Dear Editor,
Are you having problems with this for your child? We are and it is only going to get worse.
The government is putting a program into place called “Setting the Direction”.
In short your child will be placed into regular classrooms without any support. Do you hear me, Albertans? NO SUPPORT.
The government tells us that there are 67,000 special-needs children here in Alberta. Then we should have 67,000 parents who are not with this program. Do you want your child to get an education or be lost along the way?
We just about lost ours for this year but we fought against the school system. We are back to where we want our son to be, but will he have that next year? Probably not!
What are we, parents, going to do? Sit back and expect the teachers to fix it? That isn’t going to happen. They don’t have any authority to fix it.
So parents, don’t sit with your blinders on, because that won’t change anything. Parents need to step forward and challenge the government and school districts that have allowed this to go through without parents’ knowledge.
I have heard that some educational people are not happy with this ‘Setting the Direction’, then they need to complain to their union and get the changes done to accommodate the special needs.
Does your union have the smarts to change this or are they just there to change your salary? This will also affect the regular students. This is not a win/win situation. Will this be exclusive education that the government is calling it or will it be excluded education?
Bonnie Brunken
Leduc, Alberta