main index

5.1: Board Policies, Guidelines and Practices
5.2. Leadership
5.3. School-Community Partnerships
5.4. Curriculum
5.5. Student Languages
54.6. Student Evaluation, Assessment and Placement
5.7. Guidance
5.8. Employment and Promotion Practices
5.9. Staff Development
5.10. Harassment

• 5.1. Board Policies, Guidelines and Practices
  The Toronto District School Board has approved an Equity Policy Statement which requires that ideals related to Equity for Persons with disabilities shall be reflected in all aspects of organizational structures, policies, guidelines, procedures, classroom practices, day-to-day operations and communication practices. The Toronto District School Board policies, guidelines and practices shall ensure that the needs of all students, employees, trustees, parents, volunteers, visitors, permit holders, contractors and partners are addressed. These shall reflect diverse viewpoints, needs and aspirations of community members, particularly persons with disabilities whose voices have traditionally and systemically been marginalized and excluded. The Board shall provide an appropriate mechanism to ensure accountability for achieving these goals by:
  
  

  • 5.1.1. articulating clearly the Board’s commitment to the principles of equity for persons with disabilities in all Board policies, guidelines, day-to-day operations, protocols and practices;
  • 5.1.2. identifying and eliminating bias and physical, emotional and intellectual barriers against persons with disabilities in Board policies, guidelines, day-to-day operations, protocols and practices;
  • 5.1.3. identifying the many diverse sectors within the communities of persons with disabilities and other historically disadvantaged groups within the jurisdiction of the Board and involving these communities in partnership activities;
  • 5.1.4. assessing the effectiveness of community consultation and partnership involvement;
  • 5.1.5. establishing accountability processes to document progress and ensure continuous implementation of the Equity Policy Commitments for Persons with Disabilities;
  • 5.1.6. allocating resources to provide compensatory education and ensure policy implementation..                                                              Section 5: index
    
    
• 5.2. Leadership
  An informed leadership identifies individual discriminatory attitudes and behaviours as well as systemic inequities and barriers, and demonstrates accountability for their removal with the goal of achieving equity for all irrespective of abilities/disabilities. Communication is an integral part of leadership, and includes the ability to listen to equity-seeking groups. All system leaders and decision-makers play a crucial role in identifying and addressing systemic inequities or barriers.
  
  The Toronto District School Board shall provide informed and committed leadership at all levels by:
  
  
  • 5.2.1. assisting trustees, administrators, staff and student leaders to develop knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours required to implement the Equity Policy in the area of Persons with Disabilities;
  • 5.2.2. ensuring that policy directions, priorities and day-to-day implementation of programs and services are consistent with the aims equity ideals for Persons with Disabilities;
  • 5.2.3. identifying expectations for those responsible for implementation and incorporating these expectations into the performance-appraisal processes, including the ongoing evaluation of teachers, support staff and administrators, annual plans and year-end reports;
  • 5.2.4. ensuring that educational practices are inclusive and reflect the contributions of diverse groups of persons with disabilities in our communities and that all forms of stereotyping, prejudice, discrimination, and violence against persons with disabilities are challenged and eliminated.     Section 5: index
    
    
• 5.3. School-Community Partnerships
  Effective school-community partnerships enable representation and active participation from diverse communities and ensure the inclusion of the perspectives, experiences and needs of diverse groups of persons with disabilities to enhance educational opportunities for all. The Toronto District School Board is committed to ongoing, constructive and open dialogue in partnership with communities of people with disabilities to increase cooperation and collaboration among home, school and the community-at-large. The Board shall work to create partnerships which ensure effective participation in the education process by:
  
  
  • 5.3.1. identifying and involving representative and inclusive advocacy organizations and communities of persons with disabilities within the jurisdiction of the Board;
  • 5.3.2. requesting organizations and communities of persons with disabilities to identify representatives for the purpose of establishing school-community partnerships;
  • 5.3.3. assessing and evaluating the effectiveness of community consultation and partnership involvement and developing guidelines for effective partnership that respects the rights of students in an environment free of commercial intrusion and economic exploitation in accordance with Policy E.06 on External Partnerships;
  • 5.3.4. encouraging School Councils, Home and School Organizations and Parent-Teacher Associations to reflect the range of persons with disabilities in the communities that they represent;
  • 5.3.5. ensuring effective and appropriate communication with community partners in their languages as required;
  • 5.3.6. ensuring access by students, parents and staff to supportive community resources as appropriate for use in TDSB schools.                                            Section 5: index
    
