Special Education
Special Education at RHSA
The Rosedale Heights School of the Arts Special Education Department, also known as Guidance and Career Education, supports high-quality learning with a broader range of learning options outside traditional classroom instruction enabling students to better customize their high school education, focusing on skill development that will help students better manage their time, resources, and dealings with other people, ultimately improving their prospects for success in secondary school and life.
In the junior levels, students will learn how to develop and apply literacy and numeracy skills, personal-management skills, and interpersonal and teamwork skills to improve their learning and achievement in school, the workplace, and the community. The program helps students build confidence and motivation to pursue opportunities for success in secondary school and beyond.
In the senior levels, the program improves students’ learning and personal-management skills, preparing them to make successful transitions to work, training, and/or post-secondary education destinations. Students will assess their learning abilities and use literacy, numeracy, and research skills and personal-management techniques to maximize their learning. Students will investigate trends and resources to support their post-secondary employment, training, and/or education choices and develop a plan to help them meet their learning and career goals.
L. Millar
ACL Special Education
Inclusion
The Spec Ed Department at RHSA continues to actively review how we address the special education needs of our students and explores new ways to support them.
We know that students with exceptionalities have the same basic needs as their peers.
They need to:
Participate and be included as fully as possible in all activities, curricular and co-curricular, of our school communities;
Be valued as individuals for their unique contributions to school life;
Have no boundaries placed on, or prejudgments made about, their capacity for learning,
Enjoy a safe and secure learning environment;
Enjoy a sense of belonging to a school community that accepts ownership and responsibility for their learning; and,
Be unencumbered by stereotypical, outdated perspectives on abilities and disabilities.
http://www.tdsb.on.ca/HighSchool/SpecialEducation/Inclusion.aspx
Resource Room
The Spec Ed Department at RHSA continues to actively review how we address the special education needs of our students and explores new ways to support them.
We know that students with exceptionalities have the same basic needs as their peers. We provide the Resource Room to support the learning needs of our students outlined in their Individual Education Plans. This room is supported by Special Education teachers and an Educational assistant in the mornings.
Students can access the resource Room during class and after school time. For the purpose of accommodations such as Extra Time for tests taking a quiet space to write tests and do independent work.
At RHSA our Spec Ed Program recognizes how fundamental ATTITUDE is towards achieving goals and realizing potential.
A great attitude
becomes a great mood
which becomes a great day
which becomes a great year
which becomes a great life!
ATTITUDE
The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude to me, is more important than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what people think or say or do. It is more important than appearances, giftedness, or skill. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we embrace for the day. We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you… We are in charge of our attitudes.
Chuck Swindol
TDSB Special Education and Inclusion
Vision
The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) is committed to student achievement and well-being. We recognize that students develop and learn in different ways, have different strengths and needs, and require different levels of support. Some students require special education programs and services to meet their needs.
The Special Education and Inclusion Department, in collaboration with all staff, is committed to providing equitable access to learning opportunities for all students. This includes our ongoing commitment to anti-oppression, human rights, equity, anti-racism including anti-Indigenous and anti-Black racism, and anti-ableism. This commitment aligns with the TDSB Vision for Learning and the TDSB Equity Policy, and underpins all programming across all grade levels. It is through this commitment that systemic barriers to high-quality education for historically underserved students, including students with special education needs, are identified, addressed and eliminated. This helps us create a more equitable school system where the achievement and well-being of every student is fostered in inclusive and accepting environments in which all students feel a sense of belonging, where every voice is heard, and where students’ intersecting identities and lived experiences are honoured.
The work of the Special Education and Inclusion Department is guided by the goals outlined in the Multi-Year Strategic Plan (MYSP), which specifically focus on improving learning experiences for students with special education needs:
We will welcome all students to an open and inclusive learning environment that recognizes that most students can be served effectively within their community school, and will also continue to provide intensive support programs for students with more specialized learning needs;
We will continue to strengthen collaboration with parents/guardians/caregivers and engage effectively in the decision-making process regarding their child’s program, placement, and well-being; and
We will increase employment opportunities and outcomes for all students with Low Incidence Exceptionalities (e.g., Intellectual Disabilities, Physical Disability, Low Vision, Deaf and Hard of Hearing and Health/Medical).
Inclusion
Ontario Regulation 181/98 requires school boards to consider placing students with exceptionalities into regular classes with appropriate special education services before considering placement in special education classes. In the TDSB, we continue to be responsive to the understanding that as students learn, they develop skills and so their special education service and program needs change over time. Students being welcomed, included and supported in well-resourced neighbourhood schools in age-appropriate, regular classes are able to learn, contribute and participate in all aspects of school life. This allows for valuable learning opportunities for groups which have been historically excluded, such as students with disabilities and intersecting identities. Some students with unique strengths and needs (behaviour, communication, intellectual and physical) may require more specialized or intensive programs and supports and, in collaboration with parents/guardians/caregivers and students as appropriate, we provide the necessary placements.
Parents/Guardians/Caregivers and Students
TDSB staff are committed to working collaboratively with parents/guardians/caregivers and students in a respectful and transparent way, and deeply value this partnership. We encourage parents/guardians/caregivers to approach their child’s teachers and principal to engage in discussions about their child in an ongoing manner. The sharing of information between families and school staff is critical to ensuring the success of each student.
Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC)
The Ontario Education Act Regulation 464/97 defines the role of SEAC, whose responsibilities are to provide important advice on special education to the TDSB and to to make recommendations to the board on anything that impacts the establishment, development and delivery of special education programs and services for exceptional pupils of the board. The TDSB values the recommendations put forward by SEAC, and takes recommendations under advisement to better support students with special education needs.
To learn more about Special Education and Inclusion in the TDSB, please refer to the TDSB Special Education Plan.
To learn more about Special Education and Inclusion, visit the Ontario Ministry of Education website.