In earlier years, BC school districts made earnest efforts to improve accessibility and inclusion for students with disabilities. However, as funding pressures mounted, many districts began viewing supports and accommodations as costs to mitigate rather than commitments to honour. This shift can be traced back to policy changes in the early 2000s, when the government under Premier Gordon Campbell and Education Minister Christy Clark introduced a “business” mindset into education.
For example, in 2002 Clark amended the School Act to let districts run for-profit business companies to generate revenue thetyee.ca. The intent was to make districts more self-sufficient, but it also infused a language of efficiency and cost-cutting into public education. Districts were encouraged to behave like businesses rather than public service providers, even opening consulting and international student enterprises thetyee.ca thetyee.ca. This business-like orientation, combined with funding shortfalls, led school administrations to prioritize budgets over the needs of vulnerable students.
One stark outcome has been the way districts handle appeals and accommodations. The BC School Act gives parents the right to appeal decisions that significantly affect their child’s education (such as denial of supports), but families increasingly report that these appeals fall on deaf ears. Instead of readily providing the recommended support, some districts seem to treat appeals as challenges to manage or avoid. Advocacy groups note that parents often must fight through lengthy processes or even file human rights complaints to get basic accommodations bcedaccess.com. In short, tight budgets and a culture of efficiency have left many families feeling that inclusion is more of an obstacle for school leaders than a fundamental duty.
Underfunding and the erosion of support services
Chronic underfunding is at the heart of the problem. Over the past two decades, education funding did not keep pace with rising costs and student needs. A legal battle between the BC government and teachers from 2002–2016 further eroded support for special needs students inclusionbc.org inclusionbc.org. During that period, thousands of specialist teacher positions (special education teachers, counselors, librarians) were lost and class size and composition limits were removed, only to be restored after the Supreme Court ruled in teachers’ favour inclusionbc.org. Inclusion BC describes those years as a “steady erosion” of supports – an entire generation of students had their right to an inclusive education undermined inclusionbc.org inclusionbc.org. Notably, in 2002 the province eliminated targeted funding for special needs students, instead giving lump-sum grants to districts momsnetwork.ca. Boards with higher numbers of students with disabilities suddenly had to cover those costs out of general funds, leading to cuts and even school closures in some communities momsnetwork.ca. This history of underfunding created a system where inclusive education supports were first on the chopping block whenever budgets got tight.
Even today, funding for inclusive education falls far short of what’s needed. School trustees across BC warn that they are “all out of Band-Aids” – after years of dipping into reserve funds to cover deficits, many districts hit a breaking point in 2025 and had to make painful cuts boundarycreektimes.com boundarycreektimes.com. The greatest victims of these cuts are students with special needs. According to the BC Teachers’ Federation, the province currently provides only about 72% of the funding that school boards say is required for inclusive education, leaving an annual shortfall of roughly $340 million boundarycreektimes.com. That gap translates into hundreds of unfilled positions for educational assistants, special educators, and other support staff. Districts like Burnaby, for example, had to reduce the number of counselors and EAs and even cut programs like adapted learning and elementary band just to balance their budget boundarycreektimes.com boundarycreektimes.com. In Surrey – BC’s largest district – a $16 million shortfall for 2025 meant plans to eliminate about 50 education assistant positions, sparking public outcry that “that’s not inclusive education” bcedaccess.com. Smaller districts are no exception: Vancouver Island North had to cut EA hours and even close a school due to a $1.1 million budget gap boundarycreektimes.com boundarycreektimes.com. The pattern is clear: when funds are scarce, supports for the most vulnerable students are the first to go.
The new Snokomish Elementary School under construction in Surrey. Even fast-growing districts like Surrey face budget shortfalls that force cuts to services boundarycreektimes.com boundarycreektimes.com.
