[FEAT BC Admin]

In this discussion area, please feel free to share your experience in implementing A.B.A. programs in the school system. We would particularly like to hear from those parents who converted their school teams to A.B.A. We’d like to hear the nightmares as well as the success stories.

Any insight that can be shared by school-based special education assistants to help parents would also be very meaningful.

Topic

[Deleted User]

Would the CUPE contract be the same for all BC school districts, do you think? (Just wondered if one read it, would you find any loopholes that were usable in individual cases….. )

[Froc]

I spoke my districts cupe head last month. If I remember correctly, she indicated that the provincial gov't has downloaded the responsibility of collective bargaining to each individual district…hope I'm remembering correctly, I AM on 'summer' thinking here.

I'd be willing to get a copy of our SD (Langley) collective agreement on anyones behalf, if it's true that they are public documents. I am on DPAC and think I could contact the correct people fairly quickly. Any thoughts?

dfroc@shaw.ca

[Lou Arab]

The library at the Labour Relations Board is supposed to have copies of every collective agreement in the province. But, it's not always up to date.

They are public documents though. A call to the school board and/or the union local office should get you a copy.

Lou Arab
(Ethan's dad)

[Deleted User]

Would each local CUPE not have there own collective agreement. What information from the collective agreement are you looking for?

[Deleted User]

Has anyone been able to obtain a copy of the CUPE Collective agreement?
Bev

[Deleted User]

Wow, for a long time I thought I was the only person interested in obtaining ABA facilitation in the classroom. From the past weeks I can see others too are. As a parent who has a child that required (and still requires) ABA facilitation within the school setting and as a parent that after much stressful effort has obtained "moderate" success in obtaining ABA facilitation for my child within the school setting and as a parent that is continuing to attempt to improve the moderate success so far acheived; I offer the following benefits of my experience.

First- Brace yourself and all your family once you decide to emabrk on the quest of obtaining ABA facilitation within the classroom. The experience of dealing with the school, the board, the union, the doctor's and the government will in turn have you laughing, crying, screaming take hours and days of your time and alienante the rest of your family. However, you know it is worth it.

Second- It is never, I repeat never too early to start at it. You know how we all joke about people putting their children on waiting lists for university the day they are born? Well that is a bit of an exageration but I strongly recommend you start at least 18 months before kindergarten and 24 months before would be much better. Why? Because anything to do with any of the players involved takes time. Sometimes lot's and lot's of time. Governments and school boards operate in a different time zone than we do, tomorrow is always ok with them. You on the other hand can not afford to wait – your child is ageing by the second and the most effective treatment is the younger the better. Another reason to start early – after you have started your research etc. you may find you have to send your child "across boundry" another time consuming process. Alternatively, you may decide to move! Don't laugh it happens often.

Third -Understand "THE SYSTEM" because no matter what you think of IT you have to work within it. Most of the players you will encouter are akin to deers in the headlight when it comes to this issue. You have to understand the set-up of government, school boards, teachers union etc. You need to know what button to push, who reports to whom, who you should talk to, who you should avoid like the plague. Otherwise like Alice, you will be lost in that wonderland gov't and boards(especially) live in. Start a file or copybook or other note setup and keep notes of everything, including when you contacted them, contact info, titles and positions,what they said, the date they are to respond back etc. This is very iimportant and you'll find yourself referring back to your notes often.

Fourth -Do your research. Find out all the schools in your area. Talk to other parents with children already there wether autistic or not. Go see the facilities. Watch the children at recess. Review the safety features of the school and school yard/play areas. Check out the classroom for safety issues related to your childs behaviour. Find out who the teacher will be, who the principal will be (not as easy as it sounds) Who is on the school resource team? What is attitude of administrator and teacher towards ABA? What is their experience with autistic children? etc etc you get the picture

Prepare -Before you approach the school and after you've researched you must prepare your request. This is so important because if not strictly adhered to you will again be sucked into the educational systems LaLa land. Simply stated you want ONE thing and ONE thing only from the system. That is "Provision of medically required in class treatment for your child" That's it. Confusing the issue or reshaping it at all will not get you what your child requires. Once you obtain agreement on this point the other items (IEP involvement etc. follow much easier, though not a piece of cake either). Why this approach? Because, A) Your child by law has the right to an education within the public system and B) Your child also has the right under law to required medical treatment and freedom from discrimination. So your request is nothing more than what your child is already entitled to by law. (Though obtaining it is still a hellish adventure)
Next in preparation obtain diagnosis of your child's autism. Better yet obtain 2 diagnosis. Also be aware that the school board will asses your child and determine a rating class for the child. This rating is important because it determines what the board thinks your child requires as far as assistance, safety issues etc.

