Denial of Accommodation
In schools, denial of accommodation may be obvious, such as refusing an education assistant, assistive technology, communication support, sensory adjustments, accessible materials, or a modified environment. It can also be indirect: delaying support, requiring unnecessary proof, offering an accommodation that does not actually meet the need, placing a child on a partial schedule, calling repeated pickups “safety planning,” or treating disability-related distress as behaviour instead of asking what access has failed.
The key issue is not whether the institution offered something. The question is whether the response provided meaningful access. A plan that exists on paper but does not let the child safely attend, learn, communicate, regulate, or belong may still amount to a denial of accommodation.
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When the complaint becomes the problem
The Canary Collective has published a piece Risk Assessment and Liability Management: The Hidden Function of Complaints that describes the process by which a parent raising legitimate concerns about their child’s education is transformed, through careful documentation and strategic delay, into a risk to be managed rather than a voice to be heard. The article…
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BCTF lobbies for changes to new literacy screening mandate
The BC Ministry of Education and Child Care announced a new mandate this week requiring literacy screening for all kindergarten students beginning in the 2025–26 school year, expanding to K–3 students the following year. The British Columbia Teachers’ Federation published their response, which deserves careful attention. No budget for implementing literacy screening Everyone can see…
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School discipline in British Columbia: what parents of disabled children need to know
In British Columbia, school discipline is usually described as a neutral, even benevolent process. Brochures reassure parents that discipline is not punishment, that it teaches self-control, and that consequences help children learn responsibility. The Vancouver School Board’s Discipline at Home and School guide follows this script exactly. It explains that: On paper, this sounds reasonable.…
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Subgrouping autism and ADHD based on structural MRI population modelling centiles
A June 2025 neuroimaging study examining brain structure patterns across individuals with autism, ADHD, and combined diagnoses, published in Molecular Autism by Pecci-Terroba and colleagues applies population modelling to cluster participants based on centile scores for cortical thickness, surface area, and grey matter volume, using HYDRA—a semi-supervised machine learning algorithm that identifies subgroups based on…
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The material costs of educational harm
My son no longer attends school. He no longer wants anything the education system offers. He has taught himself programming, navigates Linux with expertise that exceeds my own knowledge, learns alone in his room because learning with others became too expensive to survive. The district asks affectionately how he is, suggests I login to their…
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Kamloops mother speaks after district ignored daughter’s dyslexia for thirteen years
‘She was failed’: Mother speaks out after Kamloops student’s dyslexia ignored tell the story of Heather Morrison. She spent thirteen years asking teachers and principals to assess her daughter for learning disabilities, watching her child move through kindergarten to graduation while reading at an elementary level, her distress mounting with each deflection, each dismissal, each…
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Three contexts, one experience: why autism debates fracture
The fracture happens before anyone finishes speaking. One person describes autism as neurological difference observable through brain imaging and cognitive testing; another person describes autism as diagnostic category that unlocks resources within rationed systems; a third person describes autism as lived experience of navigating a world built around neurotypical assumptions about communication, sensory processing, and…
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The return of functioning labels: How austerity turns advocacy into competition
A parent recently posted about profound autism, describing the experience of having her son’s reality erased when people say that “profound autism” doesn’t exist. Her frustration is legitimate—parents of children with intensive, lifelong support needs face profound institutional abandonment, and “profound autism” names a reality that deserves recognition and resources. But her post also illustrates…
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A multi-lens analysis of accommodation denial in BC Schools
When the school handed me a garbage bag filled with jackets at the end of the year, it was evidence of a failed executive function accommodation. When I was handed a box containing hundreds of dollars of fidgets, it was evidence of a regulation accommodation that had been denied. There’s a lot of reasons an…