Another consequence of underfunding is the stark wage disparity within the education system. Districts have often kept wages low for the “least powerful” staff – notably Education Assistants (EAs) and support workers – even while increasing executive salaries. EAs in BC typically earn around $25–$30 per hour, and many are only paid for 10-month work years or reduced hours (often under 30 hours a week), leaving annual incomes that hover near the poverty line. It is not uncommon for an EA supporting high-needs children to take home only around $30,000–$35,000 per year, and many must juggle second jobs or live with financial insecurity. Meanwhile, the top administrators have seen significant raises. For example, the superintendent of a mid-sized district like Cowichan Valley was paid $236,000 in 2017, rising to $273,000 by 2019 – a 15% increase in two years cowichanvalleycitizen.com cowichanvalleycitizen.com. Across multiple districts, superintendent salaries have climbed into the high-$200k range (with generous pensions and even car allowances) cowichanvalleycitizen.com cowichanvalleycitizen.com. This disparity has fuelled resentment among front-line staff and observers. They question why those making difficult budgeting decisions are rewarded so handsomely, while those tasked with the day-to-day work of inclusion – EAs who assist students with disabilities – remain underpaid and overworked. Some wonder if the lavish executive pay serves to “pay off” administrators for implementing morally difficult cutbacks, whereas fair wages for EAs and support staff are neglected. Regardless of intent, the outcome is that low-paid EAs are leaving the field (many citing burnout and financial strain), and positions go unfilled – worsening the support shortage bcedaccess.com bcedaccess.com.
Exclusion as a symptom: families and students in crisis
The human impact of these trends is profound. As supports are withdrawn or rationed, many children with disabilities are effectively being excluded from full participation in school. In practice, exclusion can mean a child is put on reduced hours (sent home early every day due to “lack of support”), placed on abbreviated programs, or even told to stay home for days or weeks at a time. Alarmingly, BC’s Ombudsperson announced in January 2025 a systemic investigation into the exclusion of students with disabilities from public schools bcombudsperson.ca bcombudsperson.ca. The Ombudsperson’s office received complaints from across the province about children being unofficially excluded with little or no instruction provided at home bcombudsperson.ca bcombudsperson.ca. Schools often cite “disruptive or unsafe behaviour” or inadequate resources as reasons for these exclusions bcombudsperson.ca. In plain terms, when a child’s needs aren’t met due to understaffing or inadequate training, the “solution” is to send the child home, denying them their right to an education. The Ombudsperson expressed deep concern that children have few avenues to address this unfairness, prompting the investigation to ensure the Ministry of Education and districts meet their legal obligations to all students bcombudsperson.ca.
Statistics gathered by parent advocacy groups paint a stark picture of how common exclusion has become. The BCEdAccess Society, which tracks these incidents, estimated nearly 4,800 incidents of exclusion in the 2021–22 school year alone bcedaccess.com. Most were cases of students only allowed to attend part of the day or being effectively “home-schooled” for extended periods because the school wouldn’t accommodate them fully bcedaccess.com. Disturbingly, almost 78% of student respondents in one survey said the school did not even explain to them why they were being excluded bcedaccess.com. This lack of transparency and accountability suggests a normalization of exclusion – a far cry from the inclusive system BC aspires to. In many instances, parents are left with no choice but to keep their kids home or seek alternative education (like distributed learning or even private schools) because the public system is not providing adequate support bcedaccess.com bcedaccess.com. Indeed, some parents have resorted to pulling their children out of brick-and-mortar schools as if loading them onto a lifeboat, because remaining in an under-resourced classroom is like staying on a sinking ship bcedaccess.com.
Families facing these challenges experience enormous stress. Many parents report deteriorating mental health, career impacts, and financial strain as they struggle to get their children’s needs met. It’s common for families to pay out-of-pocket for private assessments, therapy, or even an extra support worker – costs that can run into thousands of dollars – because the school system isn’t covering what it should globalnews.ca bcedaccess.com. For instance, one BC family had to fundraise more than $3,000 to send their son’s support worker on a school trip, even though the trip was part of his education globalnews.ca. Other parents, unable to hold a job due to constant school crises, have fallen into debt or poverty while caring for their excluded child bcedaccess.com. In an illustrative case, a professional family actually left Canada for the United States because their autistic son received more support in U.S. schools than in BC – a bitter indictment for a province that prides itself on public healthcare and education bcedaccess.com. Teachers and support staff feel the strain as well: they describe classrooms as “traumatising” environments now, where they cannot adequately help every child and witness vulnerable students being failed by the system bcedaccess.com bcedaccess.com.
It’s clear that these exclusions are not simply a byproduct of individual children’s behaviour; they are a systemic symptom of an under-resourced, misaligned system. When district leaders talk about “efficiencies,” this is the human cost: children with disabilities being treated as problems to manage, families at a breaking point, and educators demoralised because they’re forced to implement decisions they know are not in students’ best interests. As one seasoned EA observed, “kids with disabilities are being pushed out of the system, and people are being traumatised across the province – staff included” bcedaccess.com. Reversing this tragic trend will require not just money, but a profound cultural and leadership change.
