Less Help for Special Needs Students after Secondary Diploma

Supports for special needs students have been a hot topic in British Columbia since students were integrated into mainstream classrooms almost 25 years ago. But little has been said about the supports for students who want to pursue post-secondary.

Many of British Columbia's colleges and universities have made strides towards accessibility, with disability departments and employment programs for adults born with developmental issues, those who find themselves on the autism spectrum or have learning disorders.

But it's not enough, according to special needs advocate Dawn Steele, whose 19-year-old son is on the autism spectrum. She says he spent a year upgrading English and math at Langara College, but because he was provided with little in the way of academic support he only managed to pass math, after taking both English and math twice.

"He's doing some computer courses now at night school, continuing ed, and that's pretty much been the only thing that we've been able to find that he can do. The whole thing's been extraordinarily discouraging," she told The Tyee.

With the recent announcement of the possible "suspension" of Capilano University's Access to Work Program, a specialized program preparing adults with developmental disabilities and learning disorders for work or further post-secondary study, Steele is worried the already slim options for students like her son are decreasing.

"These programs that are critical for helping youths with special needs make successful transitions to adult independence," she said.

"Given all the hoopla about 'jobs and the economy' in the recent election, this is extremely discouraging, to say the least."

'Expectation that these kids cannot learn': Steele

According to the Ministry of Education's Special Education Services manual, schools, in conjunction with district staff, representatives from other ministries and post-secondary institutions, parents, and the students themselves are supposed to develop plans to help students with special needs transition out of high school and into work or post-secondary. Planning is supposed to start as early as two to three years before high school graduation.

But Steele says no such plan was developed for her son.

"You go to the (school) counsellors and they go, 'You know, I really don't know how it works with kids with disabilities. So you've got this extraordinarily complex system, and the entire high school counselling system to help kids transition is all about serving the typical kids," she said.

"Basically what we're dealing with is the whole system is built around the expectation that these kids cannot learn, and if they got as far as Grade 12, that's about as much as you expected from them. There's nothing in place that assumes ongoing learning."

Steele took six months off work to do the full-time job of contacting university and college disability departments to find a program suitable for her son, finally settling on Langara College for upgrading.

"It's so complicated. There is no drawn out pathway that shows you how you get from high school to post-secondary training if you're a student with special needs," she said.

Steele didn't think it would be like this. She had hoped for improved options for students like her son, citing a provincial government announcement in January 2012 regarding Community Living BC (CLBC), which included a promise to increase "focus on employment and training services to allow adults with developmental disabilities to lead full, rich lives as members of their communities."

The Tyee spoke to David Hurford, CLBC's director of communications, who says there has been much progress in this area, particularly focusing on customized and local employment plans.

"(CLBC has made) a real effort to customize employment search: find out what the person's aptitudes are, and then go out into the community and match them with employers," he told The Tyee.

A customized employment plan pilot project showed a 93 per cent success rate, with 320 people getting jobs. It's a large part of CLBC's new Community Action Employment Strategy, released this March. The strategy also focuses on addressing the needs of the estimated 600 19 year-olds transitioning into CLBC services each year, including the transition planning Steele says her son didn't receive.

Hurford says CLBC has $10 million from government dedicated to implementing the strategy, which includes a 1,200 jobs target; three large-scale community pilot projects, where local plans for people with developmental disabilities are developed and implemented by local agencies and advocates; and an increased emphasis on skills training and development through scholarship programs.

'Not a traditional adult special ed program': Moscrip

But students who would benefit from CLBC's services must have an IQ below 70, which rules out Steele's son. She says CLBC only serves about 15,000 people, a small percentage of adults with special needs that require additional support in post-secondary.

A week before the provincial election, Steele sent a letter to then-advanced education minister Ralph Sultan outlining the number of students who need these supports.

"(Education) Ministry stats show the number of students with Autism Spectrum Disorders enrolled in K-12 has increased substantially each year, from 4,622 in 2008/09 to 6,301 in 2012/13," she said, adding another 18,392 students have special needs, 12,739 have a mental illness or behaviour disabilities, and 2,138 have mild intellectual disabilities.

"More students with special needs are leaving K-12 each year… and they will require a substantial increase in specialized post-secondary programming if they are to achieve their potential as productive working adults instead of living off CLBC, their parents and welfare/disability benefits their whole lives."

Steele also sent the letter to Capilano President Kris Bulcroft and Jean Bennet, dean of the School of Access and Academic Preparation, because of the proposed suspension of the university's 12-seat Access to Work Program to help make up for a $1.3 million budget shortfall.

She has yet to receive a response from either government or the university.

Access to Work coordinator Kathy Moscrip says it's a specialized program that's hard to find elsewhere in British Columbia.

"It's not a traditional adult special ed program. We were really trying to fit in with the new aim here at the university of wanting students to be able to ladder into other programs, and it's starting to show some success in that," she said.

"But it's also about work, getting them into jobs. They might have had issues with work, been fired, and can't get a job, so our program was definitely helping them in that, too."

Moscrip says the class attracts a diverse group of learners, from students with mental health issues, to learning disabilities or brain injuries. Sixty per cent of this year's 12-student class now has permanent employment, while another three students are entering mainstream Capilano University courses next year.

If the cuts go through, Moscrip says Access to Work could run again, but not the same year as they offer the department's other employment training class, Discover Employability.

"Discover Employability, that's pretty typical of all the colleges and universities in the Lower Mainland: Douglas has that, and VCC, and Kwantlen have that sort of introductory work experience program," she said, adding some students from Discover are later referred to Access to Work.

"We had one grad of (Discover Employability) who was really, really looking forward to and counting on going to Access to Work. So this young person is kind of scrambling around trying to see if she can get into anything else, because she definitely needs a supportive program."

More options means more money

The Tyee contacted BC Colleges president Jim Reed, who said no other colleges in the province are looking at suspending their special needs work preparation programs.

The Ministry of Advanced Education does have some support available for students with special needs in the form of subsidies. Ranging from a $1,000 grant that goes towards reducing student loans, to $12,000 for attendant care during class, to complete loan forgiveness, there are several programs designed to reduce financial and physical barriers to post-secondary education.

Other programs pay for the testing of learning disabilities, or cover the costs of providing adaptive technology to students with physical and mental disabilities. These services are part of the Canada–British Columbia Labour Market Agreement for Persons with Disabilities the province signed in 2004.

The Government of Canada covers 50 per cent of the cost of providing these services, up to a maximum of $30.74 million while the province recently boasted of spending "approximately $96.31 million on programs and services funded" in the 2011/2014 fiscal year, "far exceeding the expenditures needed to receive the maximum federal contribution under the agreement."

But Steele wants to see more than subsidies and employment programs. She wants regular curriculum courses adapted for special needs students.

"If (government) has an obligation to provide post-secondary training, it's not enough to say 'we only have enough money for the smart kids. So we'll attend to their needs and your kids will have to wait,'" she said, adding that 4,000 students with special needs graduate from B.C. schools annually.

"If you're providing an education system, you have a responsibility to attend to the needs of all learners. It's just not adequate to say we can only attend to the needs of some learners."

Reed says there are already high financial pressures on post-secondary in B.C. Though he isn't speaking for universities, he says they would need more funding to create those types of programs.

"I can say fairly confidently none of my colleges really have the luxury of excess funds that they would be able to put to something if something like that came up," he said, adding if the funding were available they wouldn't be opposed to offering adapted courses.