Things have been interesting at best over the last couple of weeks. First the news was leaked that the new TA contract in NB will allow only seniority to be considered in job postings, ignoring the need for specialized ABA training for students who are autistic. Despite varied attempts to get any clarification, nothing has been said that would either confirm or deny this position and so we are forced to operate as if it were fact.
Then on Monday our son’s TA, that he has for the recess before school, was taken away. The reason essentially was valid, a new child was brought into the school that required a full time TA and she was next in line for a full time student. The problem is that she was supposed to be replaced by a casual TA. However the casual system is a problem simply because for the last week and perhaps longer there has not been sufficient TA’s on the casual list to meet the needs of the school (we are hearing around 3 TA’s a day are not being covered.) Realistically the new student should have been placed with a new TA instead of taking an existing student’s TA.
The major issue here is that my son, who is a major flight risk, with a proven lack of fear of traffic and a fascination with fire trucks (there is a fire station directly across the road from the school) has no TA to cover him during the time when he should be out on the playground before school starts. Now the problem with this is that there are few solutions, Either I have him sit in the car till school starts (there is a different TA available for him at that time however they are with another student before this time) or I take him out on the playground myself. But I leave work to take my children to school and this means taking an additional 15 to 20 minutes away from work (as well as extra time lost due to increased traffic at the later time) or I make our NT daughter suffer by only arriving at school in time for school to start and therefore depriving her of her chance to play with her friends.
Now we are in a situation where we are forced to push a meeting with our son’s team at school. The issues are slowly piling up and this just happened to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. The funny thing is that it could have been easily solved simply by hiring a replacement TA. The problem is that because this is a union position a child’s wellbeing is placed in jeopardy because the position needs to be “posted” and applications taken. I feel that perhaps in this particular meeting we really need to include the minister of education and the union head for the TA’s because ONE thing needs to be made excessively clear. THE SAFETY OF THE CHILDREN AND THE NEEDS OF THE CHILDREN ARE PARAMOUNT FAR AHEAD OF THE NEEDS OF MAINTAINING “UNION INTRESTS”
Five things that need to be made right
- No autistic student should be given a TA who is not ABA trained
- If a TA needs to be replaced mid year that hiring should take place by the next day
- Full ABA must be integrated into the classroom to give the child the best chance of integrating and learning
- The size of the casual TA list needs to be increased if the present list cannot meet the demands and this needs to be “immediate”
But one important note on this. I have not mentioned my child’s teacher in this post as long as it may be. That is for one reason and that is because to date I have found my son’s teacher to be the best of the three he has had over the last two years (and by a major margin) even though I admit to having initial reservations. I am quite willing to admit that I was proven wrong and she has proven to be great at including him and involving him in the parts of his education that she is involved with.
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