Inclusive education in Nova Scotia not working, some parents say

Some parents in Nova Scotia say they're taking their kids out of school or considering leaving the province altogether because the province's inclusive education policy is failing their children.

"It's not the people that are the problem, it's the system. The system is broken," Danielle Kellough said of the public school system. "When a child needs one-on-one help, they need one-on-one help."

Kellough's 10-year-old daughter, Anna, has sensory processing disorder. She's easily alarmed by loud noises, sensitive to bright lights and she can often become anxious or angry for reasons that might not be so obvious to others. 

Three years ago, her parents removed her from school because they said her needs weren't being accommodated.

Danielle said the school did not have enough resources, educational assistants or understanding of her daughter's sensory needs to foster a positive learning environment. 

She said Anna's requests for sensory breaks — a chance to leave the classroom for a short while to refocus or calm down — were often ignored because staff were too busy with other students.

"She did so well being in school for so long, but that was because of her own coping mechanisms," said Danielle, now Anna's full-time teacher and caregiver. "Now she is so strongly against going back that it causes her severe anxiety to even consider it." 

CBC News has spoken to more than 10 parents who've removed their children from the province's public school system for similar reasons. Their children have disabilities, and they say their respective schools were not equipped to support them. 

The Department of Education has previously told Nova Scotia Auditor General Kim Adair that it has increased the number of full-time teacher assistant and learning centre teacher positions significantly since 2016.

But in her June 2024 report on school violence, Adair said that educators are still "experiencing challenges" implementing the province's inclusive education policy. 

"At the schools we visited, a common theme in our interviews was the lack of proper support for educators to manage the diverse needs within a typical classroom," Adair wrote in the report. 

Nova Scotia's inclusive education policy was implemented in September 2020. It's not been revised since. 

When asked about inclusive education in June, Elwin LeRoux, the deputy education minister, said people often misunderstand the policy. 

"Our inclusive education policy does not say every student needs to be in every classroom every single day or all of the time," he said.