To the Parents/Guardians Advocating in the Education System, I say…
There is always hope. Always.
This is a human system, designed and maintained by people. Society does change and evolve. If we give up and there is no “resistance, ” things may get even worse.
The reality is that we will always need to advocate. There is no magic bullet that will all of a sudden just cure all of our issues. We need to keep our spirits and emotional regulation on a path that will allow us to “stay in the game”.
This is a social movement. Anti-ableism and anti-oppression work is about an awareness shift, a culture shift, and a priority shift. This will take time, but we can’t give up. And it’s going to take all of us. Every time we educate someone or advocate, it doesn’t matter how small, it all matters. It’s all a grain of sand that will create the beach. All parents/guardians who are advocating in the school system are a part of this work, and we need to do it together.
I encourage you all to reach out and join parent support groups. There are many on Facebook. An excellent one to start with is BC Ed Access to Education. Come find us.
There are a lot of differences between what happens in BC and what happens in Ontario.
For starters, parents in Ontario get a copy of what parents submit to the college when a complaint is filed by a parent.
In BC, we have to submit a Freedom of Informaiton request, and we are blocked from accessing such information. (OIPC complaint in process. I’ll keep you posted on that.)
But for now…
Let us start by comparing websites.
Website Comparison
Ontario Teacher’s College
They have a tab called “Public Protection” & They have a “Parents” tab
ID: 5 tabs, public protection, parents, members, becoming a teacher, about the college. Under public protection 12 more tab options. Link to the website page is here.
Under Public Protection, you can see that they easily have a tab for professional standards.
The parents tab is highlighted. 6 tabs clearly indicated. Link to the website page is oct.ca.
They also have their accessibility policies easy to access.
Easy to find the annual reports listed in the tab below.
The About the College tab is highlighted with 14 tabs. The link to the website is oct.ca
BC Teacher’s Regulation Branch Website
No easily accessible information for parents. I feel that their website is a maze of information and you just have to move through everything. This is not accessible to various groups of people.
I cannot find anything about accessibility policies or any kind of commitment to anti-oppression, equity, diversity and inclusion. If it’s there, I don’t know where. And here is a game to play. Who can find the annual reports? I know where they are, so I know how hard it is to find them. Let’s see if you can find them?
Let’s look at their website and if you were a parent, how would you find out about information regarding this process and what you would need to file a complaint.
This is the main page that you start off looking at.
Under the Information about teaching in British Columbia, you can click on the 3rd item where it says “Read the standards of the Teaching profession”. Which in my mind, looks like an area for teachers.
Ministry of Education in Education and Child Care. 3 Sections, with bullet points and various tabs. The website link to this page.
Then the “Make a complaint or report about a certified teacher” will bring you to Commissioner page. (This has recently been redesigned)
Green band at the top with gob.bc.ca has a new design! Learn more link. This page is the Commissioner for Teacher Regualation with tabs located to the left and General information below. The website link to this page.
You then need to lick on Make a Teacher Complaint.
Or, you can click on the Discipline Outcomes.
You reach this area.
This is the Discipline Outcomes page with a list of the most recent outcomes in the last year. The website link to the page.
Then you need to click on the find out more about the discipline process.
This has recently changed since January 8th, 2024.
Then you need to click on Make a Teacher Complaint. This is the first page that says the word “parent”.
This page is the Make a Teacher Complaint to the Commissioner for Teacher Regulation with tabs on the left and general information down the center for parents, students, staff or other members of the public. The website link to this page.
It used to look like this.
The Discipline Process is outlined with more tabs on the left than the new page. Very text heavy. Same info as the this page, here is the link.
They have two paths to find the teacher standards.
One way, is through the discipline outcome page. To find the teacher standards document to know if they have even broken one in order to file a complaint, you need go back to this page.
Same discipline outcomes page as shown above with the list of discipline outcomes for the last year. Here is the link.
And click on “read about the standards for educators”
To then know to click on the first link to be finally be brought to the PDF standards document.
Seriously, they couldn’t make it any harder if they tried.
You need to be willing and able to spend hours just going through the maze and reading everything.
OR the second way is to click on Make a Teacher Complaint and find the link in the second paragraph. Then you will still be brought back to the other pages as I showed above.
So, this is the page that explicitly says who can file a complaint and info intended for parents.
This is the Make a Teacher Complaint to the Commissioner for Teacher Regulation Branch. Tabs on the left with written paragraphs down the center with 3 clickable links. Here is the link to this website page.
So now, who was able to find the annual reports?
You have to go back to MEET THE COMMISSIONER and scroll all the way down to the bottom on that page.
You literally just have to spend hours clicking on all of the links, because just by hovering over the tabs it doesn’t indicate to you what the other tabs are inside. So…grab some coffee and hunker down.
IT IS A MAZE!
Now, let’s look at other differences.
Ontario Teacher’s College and why they exist. What pops out to me is the focus on public interest.
Says The College at a Glance with 2 sections both with minimal text and pictures. What we do (We licence and regulate teachers who work in publicly funded schools and many private schools in Ontario). Why we exist. (We serve and protect the public interest. We ensure that only safe, qualified and competent teachers are certified to teach your children.)
Teachers Regulation Branch
I have no idea where their mandate or goals, or guiding principles are located.
Is it this?
Commissioner for Teacher Regulation: The Commissioner reviews reports and complaints about the conduct or competence of educators and decides which process is appropriate to address a complaint or report. Link to Commissioner for Teacher Regulation.
Is this it?
Clip of a link found on Google. Says: Teacher Regulation Branch Investigations. The TRB is mandated under the Teachers Act to regulate the professional conduct and competency of TRB members.
To anyone in the Minstry of Education, can you please redo your website (again) and make it more accessible for parents to access information?
