Special Education

Bonnyville Centralized High School caters to a wide variety of student needs. We have a half time special education coordinator who works with teachers and students to develop appropriate programs and who oversees the special education program as a whole in our school. Additionally, our coordinator facilitates testing and other assessments as necessary when these are initiated by staff or parents who feel a student has a special need of some kind.

In addition to our special education coordinator, BCHS has a student advocacy counsellor who works with students who have a variety of personal needs and who require various counselling services. Our counsellor also works regularly with students who have personal esteem issues and/or need strategies for behavior management.

School boards are required to make every reasonable effort at the school and district level to resolve concerns collaboratively with parents.  However, despite these efforts there may be differences of opinion about the education of children with special needs and the school.  When this happens, there are a number of strategies for successfully resolving these differences.

1. Always try to resolve issues with the people who are working with your child (teacher, SST Coordinator).
2. If the issue cannot be resolved, let the principal know your concerns and that you have discussed this issue with the teacher(s) and have not been able to come to a satisfactory agreement.
3. If the issue cannot be resolved at the school level, Mrs. Grace Maclellan, Student Support Services Team Leader in the Bonnyville regional office should be contacted.
4. Failing resolution of the matter, one of our division Associate Superintendent Student Services would be the person to appeal to.
5. If a resolution is still not achieved, the parent(s) may appeal to the school board within 5 days from the date that the individual was informed of the Superintendent’s decision.
6. If an appeal to the school board is completed and parents disagree with the decision and feel it does not meet the learning needs of their child, they may write to the Minister of Education and ask for a review of the board decision

Additionally, Alberta Education has made available to parents a document calledResolving Differences. We try to provide this document to all parents of special education students at the beginning of the school year. It can also be found on the Alberta Education website, along with other pertinent documents for parents of students with special needs.