Changing course: leadership, culture, and sustained commitment
To truly reverse these institutional failures, BC’s education system needs more than a one-time infusion of funds – it needs a sustained effort and a change in mindset. First and foremost, budgetary commitment must be long-term. The kind of chronic underfunding that got us here can’t be solved by a single year’s boost. Education advocates emphasise that investments in inclusive education need to be predictable and growing each year to rebuild capacity. For example, Inclusion BC called in 2016 for “significant new funding” over multiple years to restore what was lost, warning that token increases without structural change would only create new barriers inclusionbc.org inclusionbc.org. This remains true today: the province will need to close that $340 million inclusion-funding gap and adjust annually for rising costs. Sustained funding is required to hire and keep the necessary staff (teachers, EAs, specialists), to provide ongoing training, and to ensure resources like assistive technology and assessments are available promptly. Short-term fixes won’t rebuild trust – parents and educators need to see consistent support that doesn’t evaporate when the political winds shift.
Just as crucial is a leadership and culture shift within school districts. Many of the issues now can be traced to leadership philosophies that prioritise balancing budgets and avoiding deficits at all costs. While fiscal responsibility is important, it cannot come at the expense of students’ human rights.
Yet in some districts, leaders have internalised a corporate mindset so deeply that they treat special education like a liability.
Just a Parent
Institutional change will require that those in charge – superintendents, trustees, senior managers – reorient their mission back to “students first,” especially the most vulnerable students. This might involve tough conversations and even personnel changes. Frankly, if a particular district’s leadership cannot or will not champion inclusion (or worse, if they’ve been driving ableist and exclusionary practices), then new leadership who will uphold those values should be put in place. The province can support this by setting clear expectations and evaluative criteria for district leaders: success should be measured not just by balanced ledgers, but by metrics like reduced exclusion rates, improved outcomes for students with disabilities, and positive feedback from parents on support provided.
Accountability and oversight need strengthening as well. Currently, BC’s Ministry of Education often defers to local school boards on spending decisions boundarycreektimes.com boundarycreektimes.com, but this autonomy has not served students with special needs well in all cases. Advocates have identified a “lack of effective oversight” of how districts implement inclusion policies bcedaccess.com. Going forward, the Ministry should exercise a stronger role in monitoring and driving inclusive education. This could mean mandatory public reporting of how special education funds are spent in each district (to ensure those dollars truly go to the intended supports) globalnews.ca. It could also mean reinstating some form of targeted funding or enveloping for inclusion, so that money can’t be easily reallocated to other priorities. Another idea gaining traction is to audit the outcomes of Individual Education Plans (IEPs) – essentially checking whether the supports promised to each student were actually delivered and effective bcedaccess.com. An annual inclusion audit, as suggested by parent groups, would shine a light on districts that are lagging and hold them accountable for making improvements. Additionally, the appeals process under the School Act could be reformed: it should be more transparent and parent-friendly, with perhaps an independent body (outside the local district) reviewing disputes so that families don’t feel the deck is stacked against them.
Finally, any plan to fix inclusion must address the people on the front lines: teachers and EAs need support and training. Large class sizes and complex needs have left many classroom teachers overwhelmed. Professional development in inclusive practices, support from specialist educators (psychologists, therapists, behavior consultants), and adequate prep time are all essential so that teachers can successfully include diverse learners. Education Assistants, who often work one-on-one with high-need students, should have standardized training and certification. It’s encouraging that the recent provincial framework agreement included a commitment to develop standards of practice for EAs and funding for their professional learning news.gov.bc.ca news.gov.bc.ca. Implementing that will professionalize the role, which in turn must be coupled with better pay and full-time opportunities to reduce EA turnover. In short, treating EAs and support staff as the skilled professionals they are – rather than as expendable aides – is part of changing the culture to value inclusion.
In summary, reversing the long neglect of inclusive education in BC will require steady funding, accountable leadership, and a moral recommitment to the principle that public schools exist to serve all children. The current BC government (led by the NDP) has an opportunity and responsibility to lead this change. Below is a list of key actions and commitments the provincial government should take to begin righting the ship:
Key Demands for BC’s NDP Government
- Fully Fund Inclusive Education: Acknowledge and close the $340 million annual gap in special education funding in the next budget boundarycreektimes.com. The Ministry must provide enough dollars so that districts can hire the necessary staff and resources for every designated student without robbing other programs. This means increasing operating grants and indexing them to actual cost pressures like inflation and enrollment, rather than flat per-student amounts that don’t reflect higher needs.
