(no subject)

[velvetpage]

Okay, scenario is as follows. An American woman marries a Canadian man and moves here illegally. She has a nine-year-old daughter, no ex appears to have any say in this child, and the child is also American. The school board (my employer) has denied the girl the right to attend school because, as an illegal alien, no one will be paying her fees. They want Mom to pay the fees ($9000 approximately) so she can go to school. Mom can't afford it, Stepdad can't even afford to sponsor his new wife properly or adopt the child let alone pay the fees, and the child has been homeschooled for two years as a result. She is not learning, probably because Mom doesn't know what she's doing and doesn't know how to find out. Oh, and the girl is special-needs, too, which means the education that's right for her would probably cost a lot more than the province would pay for to begin with.

[Poll #419060]

Comments

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I agree, but I can also see the problem from the school board's point of view. Spec ed. is expensive. There is extra funding available once the child is officially identified, but it comes from the same source as the original funding, so if she's not getting that, she's not getting the extra either. Our board is chronically short of cash, and they're constantly trying to cut back on special ed. because the funding formula doesn't allow for as much spec. ed. help as Hamilton needs to begin with. Add a spec. ed. kid who is not getting funding - I understand why they balked.

But to let the situation go for two years? That was irresponsible. They should have had the girl in school while they talked to the province and got Immigration involved.

[anidada.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it doesn't take two years to notify the authorities (though it might take the authorities two years to move on it!) -- and it doesn't sound like they were delaying that notification for the sake of the child, or anyone else, so they've got no excuse, IMO.

I know that funding is tricky business, but I still think that at the very least they could've had her in school part-time. It's possible to homeschool a child with special needs, it's not possible to do so if you don't have any resources to back it up (regardless of the parents' background and abilities) -- so if they could even have offered some help in that regard, without having her as a regular student (which is what happens in some regions with homeschool kids of any stripe), the cost might've been lessened, and she wouldn't lose two years of education. As it is, who knows if she can make that up?

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

From the account in the Spec, I would estimate she's as far behind as the most needy of my students. She's going to need special class placement for a while if she's really going to catch up. She's unlikely to get that, though, because the waiting lists are incredibly long for those placements, and she's not on any lists. Her best bet is to get into a school with a caring LRT, and accept some of the help the family has been offered - such as free tutoring from a retired teacher. With any luck, her issues are more attentional than academic and she'll catch up somewhat before middle school next year.

[anidada.livejournal.com]

It looks like (from what I read today) that local folks have put up the money for her to go to school, and that the head of a local private tutoring company's going to help her get up to speed at no charge. That's very cool -- but I hope that this serves as a cautionary tale and that the situation improves for the other kids who are no doubt in a similar position.