Involve your child's lead doctor. Obtain a statement from them outlining the medical requirements for your child within the classroom setting.

Next develop your contact list. Government names,positions, phone numbers, email addresses etc. Set up same for schools, school boards etc.

Next understand that the school board has few if any properly trained, experienced ABA SEA's to provide you. These are not teachers, they are SEA's and though in the union, are not really part of the unions mandate and as such their is no real effort by the union to turn out and have available for hireing any real quantity of ABA facilitators. They kind of pick up SEA's by default as no one knows where else to slot them. This being the case you are fighting for a very scarce resource. Further if you obtain a good one there is no guarantee your child will have them the following year. In fact you will probably have to go through the same process again and again as your child progresses through the grades. Also be aware that you will have to do a lot of education. The Vancouver board really knows very little about autism or ABA, let alone what type of assistance your child may require. Do not let all the fancy titles the board persons have fool you, it is littered with special assistants, regional resource bla bla's etc. rest assurred you are more knowledgeable than 99.9% of them even if your title is simply parent. Do not let the system pass off speech therapists etc as ABA trained assistance.

OK, your ready to start. First approach the school administrator (principal) and request initial meeting to discuss your childs situation. You've begun, from there on it will change person by person, child by child.

Keep at it no matter what – your child's life experience totally depends on your efforts.

As myself and my child are still involved with the school system this is anon. Also before anyone starts, I am a busy senior executive and I have contributed the above to assist those that are involved, but I am multi-tasking as I do so and am aware of spelling and grammar error's in my hen pecking.

[Nicole Damon]

Thanks Rachel, I'm glad to see some proactive thinkers with union experience join in.

Nikki Damon

[Rachel Notley]

Hi (Froc).

As someone who believes strongly in the benefits of the labour movement, and also as someone who believes strongly in the benefits of ABA and the benefits of having properly trained ABA therapists in the classroom, I have wrestled a great deal with the issues often discussed on this website. In so doing, (and as one with a fair amount of professional experience in the labour movement) I have tried to craft in my own mind a solution that on the one hand, recognizes the rights of employees, and on the other, insures proper training, oversight and consistency with respect to the aids assisting our kids in the school system. I don't know that I have the solution, nor do I know whether it would ever be accepted by the bargaining unit. But I would love to discuss this matter in a more "brainstorming" kind of context. Please e-mail me directly at

rachel.notley@shaw.ca

Rachel Notley

[Stephen Paperman]

Dear Froc:

You are not getting what you consider to be useful advice because you are asking questions which are beyond the parameters of FEAT. This group is for parents putting together medical treatment programs for their children. Since you freely admit you are neither putting together a medical treatment program nor are you already doing so, it would appear this is not going to be a fruitful venue for you.

I would suggest you try the board at the Autism Society — their mandate is covering all people with autism spectrum disorder and so there are many parents there like you who are not focused
on medical treatment for their children.

[Froc]

Hi and thanks for the one peice of advice.

My son has no 'medical' team. He has HFA, we need help almost exclusively with his social needs. We are fortuneate that the teachers and T.A.'s have been skilled enough to help him and to help his whole class accept him and learn better social skills along the way. We work very closely with them to see what they are trying and to learn to model better skills ourselves.

I am a bit disappointed in this board. I thought that you'd all have great advice, but I got none except the above post. Do none of you belong to BCCPAC or DPAC that you understand at least the process to help get things changed? Or at least get listened to on a proffesional level? I think that what I'm going to hear in reponse to this post is lot's of statements about how "nobody wants our opinions", etc, and how I'm wasting my time. I do suspect I am wasting my time. I also think that the FEAT supported trip to Supreme court felt futile at times too, but let's use what tools we can.

How many of you considered all of the 'fruitless' avenues you've gone down to get help for a child, a waste of time? Every avenue explored was one avenue ruled out, right? At least, in the end, you learned something each time you looked into a new treatment.

I intend to go to CUPE as a delegate and ask to sit on their partner grup committe or simply to submit suggestions regarding longer postings or as suggested in the only reponse I got, 'exempt' status. My intent in my previous post was to see if this has been done before. Don't need to re-invent the proverbial wheel here.

Please anyone with helpful advice, or a suggestion that I can bring to them while I'm there, please post.

I know it's June and things are crazy calendar wise, but negotiations start in the fall and I need to start soon.

[Author]

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