ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the unintended consequences of the Canadian province of Ontario’s policy requirement that students receive formal assessments before they are entitled to access special needs identification and services. While Ontario legislation states that all students with special needs should receive the supports and services they require for success in the province’s public schools, the assessment policy has unintentionally perpetuated inequities between students from different classes and regions. These unintended consequences are due to the fact that some students encounter long waiting lists to receive required assessments. We analyze this policy in conjunction with an important aspect of its context: the advocacy of People for Education (P4E), a prominent non-governmental organization in Ontario that brought the policy’s unintended consequences to light and has pushed for policy change. The chapter draws on findings from a study that used rhetorical analysis to identify P4E’s efforts to change practices surrounding special education assessment from 1996 to 2016. Findings from the analysis were examined in relation to the broader contexts within which Ontario’s assessment policy is situated to understand how these contexts have affected both the policy and P4E’s as-yet-unsuccessful advocacy to change the policy and address wait times for special education assessments. These broader contexts include funding shortfalls, increasing privatization in education, and neoliberal conceptions of good parenting. We conclude by suggesting a number of possible changes that could address the inequities perpetuated by the policy.
