Inclusive Education Month Week 4

The benefits of inclusive education

· Students with disabilities can acquire basic communication and motor skills through interactions with peers without disabilities who provide them with cues, prompts and consequences.
· Findings suggested that students with disabilities in mainstreamed classrooms made greater overall academic gains than did their peers with similar disabilities in segregated classrooms
· The inclusive classrooms focused instruction to a significant extent on academics (72% of the time) as compared to the segregated setting (24% of the time). Peer to peer instruction was more common in inclusive (18%) than in segregated settings.
· Students with disabilities can learn, be accepted and interact with other students in their environment
· Inclusion facilitates more appropriate social behaviour because of higher expectations in the general education classroom.
· Inclusion promotes levels of achievement higher or at least as high as those achieved in self-contained classrooms.
· Inclusion offers a wide circle of support including social support from classmates without disabilities.
· Improves the ability of students and teachers to adapt to different teaching and learning styles.
· Students with disabilities in inclusive classrooms talked and spent more time with their schoolmates while engaged in particular activities that students in special education classrooms.
· Studies indicate that students in inclusive settings avoided low self-esteem that can result from placement in a special education setting.
· Social competence and communication skills improve in inclusive settings.

For more information on Inclusive education go to :http://inclusiveeducation.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2013/07/Commentary-Booklet-FINAL.pdf

Inclusive Education Month Week 3

Did you know…
The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities states that everyone has the right to an inclusive education. Canada was among the first countries to sign the convention. The Ontario Human Rights Commission has affirmed that educational services must promote inclusion and full participation and Regulation 181/98 of the Education Act in Ontario has called for placement of children who have an intellectual disability in regular classrooms as a first option.

For more information on Rights in Education please go to:
http://www.archdisabilitylaw.ca/introduction-disability-human-rights-ontario%E2%80%99s-education-system

DEVELOPMENTAL SERVICES WAITLIST CLASS ACTION

The statement of claim alleges that the issue of waitlists for desperately needed services has been a repeatedly identified issue for years, which Ontario has continued to ignore and failed to act upon in any reasonable manner. The claim alleges, among other things, that Ontario has been negligent, breached fiduciary duties, and breached duties it owes to the class members under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, by virtue of these waitlists, some of which can last for years at a time as a result of the broken system.  Click on link below to read more

https://kmlaw.ca/cases/ontario-support-services-waitlist-class-action/

What is a class action? A class action is a lawsuit which provides a method for a large group of people with common claims to join together to advance one large claim.

Inclusive Education Month Week 2

Did you know….. 
 
Education is a cornerstone in the shaping of a person’s life-long citizenship. It plays a significant role in determining the nature and extent of social inclusion, employment opportunities, and participation in and contribution to the community. 
 
Inclusive education also has a positive impact on other students. It provides all students with invaluable lessons in cooperation, consideration of others and respect for diversity. 
 
“Inclusive education is about embracing all, making a commitment to do whatever it takes to provide each student in the community—and each citizen in a democracy—an inalienable right to belong, not to be excluded. Inclusion assumes that living and learning together is a better way that benefits everyone, not just children who are labeled as having a difference.” Falvey, Givner & Kimm 

For more information on Inclusive Education please go to: 
http://inclusiveeducation.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2013/07/Porter-and-Towell-Advancing-IE-2017-Online-FINAL.pdf