BC Ombudsperson Investigation and Survey on School Exclusions

The Ombudsperson has begun an investigation into the exclusion of students, particularly those with diverse needs, from classrooms and schools in BC’s K-12 public education system. You can read the full media release here. The purpose of their investigation is to determine whether these exclusions are fair and to report on the findings. Please consider filling out this questionnaire if you’ve experienced exclusion: https://bcombudsperson.ca/school-exclusion.

What is exclusion?

Exclusion from school can happen in many ways. Students may be:

• asked to stay home/go home
• asked to leave early/arrive late/have shortened school days
• asked not to attend field trips or other school activities
• unable to attend because of health/personal care support needs the school is unable to provide
• unable to attend because of learning support needs the school is unable to provide
• not learning with the rest of their class
• isolated by themselves in the school, secluded and/or restrained

Invitation to participate in the investigation

To help inform the investigation, the Office of the Ombudsperson is asking families of students who have been excluded from school to please fill out a brief online questionnaire. The questionnaire will take about 10 minutes to complete and participation is voluntary.

You can skip questions or stop at any time. If you’d like to complete the questionnaire in a different way, please email systemics@bcombudsperson.ca or call 1.800.567.3247.

We are grateful to the Ombudsperson for swiftly replying to our request that they adjust some fields in the survey to be open to recent graduates who have experienced exclusion in the past. These fields have been adjusted, and now all who have faced exclusion, whether still in school or not, may respond to the form and have their voices heard.

All questionnaire responses are confidential under the Ombudsperson Act.

If you need help making a submission to this investigation, please contact the Ombudsperson or your Case Manager at LDS. We will do our best to support you.

BC Ed Access Society

We want to mention the incredible work of the BC Ed Access Society, which has tracked exclusions in BC over several years and advocated for a path to inclusion. We are grateful for their team and commitment to equity for neurodivergent learners across the province.

– Rachel S. Forbes, Executive Director

LDS is a community of dedicated professionals who write collaboratively. We recognize the contribution of unnamed team members for their wisdom and input.