By Tim Amey

Chillliwack, B.C. - The Chilliwack School District's District Principal says they are doing all they can for children with autism.  Susan Edgecomb is reacting to Educational Assistant Kathi Friesen's claim that there are not enough trained professionals in Chilliwack to deal with children with autism, nor is there a District expert who can oversee all the training and follow up. 

Edgecomb admits they can always do more, but she says Chilliwack offers lots of training, and they have teams of people who can step in and offer assistance in the classroom.  “It’s a team (Chilliwack Autism Support team) we’ve had in place for 20 years. On that team there’s an occupational therapist, a speech and language pathologist, a teacher, a psychologist and a behaviour specialist.” 

Plus there is a coordinator that oversees teacher's requests for any challenge teachers are having, and there are more supports further up the chain.  Edgecomb points out that Brenda Frisse is the student services coordinator who responds to the school based team.  That’s who a teacher goes to if they are struggling with any child in the classroom.  If that team needs extra support, then they go to the Chilliwack Autism Support team and ask them to become involved.  Then another group reports on their progress. 

Edgecomb says they can only use the resources they have.  She says comments from people like Friesen are welcome because it forces them to reflect.  However she believes they do a good job training and supporting autistic students.
 

Comments

Posted by: loveinchilliwack on February 20 2012 9:00 PM

This is a very difficult issue as it would be awesome to provide all the support needed for each student in the district. It is unfortunate that money is a driving factor and that all the things that could be done are not able to be, or are done at the expense of other important things.

Posted by: sunflowergal on February 23 2012 10:45 AM

Just because Edgecombe believes they do a good job does not actually mean they do. As a parent of a child with autism who has been in the school system in chilliwack for 4 years, I can tell you more needs to be done. And not just for autistic students, but for any child with special needs. The school district's answer to EA shortage is to take 20 steps backwards in progress made, and grouping all of the special needs students in one room. This is something parents have fought to eliminate .
The school system constantly makes changes that negatively effect special needs children without a second thought, be it changing a child's EA without warning (change is difficult for children with autism), or asking hat your child not attend assemblies because the noises they make distracts the principal.
I feel it's a sad state of affairs when parents of special needs children have to fight tooth and nail to get the education for their child that is freely given without question to the neuro-typical children in the school system.