6.2 Increased funding for special education programs

Special education (CTCC)

Care and/or Treatment, Custody and Correctional (CTCC) Programs are delivered outside of the school system for children and youth who are unable to attend school due to their primary need for care, treatment and/or rehabilitation.

All students with demonstrable learning needs are entitled to appropriate accommodations in the form of special education programs and services, including classroom based accommodations based on an assessment of a student’s individual learning needs. However, to this day CTCC programs are not available across the province in French.

These classes, created under Section 23 of O. Reg. 215/16 provide education to students whose academic and therapeutic needs can only be met outside the regular institutional framework.

In view of the absence of CTCC programs, parents whose children need access to such classes, more often than not, face the difficult choice of sending their children to an English-language institution. In addition, the great distances that children have to travel for access to French-language programs also results in families switching from French-language institutions to English-language ones.

The situation led to many complaints in 2009 about the lack of day treatment education programs for Francophones aged 13 to 18 in the Toronto area. Along with these complaints, requests by local community leaders for such a program have been denied for funding reasons.

Effectiveness of the intervention

Initially, the Commissioner tried mediation on this issue to find a solution for Toronto-area children, and later he made a recommendation in his 2010-2011 annual report. He urged the Ministry of Children and Youth Services to make day treatment education programs available for Francophones aged 13 to 18 in Toronto. He also recommended that the government study the situation for the entire province.

In 2011-2012, he had to revisit the issue and take the government to task once again. In view of the Ministry’s failure to act, he complained that this trivialization of the needs of Francophone children was a threat to their future. The Ministry of Children and Youth Services continued to collaborate with service providers to support the needs of Francophone youth in Toronto prior to the introduction of the Espace jeunesse program, providing Francophones aged 13 to 18 with access to French-language services.

However, this advance is limited and does not cover the entire province. It does not guarantee access to day treatment education programs for Francophone children in other parts of Ontario. Some children still have to travel for hours every day to get access to services, a situation that continues to weigh on the Commissioner.

The access problem also remains unresolved. When pre-school children with special needs do not have access to specialized programs in French, parents often choose to enroll them in the English language system. Programs are more readily available in English schools. Those are concerns that the Commissioner has raised and continues to discuss with Ministry senior officials. The Commissioner is considering intervening more forcefully on this issue in the next year.