SASKATOON — Erin Gerwing is worried about how her son, Luca, will adjust once another educational assistant takes over after his current EA got laid off due to a lack of funding through the Jordan’s Principle — a child-first legal rule in Canada ensuring First Nations children receive the needed assistance regardless of jurisdictional disputes.
Gerwin’s son is in the second grade at Ecole Silverspring, which is set to lose two EAs. He is autistic and has ADHD. Her son, despite being hyperlexic, is an elopement risk, requiring him to have one-on-one care in and outside the classroom. Hyperlexia is a syndrome where a child starts learning to read at an early stage and usually beyond their expected ability.
“Throughout his school career, it's been uncertain whether he will have that support. It's always a concern whether he can attend school that day if the support is there. I know hundreds of other families across Saskatchewan are being told to keep their children home because of a lack of EA support,” said Gerwing.
“I know many parents across Saskatchewan are told to keep their children home part-time. It's not a reasonable solution. Parents need to go to work; children need to go to school, learn, and be part of their peer group. Our children need, desperately, to be able to go to school, to be integrated into classrooms and to have that support as they grow.”
She added that attending school teaches children, especially those on the spectrum like Luca, to become independent and prepares them to be successful community members. However, consistency in learning and care is needed, and Gerwig cited her son as an example. Kids with autism and ADHD are used to following a specific routine that they learned while growing up.
“Every time they switch up EAs on him [he becomes disruptive], which happens a lot, he goes through a period where he either builds trust with somebody or rejects them. It's been tough for him to regulate when he's with somebody he can't communicate with or feels uncomfortable with.”
She added that having a new EA regularly disrupts his son's education experience because children like him can't learn if they are dysregulated or unable to control their emotions. They display specific adverse effects during interaction with others in the back of the classroom. Her son still needs assistance going to the toilet, and the EA who helps him is one of the 80.
“My son, he's a genius, but he falls behind socially and cannot properly take care of himself. He has the potential to be anything in the world, but he won't be able to reach that potential without the support going through school and being taught how to be a member of society,” said Gerwing.
“EAs are crucial in all that, not only for his benefit. If left in a classroom with no EA, he will be disruptive, ruining the education experience for the other children. We were told that she would stay until April, and we don’t know. I don't know what else we can do except keep writing letters and speaking out.”
She said teachers have already been swamped with at least 30 children in each classroom. Schools do not provide additional staff like librarians, psychologists, and counsellors, giving educators the feeling of being alone. The news of 80 EAs being laid off is another blow to the educational system.
“The news is that EAs are being laid off in an already stripped-down system, and so many children are going without help. EAs don't only mean 80 children without help; each helps four to five children in schools. Hundreds of kids are going to be left behind. We shouldn't have been ever relying on the federal government. The provincial government has been stripping our school system bare for years,” said Gerwing.
“Knowing that Luca and all these other children will be left behind is scary. That's why we're standing here. He's going to school full-time, and hopefully that will continue. I'm going to keep fighting for that. Every child deserves an education. Every kid deserves to be in the classroom with the proper support. It's up to our government to make that happen.”
Gerwing said that she and other parents, like her and educators, affected by the layoff are standing up to have their voices heard, pressure the federal and provincial governments to act on this, and prevent problems that may soon arise with limited school staffing.
“This isn't just about my son. This is about the hundreds of kids who are going to be affected. Taking EAs away from our schools, even if my son still gets a one-on-one EA, means other children within that school are left without. We already need more EAs in our schools, so to cut 80 is brutal,” she added.
Shadow Minister for Education Matt Love, who joined other parents and some teachers in a media briefing on Monday, Feb. 10, at their constituency office, said the situation of Gerwing and other families speaks to the critical point in our school system, where certain school divisions rely on non-sustainable funding that can come and go.
“It isn't predictable, and they're making challenging staffing decisions based on constantly changing things. That's not the system that any of us would want for our kids to constantly be at risk of losing that one-on-one EA support your child needs to attend school. To only have certainty for a few weeks or months. Those are symptoms of an unhealthy system,” said Love, the MLA for Saskatoon Eastview.
“I'm calling on this [provincial] government to step in today and provide the support needed to ensure these 80 EAs can stay on the job. If they're unwilling to do that today, they need to bring the kind of investment into education in this year's budget that is adequate, predictable, and sustainable. So that school divisions can staff the needs of those walking into our classroom daily.”
