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Section 20 July 2004 Updates

Working Group for Provincial Associations Representing Section 20 Care and Treatment Programs

Presentation to Ontario Government Staff

On Friday June 18 a delegation of our working group presented our policy materials to 18 staff representatives from across the Ministry of Children and Youth Services and the Ministry of Education. These Ministries now have full responsibility for the policy and program resources that support Section 20 programs across the province. The following observations are intended as an update for our association members:

• We had some depth of presentation and discussion over a two-hour period
• The entire package as well as all documents were provided on disc and the government staff were invited to use or modify the materials as they may wish
• We agreed to review items in the package that refer to the rights of students to ensure that our discussion qualifies the sources of data and observations that may be sensitive particularly form a human rights perspective
• We agreed that reform of Section 20 policy and program delivery should be done in the context of the development of a broader policy and program framework for Children, Youth and Families and stressed the interest of our provincial associations to work with the Ministries to develop more integrated and up-to-date approaches
• We recognized that the Ministry of Education has a relatively developed framework for the provision of teachers within Section 20, but that more integrated work is needed particularly for aspects under the authority of the new Ministry of Children and Youth Services (and we again indicated our optimism and readiness to assist with this work)
• Ministry of Education staff noted that Section 20 students now qualify for the general education grants for accommodation (ie. School boards can be funded for the class rooms located within schools, but not for agency administrative offices); and Section 20 students can be funded through transportation grants (as these had been funding gaps)
• Generally, staff indicated that they appreciated the quality and scope of the work undertaken by the associations and we all voiced gratification in the ability to meet and share discussion of this nature
• As this was an initial informal meeting, we anticipate a formal letter to the Deputy and perhaps Minister of the new Ministry to share the materials and invite shared work on policy development in this area