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Manitoba’s special-needs children rely far too heavily on the benevolence of each individual school to get the services, physical access, and attitudes they need, parent Val Surbey lamented yesterday

Surbey said her son Tim has a full-time teacher’s aide at Leila North School, but it’s still up to parents to fight for their kids and it’s still largely left up to schools to decide how far they’ll go.

Yesterday was the first day of National Inclusive Education Week.

Parents like Surbey and Sharon Yanofsky, whose daughter Jocelyn is in Grade 11 at Garden City Collegiate, are anxiously awaiting promised legislation from Education Minister Ron Lemieux to guarantee the rights of children to a public education.

But they don’t know if the Doer government will specify that special-needs kids can be in the classroom and school of their choice, and they don’t know if the money will be there for teachers’ aides, wheelchair ramps and elevators, and other staff and services that their kids need.

“The legislation is going to be expensive in order to live up to the ideal of inclusion,” said Laura Chase, whose son has a part-time aide at Champlian School, but who would benefit from a full-time worker.

But Lemieux warned yesterday that parents will have to be flexible in giving government the time to fund imporvements and schools time to adapt “within reason. You can’t expect schools can do things overnight.  It’s going to take some time.”

Nevertheless, Lemieux said, all students must be accommodated, though not necessarily at the closest school immediately.  “For us, it’s a way of thinking and acting that allows everyone to feel included, “ he said.

The Manitoba Teachers’ Society will hold a community forum on inclusive education tomorrow at 7 p.m. at 191 Harcourt St., at Portage Avenue in St. James.

Dale Kendall, executive director of the Association for Community Living, told a news conference at Victory School in Seven Oaks School Division that the province and the teachers’ society are joining advocacy groups to hold a provincial conference on inclusivity next October, to be followed by a national conference in Ottawa in November of 2004.

“We’ve come a long way” in dealing with special-needs students, Surbey said.

“Certainly the school is willing to talk to us, “ she said, noting she wanted Tim in a regular Grade 8 classroom. “If we hadn’t been there advocating for Tim, he would have been put in a program for special-needs children.”

Yanofsky said Jocelyn has a part-time aide, but needs full-time help.  Jocelyn is developmentally and hearing impaired, and it was up to her family to buy sound amplification system to help her hear the teacher, Yanofsky said.

On the other hand, Seven Oaks School Division approved all the drilling and wiring of walls needed to help Jocelyn learn, she pointed out.

Surbey said there are more subtle needs some kids have, such as the circle of friends program - special needs kids participating and mingling in activities with other students.

“It’s hard - Tim comes home at night and he doesn’t get any phone calls,” said Surbey. who’s working with Tim’s teachers to identify kids he hangs with, so Surbey can invite them all out for pizza.

Seven Oaks school trustee, Ross Eadie, who is blind, said inclusive education should mean that children can attend their neighbourhood schools and get the services they need.  Clustering special needs in a handful of schools is segregation, he said.

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