Michelle Kramer says when her son’s school called her, she already knew the reason before she picked up the phone.Her son, who has autism, was suspended again — sent home for lashing out at classmates. Kramer said her son acted out when he was overwhelmed by inconsistency in teachers, classrooms and routines. When that happened, he sometimes became physical with other students, causing the school to call as often as twice a week. A new report from Inclusion Saskatchewan says one in every nine students labelled as having intensive support needs was excluded from school, on a part-time or full-time basis, in the last school year. According to the organization, data it obtained this fall under the Local Authority Freedom of Information Act “revealed that about 1,250 to 1,350 disabled students across the province were excluded from attending school full time in the 2024-25 school year, despite the province’s commitments to inclusive education and student rights.”The numbers were “previously unavailable due to the province’s lack of framework to report or monitor school exclusions, and highlights the systemic patterns that undermine equity, learning outcomes, and legal obligations,” the report states.Kramer said her son was suspended so often that she had to scale back her work hours. He was navigating three disabilities: autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), she said — but he had no access to an educational assistant or extra support in the classroom for months after his diagnosis, she said. Being in a classroom with fewer students, or with someone who made him feel safe and could stay with him, would have helped, Kramer said.Michelle Kramer says having a smaller classroom, or someone who made her son feel safe and could stay with him, would’ve helped when he was lashing out at school before his autism diagnosis. (Jessie Anton/CBC)To her, the suspensions weren’t solutions, they were a temporary fix for the school, she said.“The school’s just like, ‘Yeah, this is too much. We don’t have the, you know, people power to deal with this. You need to go pick him up.’”The situation didn’t improve until this fall, when her son entered Grade 4 and the school worked to provide a more consistent environment for him, she said.“That has made a huge difference for him being able to come into school and be OK with going to school and feel calm and regulated.”She knows this kind of stability is not always guaranteed, Kramer said. “Not every kid with a disability gets that opportunity.”Exclusion a systemic issue: Inclusive Saskatchewan“The concerns that we have been raising have been validated,” said Inclusion Saskatchewan CEO Christina Martens-Funk.Students with physical disabilities, intellectual disabilities and neurodivergence, including kids with autism and ADHD, are often excluded from school, she said.Those students, typically grouped together in the “intensive support needs” category, are most likely to have their school hours reduced or to be sent home because supports aren’t available to them, she said. “That’s why we felt such a need to gather data, so we can call that out and find some better solutions.”Without the numbers, there’s no way to grasp the scale of the issue or tailor the practices and policies surrounding it, Martens-Funk said.WATCH | Class complexity to be added to Sask. teachers’ contract. How will that work?:Class complexity is to be added to Sask. teachers’ contract. But how will that work?Jason Ellis, an associate professor in the faculty of education at the University of British Columbia, shares how B.C. has handled classroom complexity in its teachers’ contract and what to expect in Saskatchewan as teachers work to finalize theirs.Part of that challenge is rooted in stigma, “because of the discrimination against people with intellectual disabilities, whose abilities and values offered to the community are not always seen or understood,” she said.It’s all part of a systemic issue, stretching across ministries, communities and generations, she said. “I think that there’s a lot of solutions we haven’t even found yet. But again, if we can’t name the problem, we can’t find solutions. And so this is just a first step in that path.”A matter of rights, NDP saysAt a news conference on Wednesday, the NDP Opposition said the province needs an emergency plan to ensure every student has access to adequate supports. “Education is a fundamental right,” said Joanne Pratchler, the Opposition’s early learning and child care critic.“And it’s innocent students that are suffering.” The situation also causes moral distress for teachers and parents who know what needs to be done but don’t have the power to make it happen, Pratchler said. Joanne Pratchler, the Saskatchewan NDP Oppossition’s early-learning and child care critic, says exclusions of students with disabilities are a result of decades of budget cuts that are piling onto classrooms. (CBC)Class sizes have grown since before the pandemic, but many of them still rely on only one teacher, she said.More teachers and educational assistants are needed, and should be in the classroom consistently, but the province has not committed the necessary money, Pratchler said.Report indicates a ‘crisis’: parent Erin Ferguson said her son has been on a half-day schedule at school after losing his educational assistant due to budget cuts. Speaking at the NDP news conference, she said the numbers in the Inclusion Saskatchewan report paint a worse picture than she expected.“That’s not a rare exception, that’s a crisis,” she said.“Because at the end of the day these aren’t numbers, they’re children. Children who want to learn, children who deserve to belong, and children who deserve to have their best chance at a promising future.” Going without the support they need chips away at their confidence, and every time they are kept out of the classroom, it sets them further back academically and socially from their peers, Ferguson said.Erin Ferguson says her son has been placed on a half-day schedule at his school after losing his educational assistant due to budget cuts. (CBC)”As a parent, that breaks you in a way that’s hard to put into words.”Ministry of Education respondsIn a response to the Inclusion Saskatchewan report, the education ministry and said it’s committed to working with school divisions.“Ensuring that every student has access to education is a priority for our government,” a spokesperson wrote in an email to CBC News.It said the province is looking to implement initiatives to help reduce pressures in the classroom, but noted school divisions are responsible for assessing student needs and making operational decisions, including staffing and how exclusions are documented and managed.
Disabled students in Sask. who need support are being excluded from school, report says
