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Edmonton Public School Board trustees have voted to strike a project out from its three-year capital plan that would have created a dedicated school for students with autism.
A report from the EPSB’s administration said the proposed Autism Centre of Excellence would provide specialized care and learning needs for children with autism, while also relieving capacity pressures for already existing schools.
At a meeting on Tuesday, trustee Sarah Doll introduced a motion to take it off the capital plan, with five trustees voting in favour of that motion. Trustees Sherri O’Keefe, Linda Lindsay, Julie Kusiek voted in opposition of that motion.
Doll said there were concerns that prevented her from supporting the project’s progression.
“My top concerns here are the fact that every kid with autism is different, and every kid needs something different,” she said.
The capital plan, which also includes 16 other school construction projects between 2027 and 2030, will now go to the province for funding approval — minus the $25 million ask for the Autism Centre of Excellence.
In a statement to CBC News, Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides said Wednesday the Alberta government had provided $300,000 to support pre-planning for the school.
“It is deeply disappointing that Edmonton Public has chosen to cancel this project. The school had the potential to deliver significant benefits for students with autism,” the statement read.
Critics say school wouldn’t have been inclusive
The proposed centre would educate 106 students with severe cases of autism, but the building itself was intended to accomodate more than 300 students.
The school was proposed last spring, then a feasibility study was completed — which looked at how programming might have worked.
Since then, parents and advocacy groups have spoken out against the project.
“You’re not creating inclusive spaces for learning and building community, or teaching anyone to implement universal design for learning by segregating students into a stand-alone school,” said Rosemarie Jordan, a mother of a teen with specialized learning needs in the public school system.
Heather Brown, an associate professor of education at the University of Alberta, was behind the feasibility study, and has autism herself.
She said there aren’t enough resources to make standard classrooms places where students with autism can thrive.
“Full inclusion is being invited into a space where I feel comfortable, that I’m willing to take risks, that I feel like I can be safe and that I am willing to learn and try things that are hard for me — that is a very different definition of full inclusion.”
Trustee Holly Nichol said resources should be put into special learning needs programs already in schools.
“We also have a responsibility to those families to ensure that our funding that we are allotted … is being spent to help the greatest number of people possible,” she said.
“I can’t see how from a financial standpoint and from an equality standpoint, that we can go ahead with this project.”
Kusiek, who voted against Doll’s motion, said the school would have provided more options for families of children with autism.
She said while it might seem like a drop in the bucket, a specialized school would still be helpful for 106 families.
“If it’s built by the province, with us there to influence that work, can you imagine the trickle down and cascading impacts of the ability to serve students with autism throughout the province?” Kusiek said.
She said she believes if the EPSB doesn’t build the school, private groups could take over.
Kusiek also pointed to other specialized schools like the Alberta School for the Deaf and L.Y. Cairns School, which provides education for students with intellectual disabilities.
Trustee Nickela Anderson said the school board needs to exercise caution when providing services to students with diverse needs.
“We have to be really careful about how we lump our students with diverse needs. We can’t pull them into one bucket because they’re not,” she said.
“I just think we need to be nuanced and considerate and thoughtful, and we can’t take big broad sweeps when we’re talking about our students.”
Multiple trustees said EPSB would need to engage with the community if the school board were to consider revisiting the project in the future.