SPECIAL EDUCATION
All children deserve a high-quality education that recognizes their diverse needs and abilities.
For decades, Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (ETFO) has advocated for Ontario’s public education system to mandate and fully fund the supports and programs necessary to make this goal a reality for children with disabilities.
In 2002, ETFO released Fulfilling the Promise: Ensuring Success for Students with Special Needs, a position paper that summarized issues in special education caused by the policy and funding changes made by the Mike Harris Conservative government. Informed by input from classroom education workers, the paper included recommendations for the Ontario Ministry of Education that would have supported the success of children with disabilities.
These recommendations were largely ignored and – 23 years later – the same issues in special education persist. In fact, they have worsened. Promises Unfulfilled serves as a renewed call to action to finally address the shortcomings of a failing system and ensure success for children with disabilities in Ontario.
SEAC Chair David Leopofsky’s letter to Paul Calandra
March 3, 2026
Reference:
We seek your help for TDSB’s 40,000 students with disabilities/special education needs, because you are now the elected official with ultimate responsibility for TDSB operations while under provincial supervision.
Under longstanding provincial law, each school board must appoint a SEAC to advise it on the development and implementation of special education, including, among other things, on the board’s special education budget and Special Education Plan. Our SEAC members bring to bear extensive community connections and lived experience with the challenges in the school system facing students with disabilities/special education needs and their parents/guardians.
Too often, students with disabilities/special education needs face recurring barriers in Ontario’s K-12 schools. The Government received a comprehensive report over four years ago from a Government-appointed panel that extensively documented these barriers and recommended reforms to remove and prevent them. TDSB’s student population comes from Canada’s largest and most diverse city. The intersectional disadvantages that its students with disabilities/special education needs are thereby intensified.
Since the Government removed the TDSB’s school board trustees and appointed the provincial TDSB Supervisor, the situation facing TDSB students with disabilities/special education needs has not demonstrably improved. In several ways, things have gotten worse for them.
Please direct the TDSB Supervisor to attend TDSB SEAC meetings. The representatives of parents of students with disabilities/special education needs wish an opportunity to address him directly, to have him hear of their concerns and to work collaboratively with him on finding solutions.
Previously, we had trustees attending every SEAC meeting, some as members, and often, simply as interested trustees. At some of the school boards that the Ontario Government has taken control over, your appointed Supervisor has attended at least some of their SEAC meetings. In sharp contrast, the TDSB Supervisor has not attended any of the monthly TDSB Special Education Advisory Committee Meetings, even though he stepped into the shoes of the school board trustees. Several trustees were members of SEAC. The Supervisor has been invited to attend each of our monthly SEAC meetings since He assumed his role last year.
Since the Supervisor was appointed, we have raised several issues with him in writing that are major concerns for students with disabilities/special education needs. We have asked him to take action to address these concerns. He has not taken any of the actions that SEAC requested. He has given no reasons for this.