We arrive at the school gates each September with anxiety rising in my chest, knowing that the forms, reports, and professional recommendations assembled over years have already demonstrated what is required for my child’s success; and yet, year after year, he steps across the threshold into an environment that has failed to prepare for him.
From assessments to multi-disciplinary support plans, our family has obtained signed consent, convened school-based teams, and devised detailed individual education plans — all intended to ensure that my child can learn safely, consciously, and with dignity.
And still, each autumn morning begins with an empty slate: no teacher briefing no educational assistant. We need to wait. We stopped sending the kids to the first week of school to give the staff some runway.
Overriding medical recommendations
Why does the system erase years of advocacy and professional guidance overnight? What protocol permits every recommendation to vanish when the school year resets? I need an explanation! I need to understand how a structure built on inclusion can justify beginning with zero support for a student whose needs are already documented.
This pattern is not a benign oversight. It undermines trust, fractures partnerships, and forces families into an endless cycle of catch-up work — negotiating with administrators, re-submitting paperwork, pleading for meetings that should never have been postponed. The emotional labour of navigating these delays falls squarely on parents and carers, who must summon courage and perseverance simply to obtain what has already been authorised.
I beg you
I write this blog post as a direct request to the special-education coordinator, to the principal, and to the district officials who hold the power to change course. Please explain the rationale behind this annual reset. Please share the policy that permits supports to be documented in June but withheld in September. Please demonstrate your commitment to your own inclusion mandates by ensuring that every professional recommendation is operational on day one.
Inclusion demands continuity
Equity requires foresight. A child whose needs are known cannot wait while bureaucratic wheels turn. Our advocacy is not an optional extra; it is a lifeline that affirms our child’s right to learn, to thrive, and to belong.
So I ask again: why does my child start every school year without adequate support in place?
He stopped going to school
Two weeks before March break, he stopped walking through the door. Stopped holding out hope. Stopped pushing himself to survive another day in a place that refused to meet him where he was.
And I do not blame him.
This system was never ready for him. Not in kindergarten, when we were told to wait. Not in grade three, when the team forgot to assign support staff. Not this past September, when once again the supports listed plainly on his plan were nowhere to be found. Their goals are focussing on his independence.
-
A glossary of conditional care
This is a field guide—a survival text for parents who’ve sat through too many meetings where care was promised, repackaged, and quietly withdrawn. These aren’t just phrases. They’re policies. They’re structural violence written in the language of care. They mark the edges of…
We will not send him back in September. Not to another year of performative planning and policy theatre. Not to another year of being punished for needing what was promised. You are not ready for him. So we will not deliver him to your doorstep, only to watch him be erased.
