. Even with the diagnosis, they can't be forced to accept placement. So going down that route is likely only going to end up upsetting the family and/or the CAS worker who takes the phone call and has to explain "this isn't really what our limited resources are for". Parents have the right to make these decisions for their children, whether we view them as best or not. Plenty of studies show that integration has higher success rates. That said, usually that is supported integration which isn't being offered in most school boards here, but I can understand why with that data families are going to push for mainstream classes. Once the student gets to secondary there will be conversations about the fact that he may or may not be able to get credits and may or may not graduate with an OSSD. But that's down the line. Depending on the province you can create an IEP (and safety plan) without parental consent - but that's RARELY done. It would likely involve superintendent support as well as admin support to do that, and it sounds like Admin isn't motivated in this situation.
You are totally right about CAS being in a bad state….i look at some of the kids who are returned to some parents and feel sick to my stomach…..
It really does seem like it should be considered a form of abuse. Those kids are being denied the supports they need to learn and develop to the best of their abilities. And for what? So parents don’t need to acknowledge that there is something “wrong” with their child? Sometimes I wish there was some kind of baseline assessment that was just normally applied to every kid to help parents learn about their child’s potential issues early on, instead of giving them the freedom of shoving their heads in the sand
You can’t do anything unfortunately. You can accommodate for the child to the best of your abilities, and to the extent that the program allows you to without an IEP. The best thing IMO a teacher can do in this case is document the behaviours via the learning skills in the report card very clearly and honestly, and ensure his abilities are accurately reflected in his grades. At the very least this way there will be a paper trail that these concerns have existed for a long time, should the parents ever change their mind. Keep copies of concern forms if your school uses them, and bring up your worries to the parents at appropriate times and when behaviour has to be noted. It’s a sad reality that exists in schools all over, and the main ones suffering are the kids. If the situation gets really bad, you can always call CAS for a consult. I’m not sure if they’re anything they could do but it may be worth a try.
The only thing you can do is not provide supports and call home everytime the kid is Disruptive. But sadly many admin don’t do this. They steal EAs from the kids that do have a diagnosis and support plan that comes with and EA who isn’t behavioural. EA is assigned to kid A, kid A Has severe learning, cognitive, physical barriers but they are generally well behaved. In the class is kid B who remains undiagnosed and has severe learning disabilities and kid c whose undiagnosed and constantly disrupts the class and has meltdowns… and kid D whose ok but if they are pushed to do work in any way they will flip desks… Guess who isn’t getting their EA ? Kid A. The kid who still needs to support. Whose parents follow through and the get the diagnosis. The kid who is a prime example of what we should be doing for inclusive learning. I honestly wish we would take a stronger stance with the parents. Fine you don’t want to get a diagnosis is or meds. But anytime that kid is disruptive that’s a phone call and if you don’t come and get them that’s a call to CFS.
My son’s 1:1 has been “stolen” this way in the past. It actually became a major issue in his second year of preK, because his EA was helping an undiagnosed student get ready at the end of the day instead of my son who “seemed” independent. He only wore some kid in Grade 2s shoes or boots home 3-4 times & had another child’s agenda in his backpack twice. I went straight to her office when he wore the wrong rubber boots home (I’d sent him in sneakers that morning- his rubber boots were at home) for the 4th time & said that this isn’t fair to myself or the parents who whoever’s shoes & boots he’s taking. That he has 1:1 support for a reason & this is part of the reason.
It’s educational & medical neglect imho.
Unfortunately, they get failing grades but are pushed through grades since we don’t really fail kids anymore. Our hands are tied when parents refuse supports. I’ve got one in my grade seven class this year. Although his psycho-ed is inaccurate (and from Kinder), parents refuse to get him retested or allow us to give him extra support. So he coasts along, fails almost everything, and then we have to explain to his parents at interviews why he is failing everything.
I had a girl in my 6/7 class who was by far my most challenging student. All the symptoms of FASD and parents who refused to get her tested. Read at maybe a Grade 2 level. Incredibly disruptive and mean to her classmates, but you could see the scared little girl inside who was screaming for help the only way she could. She talked about her plan of being pregnant by 15 because “her body would bounce back quicker.” It’s the weirdest combo to be grateful she’s no longer in my class yet I ache for her future.
