(May 2007). SUBJECT: Special Education Grant Funding for 2019-20 This memorandum provides an overview of all Special Education Grant (SEG) allocations and highlights key funding changes for the 2019-20 school year. Students whose families follow their conscience rights in selecting a school for their children that more closely aligns with their religious, pedagogical or philosophical convictions are barred from receiving education funding for their special education needs.Correcting this unfair practice, as this paper demonstrates, will require modest spending.
Students without a formal identification are typically supported through Individual Education Plans (IEPs) and their range of needs vary from needing more time on tests to providing assistance with learning disabilities.Students with special needs who have been formally identified through the province’s Identification Placement and Review Committee (IPRC) process have had their needs classified into at least one of five categories, including: behavioural, communicational, intellectual, physical, and multiple.Based on a number of different sources, the share of students receiving funding from the special education grant who have formally versus informally identified needs has varied over time.
For the 2018/19 school year, the Ontario government has committed to spending approximately $3 billion on special needs education through the Special Education Grant (see Table 1).The Special Education Grant is comprised of six different allocations and provided to schoolboards for funding programs, services, and/or equipment for special needs education (see Table 2).Ontario’s special needs education funding for public schools covers a wide variety of purposes, ranging from providing students who need extra help with the resources they require to the provision of specialized equipment and staff to meet students’ needs. Exceptional students who attend non-government schools are not eligible to receive education funding for their special education needs.This unfairly penalizes the most vulnerable in our communities. But the adaptive tray she needs for holding a book, which is under Ministry of Education jurisdiction, is withheld from her.
rights reserved. The largest is called IDEA Part B, which supports special education programs for K-12.
This is an issue of fundamental justice in a progressive democracy aligning with recent statements about the inherent dignity of all by the Ontario Human Rights Commission and by the United Nations convention on the rights of persons with disabilities. Recent data show 1,285 independent schools in 2018/19 in Ontario, a 43.6 percent increase in 13 years.Ontario independent schools are key contributors to the education landscape in this province by providing education to over 138,000 students. Education funding reform is long overdue for students with special needs in Ontario. Funding is provided to eligible First Nations recipients for the development of special education programs and services on the understanding that each First Nations student with special education needs is unique. Two smaller grants support preschool programs and programs for infants and families. As they are almost entirely funded by parents and philanthropists, independent schools save Ontario taxpayers at least $1.8 billion dollars annually.Not only do independent schools contribute to the financial well-being of the province, but their graduates, as shown in 2018 research from Cardus, also contribute to the civic and social well-being of the province.If a child with special needs attends a government school, that is, a public or Catholic school in Ontario, they receive government funding for equipment and services to help them learn, regardless of their disability. The formal assessment is used in the development of a student's Requests must clearly state how the proposed activities will further the objectives of the program and respond to students' high-cost special education needs and the expected results of the program.The programs or services that are to be implemented or maintained during the school year must be comparable to the high-cost special educational programs and services that are currently offered by the provincial schools.All proposals will be assessed by ISC regional offices using these For more information on submitting a request, please contact ISC by email at In order to qualify for ISC's High-Cost Special Education Program funding, an Individual Education Plan (IEP) must be in place for a student with identified special education needs.
Currently students with special needs receive special education funding only if they attend a public government school.