    
• 5.4. Curriculum
  Curriculum is defined as the total learning environment including physical environment, learning materials, pedagogical practices, assessment instruments and co-curricular and extra curricular activities. A curriculum that strives for equity for persons with disabilities provides a balance of perspectives. The Toronto District School Board acknowledges that inequities have existed in the curriculum; therefore, the Board is committed to enabling all persons with disabilities to see themselves reflected in the curriculum. The Board is further committed to providing each student with the knowledge, skills attitudes and behaviours needed to live in a complex and diverse world by:
  • 5.4.1. ensuring that the principles and practices of equity for persons with disabilities permeate the curriculum in all subject areas;
  • 5.4.2. examining and challenging curriculum which has traditionally ignored the experiences of persons with disabilities from diverse backgrounds in order to ensure inclusivity;
  • 5.4.3. developing a process to determine whether discriminatory biases related to persons with disabilities are present in existing learning materials, programs or practices;
  • 5.4.4. ensuring the review and/or modification of materials which promote stereotyping, the review and modification of programs which promote stereotyping, discrimination, or promote the exclusion of persons with disabilities, and the removal or materials or programs which promote hatred or violence against against people with disabilities;
  • 5.4.5. providing adequate resources and training to assist all staff in becoming agents of change to use materials effectively to promote critical thinking skills that challenge discrimination and bias against persons with disabilities;
  • 5.4.6. ensuring that classrooms, resource centres, school libraries, audio-visual collections and computer software contain materials and resources which accurately reflect aboriginal, racial, ethnocultural, faith, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered, gender, working class, low income and poor, and other historically disadvantaged groups of persons with disabilities;
  • 5.4.7. developing guidelines to ensure that displays and visual representation in all schools and workplaces of the Toronto District School Board reflect diversity and include the contributions of persons with disabilities;
  • 5.4.8. supporting student leadership programs to include and support persons with disabilities;
  • 5.4.9. developing and providing academic service programs and supports in all curriculum areas to meet the needs of students with disabilities, including early intervention programs to encourage students to have high expectations and consider non-traditional roles and work;
    • 5.4.9.1. ensuring that the contributions of persons with disabilities to Canadian and world history and historiography are included accurately in all aspects of the curriculum;
    • 5.4.9.2. ensuring that curriculum materials and learning resources are allocated to challenge bias against persons with disabilities, hate groups and hate propaganda based on disability and/or any other social identity.          Section 5: index
       
• 5.5. Student Languages
  Language proficiency is the foundation of academic success. Students with disabilities come from all language backgrounds. The Board recognizes and affirms the value of students first/indigenous languages while ensuring proficiency in one or both of Canada’s official languages by:
  • 5.5.1. ensuring that students with disabilities reach their full potential in developing communication skills, language proficiency and literacy in at least one official language;
  • 5.5.2. providing supports and accommodations to students with language and other disabilities to assist communication and ensure student participation and learning;
  • 5.5.3. affirming and valuing students’ firs/indigenous language;
  • 5.5.4. supporting the learning of languages in addition to English and French;
  • 5.5.5. ensuring that students with disabilities are valued and affirmed in such language learning;
  • 5.5.6. committing to using clear and inclusive language and design that promotes understanding;
  • 5.5.7. ensuring that resources are available to facilitate appropriate communication with students/parents/guardians.                           Section 5: index
    
    
• 5.6. Student Evaluation, Assessment and Placement
  The Toronto District School Board is committed to the evaluation, assessment, programming and placement processes which are responsive to all persons with disabilities as well as personal/family experiences by:
  • 5.6.1. identifying, reviewing and changing practices which lead to the disproportionate streaming and isolation of students with disabilities into academic programs which narrow their choices and life opportunities or limit participation in their local community;
  • 5.6.2. ensuring that bias based on disability does not adversely impact on programming, placement and academic decisions and that students, with the support of their parents/guardians (as appropriate), are able to consider and make informed programming, placement and academic decisions;
  • 5.6.3. ensuring that evaluation, assessment, programming and placement meet individual student needs and offer them opportunities to reach their highest potential. This process must consider disabilities and their interconnections to cultural and linguistic factors, faith, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity, socio-economic factors, personal/family experiences, previous education, future expectations and students’ rights to continuity, stability and community belonging;
  • 5.6.4. reevaluating annually placement decisions that are jointly considered by the student/parent/guardian and the school to ensure that placement decisions are consistent with Board policies, are flexible to meet needs and do not limit education and life opportunities.                                               Section 5: index
    
