Voices & Experience
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Please lead with love: activism and disability funding changes
My children are autistic and ADHD, and for years I have watched the system grind them into shapes it found more convenient — watched accommodation requests disappear into bureaucratic silence, watched my daughter’s…
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Ollie and the architecture of the “moderate” child
In the government’s explanatory materials, there is a child named Ollie. Ollie has autism. He is highly verbal. He does not have an intellectual disability. He struggles significantly in social interactions. He also…
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What happens when a system can see the money but not the child
Robin is fourteen years old. He is officially enrolled at a Vancouver high school. The district receives Category G autism designation funding for him. The province is paying for his education. He has…
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Scarcity in public education is economically irrational and faster escalation is the only logical action
BC school districts operate under a funding model that often treats disability accommodations as optional costs instead of legal requirements. Disabled children’s access to education is framed as a budget issue to manage,…
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BC school districts spend millions fighting families instead of educating children
When parents hire lawyers to enforce their children’s right to education, people say they’re “taking money from the classroom.” But when districts spend millions on legal fees fighting those same parents? Silence. Vancouver…
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We don’t want to be doing this
I hear it constantly from other parents: “I don’t know how you do it—I could never fight the school like that.” Sometimes it comes wrapped in admiration, sometimes in uncomfortable recognition that they’re grateful not…
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On gaslighting and grief in BC schools
There’s a particular kind of heartbreak that comes not just from watching your child suffer, but from realising that the people responsible for that suffering will never acknowledge it—will never name the harm,…
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When diagnosis comes too late: autistic girls and BC education outcomes
A new longitudinal study out of British Columbia reveals something many families already know: autistic girls are being overlooked—and the consequences show up all the way through school. Using over 4,000 anonymised student…
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From power to partnership: changing how we talk to families
In the Canary Collective’s recent post, the author calls on teachers to recognise the power inherent in their role and to transform their relationships with families—especially those of disabled students—into genuine partnerships rather…
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Librarians are not expendable—they are equity in action
In our family, the library was always more than a room full of books. It was the first place my children learned to be curious on their own terms—to wander, to wonder, to…
