Ontario draft document proposes school staff help students with tube feeding, injection of meds

Ontario is considering a new policy that could see school staff perform some health services for students, according to a provincial government draft obtained by CBC News.

The document, which is for consultation purposes, proposes that school staff do tasks for students with disabilities. They may include cleaning of catheters, manual expression of the stomach and bladder (to help squeeze out urine), tube feeding, injecting medication, and oral or nasal suctioning.

When Nicole Lamont of Windsor first read the government draft, she thought it "was a joke." 

Her six-year-old daughter, Lilah, has a rare genetic disease known as spinal muscular atrophy Type 1. Lilah has a tracheostomy (surgically created opening in the neck), is on a ventilator and is tube-fed through her stomach. She also requires round-the-clock care from a nurse.

The thought of having an educator perform any health-related tasks on her daughter at school has Lamont worried and makes her uncomfortable.

"I was just kind of infuriated, to be honest with you," said Lamont. "All kids with special needs already are living in a world that isn't made for them as it is. They already have to fight for every single bit of care they do have."

Lamont and her husband went through months of training in order to bring their daughter home from hospital, prompting many questions about how educational workers will be trained if this draft becomes a reality.

"RNs, RPNs, PSWs — they all went to school to be able to learn how to provide this care properly," she said.

The government draft outlines training for the different health-related examples of tasks that could be given to educators. Depending on the task, it could include instruction from a primary health-care provider, parents or caregivers, or community health-care organizations.

A spokesperson for the Ontario education minister told CBC News they're looking to update a policy on health care in schools that hasn't been touched since 1984.

"Our government is working collaboratively with the Ministries of Children, Community and Social Service as well as the Ministry of Health to provide supports for students that require health and rehabilitation services in school ... to align with current best practices to best serve Ontario students," said Grace Lee, spokesperson for Education Minister Stephen Lecce. "We will continue to consult with stakeholders and partners to make sure we get this right for the most vulnerable children in our schools."

But one Windsor union called the proposal a way to cut costs by spending less on medically trained nurses and putting more on the plates of already overloaded educational support staff.

"My biggest concern is mostly for the students," said Tyler Campbell, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation's education support staff bargaining unit in Windsor-Essex.

"We should be focused on education. We should be focused on helping our most vulnerable students. We can't do that if we're performing small medical procedures in our schools," Campbell said. "Educational support staff do with all kinds of different scenarios during the day, but their main focus has to be on education."