When Karine Desruisseaux’s son was diagnosed with autism and ADHD earlier this year, she said his school’s support staff was crucial in giving him the help he needed to thrive.
“She takes care of the whole school when kids have issues they need to walk through,” Desruisseaux said of the educational specialist who’s been helping her seven-year-old son, Ben.
Now, she worries the province’s cuts to education could take that away.
Two weeks before the end of the school year, at a time when school boards and school service centres are normally finalizing their budgets, administrators were told by the Education Ministry to reduce their spending by $570 million.
While most administrators said it was too soon to give a breakdown of where and how the cuts would be applied, they warned of devastating consequences and said parents are right to be worried.
Last year, the English Montreal (EMSB) and Lester B. Pearson (LBPSB) school boards, who together serve around 60,000 students on the island of Montreal, adopted balanced budgets of $438 million and $402 million, respectively.
Quebec parents fear budget cuts will hit special needs students hardest
Under the new government directive, the EMSB and the LBPSB are each expected to slash about $30 to $32 million from their annual budgets, according to Joe Ortona, president of the Quebec English School Boards Association.
“That is an enormous amount,” said LBPSB chairperson Judy Kelley.
“The way that we’re being asked to cut is really beyond anything that we’ve ever imagined the government would ask us to do.”
Kelley explained that school boards usually have to invest more than what the government earmarks for support services for students with special needs.
“So that is where we would have to say, ‘look, we just don’t have that money, we don’t have that discretionary spending,'” she said.
In an email to CBC, the Centre de services scolaire de Montréal (CSSDM), the largest service centre in the province, said it was still in discussions with the government but that it would respect its 2025-26 workforce plan, which confirms regular positions for the coming year.
“However, until further notice, positions left vacant following their posting will remain unfilled, absences will not be replaced, and project positions will be terminated,” the email reads in French.
Meanwhile, the Fédération des employées et employés de services publics (FEESP–CSN), which is made up of 37 unions representing around 35,000 support workers, painted a dire picture for the upcoming school year.
The FEESP-CSN said that before the cuts were announced, the EMSB, for example, would have seen a net increase in the number of attendants for students with disabilities and special education technicians (TES).
Now, it says the staffing plan calls for the elimination of 15 attendant positions against the creation of one new position, and the elimination of 16 TES positions against the creation of six.
According to Desruisseaux, any cuts to these services in terms of hours or positions not being filled would have ripple effects and impact everyone.
For Ben, who has been learning to read by spending one-on-one time with a special aide and whose educational specialist has helped him regulate when overstimulated, it would mean potentially falling behind in his learnings and being more distracted and disruptive in the classroom.
“Even if your child doesn’t have special needs, the teacher needs those specialists to be able to do their job in class,” Desruisseaux said.
“And if you’re thinking, ‘well, I don’t have any kids, I don’t care.’ Well, those kids will take care of you in the future.”
Danielle Desrosiers, another parent, is concerned about her daughter Carly.
At age 10, she was diagnosed with nonverbal learning disorder and now, at 23, attends the Wagar Adult Education Centre, part of the EMSB.
Her hope for Carly is that she will be able to find long-term employment and not have to rely on social assistance for the rest of her life.
Desrosiers reiterated the same fears expressed by Desruisseaux and worried how a lack of funding often impedes vulnerable students from becoming contributors to society.
For her part, Kelley said under the current scenario, the cuts could also affect sports programs, extracurriculars, enrichment programs and other programs aimed at keeping kids in school.
“You have students who don’t necessarily have academic concerns, but they may have engagement concerns,” Kelley said. If those programs are cut, “then where are they left?”
The office of Quebec’s Education Ministry did not respond to CBC’s request for comment but the minister has remained steadfast in his demand for school boards to meet their budgets.
Still, some hope there’s time to change the province’s mind.
A petition launched at the National Assembly is calling for the province to cancel the cuts.
Meanwhile, two unions representing school support staff have filed a joint complaint with the Quebec ombudsman.
In a news release, the unions state that cuts to the education system over the last year “have caused a major disruption in the system’s ability to meet its legal obligations to students.”
As for parents, they say they will continue to plan protests and make noise on this issue so that students don’t lose the services they need.