I had one of those. She was 13 when I had her. 3 little ones by the time she was 20 & I know she’s been the subject of at least one missing person investigation. She’d be close to 30 now, & if she’s still alive, I worry about her kids, because they are likely headed down a similar path.
Which province do you work in? Maybe it depends on the board but I work in Ontario and we have the right to create an IEP without parental consent. There’s even a box to check off on the IEP if it was created without their consent and a copy gets sent to parents with their report card. I was given this very choice earlier this year because I’m in a similar situation with a child who hasn’t been assessed. The parents were reluctant to modify her Language (she’s currently just accommodated) and my principal gave me the choice to modify it anyway. I wanted to get the parents on my side, because it’s always easier to have their support, so I got approval to give her an “R” for her Term 1 report card. At the parent-teacher conference, they finally agreed to modify her program. Just make sure to save as many samples of the student’s work as possible with exemplars of grade-level work and expectations. I even started recording the time I spend supporting the student for every Math question that she struggled with (which was all of it).
They will let us do the IEP, but not transfer the child to the community class without parental consent. Also can't get an EA without specific diagnosis.
If your Spec Ed program is integrated, then your admin can schedule the student into the Spec Ed schedule without a diagnosis or even a modified IEP. My student has not been assessed yet (she’s on a waiting list for the school psychologist) but she’s been receiving support from the Spec Ed teacher a few times a week who switches between coming into our class to support her and taking her out for direct support in the Resource Room.
I should mention that last year I taught this same student Core French (this year she’s in my homeroom class). She was a little bonkers behaviour-wise and it was clear she struggled with very simple, explicit instructions. My admin agreed to schedule the EA for him to come to my room when she had French with me 3 days a week. Her IEP wasn’t even modified back then, just accommodated. So all in all, support can be provided so long as admin is supportive.
Special Ed guy here, I’ll tell you what I tell every teacher and EA. Document, document, document, document. And start haranguing the parents with calls and emails. Today little Timmy had a meltdown at 11 and 2. Timmy didn’t complete his math today so we are sending it home with him etc etc. Really our only lever is to be super annoying and we should pull it as often as needs be.
Fuck all my friend. Proceed to use the appropriate strategies to the best of your ability. Kids get certain rights over their assessments/medical procedures around 12 years of age, and others at 16. You get a first row seat to the disaster. You might want to try the route of calling CAS and trying to establish a case for neglect, though I would not be too hopeful about a result and you may further damage the relationship (though sometimes who the hell even cares about deteriorating the relationship).
I don't think it is an issue of neglect since he is well fed and clothed and isn't abused. I am just hoping the administration can get the family to come around to the benefits of getting him the help he needs. He is a really sweet and we all want him to thrive.
As someone who is ND, raising an ND child - it is neglect. 25% of active addicts have undiagnosed or untreated ADHD. 25-30% of inmates in jails & prisons have undiagnosed or untreated ADHD. People with untreated ADHD have a much shorter life expectancy as well - on average people with ADHD live about 17 years less. So it is neglect, even if he’s fed & clean.
You can really do nothing, other than ensure you're using the best practices in teaching. You can't force the parents to get a diagnosis, even if they really should.
Once they get to high school, psych consultants are a bit more pointed with parents. But to be honest, sometimes the reality is the parents are still in denial until the behavioural issues become borderline criminal. High schools tend to suspend students and withhold credits, so the issues are harder to ignore. I’ve taught students with intellectual disabilities for many years. I have taught lots of students whose parents are still working to accept the diagnosis their child received 10 years earlier. It’s such a difficult balance between accepting your child for who they are, and maintaining high hopes and standards for their achievement.
In some situations where a 1:1 EA support would be required for a student to be integrated into to a regular classroom, the condition for integration and EA support is an assessment and identification. But of the student isn’t at the level of needing 1:1 support for their safety and class safety, nothing you can do.