- Improve Class Size and Composition Ratios: Stop forcing “efficiencies” that overload classrooms. Fund the smaller class sizes and composition limits that were restored by the courts, and ensure those limits are actually upheld in every district. No class should be so large or contain so many complex needs that a teacher cannot give each child adequate attention. If a class does have multiple students with special needs, provide additional adult support to that classroom. Don’t repeat past mistakes: class size and composition rules that are unfunded only create new barriers and lead to kids being shut out inclusionbc.org. The NDP must make good on the principle that those rules will be fully funded and enforced.
- Hire More EAs and Specialists (and Keep Them): Immediately allocate funding to put an Education Assistant in every classroom and a counselor in every school, as was promised boundarycreektimes.com. This isn’t an extravagant luxury – it’s the minimum for meeting student needs. Many schools also need learning assistance teachers, speech-language pathologists, school psychologists and other specialists; these positions should be increased to match caseloads. Crucially, improve the wages and working conditions for EAs and support staff so that districts can fill vacancies and reduce turnover. EAs should be able to make a living wage with full-time hours if desired. By investing in these front-line workers, the province will directly reduce student exclusions and improve classroom environments.
- End the Practice of Informal Exclusion: Direct the Ministry to revise any policies (such as Ministerial Order M150/89) that have been interpreted as allowing schools to shorten days or exclude students due to disability-related needs bcedaccess.com. Clear directives should be given: no child is to be sent home for “behaviour” or “safety” reasons unless all possible supports and interventions have been exhausted, and any removal must trigger a plan to reintegrate the student as soon as possible. The government should also ban harmful practices like seclusion and restraint of students, except in true emergency situations, as disability advocates have called for bcedaccess.com. Every school district must understand that exclusion is a last resort, not a budget tool.
- Enhance Accountability and Transparency: Implement measures to hold school districts accountable for how they serve students with disabilities. This includes public reporting on special education spending (so families can see that the funding intended for their children is used appropriately) globalnews.ca. The province should consider conducting annual inclusion audits or reviews – for example, randomly sampling IEPs to see if supports were delivered, tracking data on outcomes for students with special needs, and requiring improvement plans for districts that show high rates of exclusions or parent complaints bcedaccess.com. Additionally, provide support for families navigating disputes: fund legal aid or advocacy services for parents challenging inadequate support or discrimination (e.g. at the Human Rights Tribunal) bcedaccess.com. An improved appeals process with independent oversight would ensure that when parents raise concerns, they are truly heard and resolved fairly.
- Foster Inclusive Leadership and Culture: The Ministry should set standards and training for inclusive education leadership. School boards must be directed to prioritize hiring administrators who have a track record or training in special education and empathy for diverse learners. It may be necessary to replace or retrain certain leaders in districts where an ableist culture has taken hold. At the very least, the province can require all district leadership to undergo professional development in inclusive practices and the rights of students with disabilities. Going forward, performance evaluations for superintendents and principals should include metrics on equity and inclusion (not just financial management). The government could also create a provincial Inclusive Education Leadership Council to share best practices and problem-solve with district leaders, ensuring that no district is operating in isolation or ignorance of better approaches. The overarching goal: change the mindset from “managing” special needs to embracing them. Public education’s mandate is to serve every child – the leadership must both believe in that and be held to it.
By taking these actions, BC’s NDP government can begin to reverse the damage done by years of austerity and efficiency-driven policies. It will not be easy – meaningful institutional change never is – but it is both morally imperative and ultimately beneficial for society. As disability advocates often remind us, “Nothing about us without us.” True inclusion means students with disabilities and their families must be part of the solution, co-designing an education system that protects the weakest and honours everyone’s potential. The time of viewing inclusion as a burden needs to end. With sustained funding, accountable leadership, and genuine commitment, British Columbia can fulfill the promise of an education system that leaves no child behind.
Sources: The Tyee thetyee.ca thetyee.ca; Moms on the Move network momsnetwork.ca; Inclusion BC inclusionbc.org; Global News globalnews.ca globalnews.ca; BCEdAccess Society bcedaccess.com bcedaccess.com; BC Ombudsperson bcombudsperson.ca bcombudsperson.ca; Black Press Media/Boundary Creek Times boundarycreektimes.com boundarycreektimes.com; Cowichan Valley Citizen cowichanvalleycitizen.com cowichanvalleycitizen.com; BCEdAccess blog bcedaccess.com bcedaccess.com.