    
• 5.7. Guidance
  The Toronto District School Board recognizes that informed counsellors, teachers and staff in counseling roles can help to remove discriminatory barriers for students in theschool system and in work-related experiences. The Board shall respond effectively to the needs of students with disabilities from all diverse groups by:
  • 5.7.1. providing counseling services that are culturally sensitive, supportive and free of bias against persons with disabilities;
  • 5.7.2. providing proactive strategies to ensure that all students with disabilities are not under-estimated on the basis of stereotypical assumptions and to assure that all students experience personal growth and reach their full potential in academic and life paths;
  • 5.7.3. eliminating discriminatory biases related to students with diverse groups of students with disabilities and other historically disadvantaged groups in educational and life planning programs;
  • 5.7.4. encouraging and supporting all students with disabilities and their families in the identification of non-traditional career options;
    • 5.7.4.1. working with students with disabilities and their families to identify career options that historically have excluded them and help them to choose academic paths that will allow them to reach their full potential and to succeed in a traditionally able bodied society;
  • 5.7.5. ensuring that communication strategies are in place to keep all parents/guardians informed about their children's current educational achievement and progress, including their plans for the future in a language they understand, including the provision of translations where necessary.                                          Section 5: index
    
    
    
• 5.8. Employment and Promotion Practices
  The Toronto District School Board recognizes that there are barriers to employment and promotion which historically have had a discriminatory impact on diverse groups of persons with disabilities. The Board is committed to equity for all in hiring and promotion practices. The Board is committed to the development and maintenance of employment and promotion policies, practices and procedures that are designed to employ a work force which at all levels reflects, understands and responds to a diverse population. The Board will respond to and support this work force and its diverse population by:
  
  • 5.8.1. ensuring that equitable employment and promotion practices exist;
  • 5.8.2. identifying and eliminating systemic physical, emotional and intellectual barriers in the employment system;
  • 5.8.3. ensuring that employment and promotion strategies focus on under-represented communities;
  • 5.8.4. establishing out-reach activities and affirmative action strategies (encouragement, mentoring, training and staff development) that focus on marginalized groups of persons with disabilities in order to ensure that schools and other workplaces within the Board achieve equitable representation at all levels;
  • 5.8.5. ensuring that the Board’s commitment to equity for persons with disability is communicated throughout the Board and that all staff, students and community are aware of this commitment
  • 5.8.6. eliminating barriers and encouraging diverse groups of people with disabilities to apply for teaching and non-teaching positions.                           Section 5: index
    
    
• 5.9. Staff Development
  The Toronto District School Board is committed to on-going staff development on equity for persons with disabilities for trustees and Board staff and will assist them to acquire the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours to identify and eliminate bias and discriminatory practices against persons with disabilities by:
  • 5.9.1. identifying staff development needs to improve employees’ knowledge, skills and sensitivity towards persons with disabilities;
  • 5.9.2. establishing opportunities for employees to acquire the critical knowledge skills, sensitivity and behaviours which will support the creation and maintenance of an education system that empowers all students, regardless of their disability, to learn, to achieve success and to participate responsibly in a diverse, global society;
  • 5.9.3. improving staff's knowledge, skills and expertise in equity for persons with disabilities in order to help them understand how to identify and challenge prejudice, stereotyping, discrimination on the basis of disability so that they are better able to meet the needs of all students;
  • 5.9.4. training teaching and support staff in equity education for persons with disabilities, and other education methodologies to enable them to deliver an inclusive curriculum to all students;
  • 5.9.5. training and empowering employees to deal effectively and confidently with issues of bias and discrimination based on disability;
  • 5.9.6. supporting initiatives which foster dialogue to create an understanding and respect for diversity within the community of persons with disabilities which will result in a safe learning environment and community for all students;
  • 5.9.7. promoting the expectations that all employee practices will reflect equity for persons with disabilities and policies and practices aimed at equity for persons with disabilities and establishing criteria for accountability and evaluation;
  • 5.9.8. involving, as appropriate, people with disabilities, and other historically disadvantaged groups of persons with disabilities, and those who have advocated on behalf of their communities in the design and implementation of staff development programs.
    
    
• 5.10. Harassment
  Harassment based on a person’s disability is demeaning treatment whether intended or not. Discrimination base on a disability is prohibited under the Ontario Human Rights Code. (Please refer to the Board’s draft human rights policy   for the policy and procedures with regard to harassment. It is anticipated that this policy will be adopted by the Board in the year 2000.)      
  Section 5: index