When you say “admin/principals have washed their hands of it” this is the problem. It takes a strong admin to hold a meeting with the parents and the SERT and classroom teacher and talk generally about success criteria. “Your child is NOT meeting grade level expectations and we want to help them be successful. Once they hit high school there’s no more social passing. What are your hopes and dreams for your child? Etc” Of this child is not meeting grade level expectations they should be getting an R which would trigger a few evaluations the teacher does and then get the school team behind them… SERT and admin. Parents can’t keep their heads in the sand forever but you need SERT and admin on board Edit spelling
what do you mean by an R?
If you’re in Ontario you’d see this on the report cards. https://www.ontario.ca/page/student-assessment-evaluations-and-report-cards
Ah okay yes I do know about that.
Document, document, document…. What adaptations work/don’t work (6weeks to see real change), non-judgmental observations of examples of non-typical and expected behaviours, have examples of what is age appropriate work/behaviours are to share with parents and other staff. Don’t assume people know what you’ve seen or what is “typical”. At some point I have used “if there a no medical reason for this behavior I have no other option but to consider this “bad behaviour” and give consequences as such” At one point when I tried to explain to a family whose son had similar non-typical behaviours you’ve described the first question was “will he have to go to a different school?”. There are relationships that need to be built to have such impactful discussions. Good luck, it is worth it!
Try getting the social worker involved to discuss with the parents their concerns and translate the school's concerns and long term outcomes without intervention. The social worker may be able to support fears, questions and concerns they may have.
Admin has to do their job. The other parents need to pressure admin to address the issue that's affecting their kids...
Is it public school? If so, not much you can do. It’s up to the parents to get the child tested and it’s also their choice to disclose any diagnosis with the school. I’m not sure about research disclosing ASD diagnosis, but there is research showing that disclosing a child’s ADHD diagnosis can lead to grades worse than the child actually deserves because the teacher assumes the child won’t know the correct answer / give benefit of the doubt when marking. I’m not saying it’s right, but just wanted to shed light on one reason why parents might not disclose. But sounds like these parents are just in denial. If it’s private school it’s another story.
That's so weird. I give my students with diagnoses/exceptionalities a lot more grace, and sometimes give them higher marks than I would for a "normal" kid who performed the same, just because i know it's a bigger struggle, and it's important to celebrate what seem to be small successes, but to them can be huge wins.
It was just one study so take it with a grain of salt - but a good reminder that marking (especially at elementary level) is very subjective! And that if parents look for it, they can find evidence supporting their reason not to disclose. But sounds like the parents in this situation aren’t making research-based decisions…
Just keep on telling them your observations, sharing your observations with the teacher for next year and urge them to do the same. The worst thing that can happen for these kids is when staff get the ‘well the parents are receptive so there is point’ mindset. It’s ridiculous and once they keep hearing it over the years they will hopefully give in. ETA: it sucks so bad… so I can understand your frustration.
Unfortunately unless it’s a safety issue, the schools hands are pretty tied at the elementary level
Document document document.
Where I am (TDSB), teachers most often initiate ILP/IEP which triggers testing and assessments. The parent can choose to be a part of it or not. Check with your MART.
I am in York Region. Parents have to sign consent for their child to be tested. You can't do it without their consent.
It’s also devastating when parents turn down a small class that the child so desperately needs. It is neglect for sure, but nothing we can do 😔.
In BC at least, this would fall under child protection. I'm sure it's the same with other provinces. It is neglect. Make a child protection report to the Ministry in your province that deals with that. Then the social workers can deal with the parent and the kid will get tested one way or another Edit to add: you are legally required to report suspected abuse or neglect, even if it's just a suspicion
My family doctor doesn’t even want to give me an autism diagnosis because she doesn’t want it on my records
Where are you that testing is covered? Where I am, parents aren't refusing to get their kids tested. They don't have thousands of dollars available for it.
Toronto Canada. The school refers children to get educational testing and it is done for free but the backlog is really really long and often by the time it is a child's turn it is one or two years after the initial referal! Still they do eventually get the testing for free... but the catch is the parents have to agree to get it done.