The appointment with the principal of the elementary school located in York region was scheduled at 3:00p.m. I arrived there at around 2:30p.m. as I did not want to be late. I signed in at the school office and was given a Visitor's tag to identify myself.
S. arrived a few minutes later and signed in at the office. Since we were here early, I told S. to request to see her son's OSR ( the Ontario Student's Record) to learn more information which the school has about her son. Upon hearing our request, the Secretary appeared to be a little taken back and told us to wait for a few minutes.
Every Ontario student has an OSR housed in the public school where the child is currently attending. This record contains all the information such as report cards, assessment reports, special meeting notes, requests for special help and resources by the parents and school personnel etc. Principals and school staff can access this file to retrieve information about the child and help them to understand the needs of that student. The custodial parents are entitled to see their children's OSR and request access to the information stored there. The OSRs are kept in the schools for at least fifty years.
However, most parents are not aware of the existence of the Ontario Student Records for their children and even fewer parents ever request to see them.
Shortly after we requested to see the OSR for S.'s son, the principal showed up to talk to us. Though S. had talked to the school secretary to make an appointment, the principal informed us that there was no record of S.'s request for an appointment. But since she had to be present when parents were looking through the OSR, she informed us that she would only had a few minutes with us.
We sat down in the Principal's office and looked through J's OSR. The OSR contained all the report cards since he entered kindergarten, and a referral form from his kindergarten teacher for special assessment and help dealing with the disability regarding his hand.
Unfortunately, there was no other reports, assessments or any follow up by any of the school personnel. Report after report noted some difficulties in J. academic achievement but time after time there was no referral or his name being brought up to any school support team meeting.
As a former public school principal, I was outraged at the non actions and uncaring attitude of the school from kindergarten on up until the present moment. J. is in Grade 6 currently. Yet nothing has been done and no teacher has paid enough attention to him to notice anything different about him.
But in a recent out of school setting, I had an encounter with J. who cried non stop for over half an hour for an activity he did not wish to participate. His behavior and emotional outburst alarmed me.
What could have triggered such an avalanche of emotions from this young person? Have he been teased about his disability? Was he a victim of bullying in school? What was his emotional state? How does he see himself compared to other normal children? How has he been treated by his peers?
We asked the principal these questions about J. She was unable to answer any of them as she had never met J., never heard of him being discussed in any school support meetings. We demanded that actions be taken and to meet with the teachers and school support school staff who could offer assistance to J. that was suggested seven years ago.
We are currently awaiting to see what the York District School Board would do to make up for the seven years of service and assistance that J. could have received since 2009 as recommended by his kindergarten teacher when he first entered school. This referral form has been file in J.'s OSR, but all his teachers from Gr. 1 - 6 failed to notice it and therefore did not take any necessary actions for him.
J. has lost seven precious years where he could have received remedial and professional help to deal with physical disability. But he did not! The York District School Board has failed to meet the needs of students attending their schools!
R.T.
Markham, Ontario
Disappointed with the York Region District School Board
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