The Commission on Inclusive Education released their final report this morning.
It calls for a five year strategic plan with major funding increases, more specialized staff, as well as policy changes.
The commission is suggesting a three-tiered system that supports students in the classroom, small groups, and individually.
Monica Williams, the government representative on the commission says their model is different from the current previous policies.
“For a long time in our province there have been attempts to fit students with very diverse needs into set programs and services and we’re saying to do the opposite, change the programs and services to fit the students.”
Williams says some staff they met with indicated they didn’t feel they had all the skills and knowledge required to implement inclusive education.
“We’re recommending some changes to the (bachelor of education) program, to professional development for teachers also to leadership preparation for school administrators to give them a better grounding.”
To implement the recommendations, the report also calls for the creation of the Nova Scotia Institute of Inclusive Education.
If both the province and the Nova Scotia Teachers Union accept the report, changes would start to be implemented by this September.
Among their first actions would be to hire 30 behaviour support teachers, 12 school psychologists, and 12 regional school health nurses.
