B.C. group calls for school funding transparency for children with special needs

A B.C. advocacy group says the government needs to take a closer look at how school districts are spending funds designated for children with special and complex needs.

Armstrong, B.C., resident Michael Reynolds’ family had to fund more than $3,000 to send the Grade 10 student on a trip to England with a support worker.

His family already had to pay more than $5,000 for his trip but because Michael was born with a rare condition called panhypopituitarism, he wasn’t able to travel without help.

Advocates are now questioning why the family should have had to raise funds themselves when the government sends hundreds of millions of dollars per year to school districts for special education.

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“Although there’s funding allocated to school districts from the Ministry of Education to support inclusion, it’s hard to really track,” Karla Verschoor, the executive director of Inclusion BC told Global News.

“One, if that is enough money to meet the needs of the district, and two, how is it being utilized to support the inclusion of individual students? Because although the designation is attached to the student, the funding doesn’t go directly to that student. It goes to the school district to use as a pool to create inclusive opportunities for students with disabilities or support youth in their learning.”

The B.C. Education Ministry says it has been steadily increasing funding for special education and estimates school districts will be receiving more than $950 million this school year.