Parents still struggling to secure remote learning for at-risk kids days ahead of school

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — With parents and teachers still concerned about the safety of schools, the president of the BC Teachers’ Federation is reaching out to offer support, while advocates and parents say remote learning options remain inequitable.

Tracy Humphries, founder of BC-Ed Access, a group working toward access to education for kids with diverse abilities, says a lot of children are being left behind with classes beginning in a matter of days.

“I saw, more recently, the Ministry of Education doing some really, really good workaround ensuring that that language was really clear to school districts in terms of supporting students with disabilities,” she says, but adds not every school district has managed to offer the support parents say they need to keep families safe from COVID-19.

Kaye Banez is the vice president of Autism BC and a mother of two. She says her eight-year-old son, Lazarus, has trouble physically distancing because he relies on touch to understand and interact with the world around him.

She had previously been told he would lose his space in the public school system if he wasn’t back in class by November, but after fighting for support, she has secured his space in remote learning and preserved his spot in his current school.

“The process itself is unfair because if you’re saying this is a right and that school districts [need to] have flexibility to provide these accommodations, why not provide them in the first place,” she says.

She says other parents are still struggling to secure accommodations for their neuro-diverse children and that provincial requirements to do so are not being applied consistently.

RELATED:

• Vancouver schools creating new at home option for elementary students

• Small learning groups, quarter semesters part of B.C.’s finalized back to school pandemic plans

• B.C. should push back-to-school date to October, says expert

• B.C. school districts decide how to use federal funding: education minister

In late August, Minister Rob Fleming directed school districts and independent schools to confirm if families plan for their kids to attend classes in person or if they need remote learning options.

Most districts report a majority of students are expected in full-time, in-class environments and have been releasing details about what back to school will look like, including in North Vancouver and Langley where about 80 per cent of students are expected to return and all staff and students will be given two reusable, non-medical face masks.

Langley has laid out a “Transition Support Model” for students who are not ready for full-time in-class instruction, which includes later return dates, increased online learning and will use multi-grade learning models. The model is meant to be temporary with those students expected back in classrooms after the first quarter. (Most schools have moved away from semesters and trimesters to quarter systems to accommodate new learning environments and safety needs).

The union representing teachers says it will continue to advocate for the hiring of more educators and that “the Ministry of Education’s clumsy rollout of the restart plan means there is inequity in working and learning conditions across the province.”

The president of the BC Teachers’ Federation is encouraging teachers to create a culture of mask-wearing and immediately report any safety issues to their employer, saying the union has their back.

The province is using an injection of federal funding to bolster remote leaning and health and safety by allowing districts to spend an initial $101.1 million in 2020 “to hire and train more teachers and support staff for remote learning; purchase additional software licences, electronic course materials and textbooks; purchase computers or tablets; and create Wi-Fi hubs and internet access in remote and Indigenous communities.”