Skip to content

Speaking Up BC

Education Advocacy. K-12. Disability. Human Rights Focused. External Complaint Systems. BC, Canada.

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Understanding the Duty to Accommodate
  • Understanding Exclusion
  • Understanding Systemic Change
  • Where do I start?
    • Resolution Options in Education
    • Where do I Start?
    • Commonly Used Acronyms in Supportive Education
  • Human Rights Decisions (Cases)
    • Adding yourself to your child’s human rights complaint
    • ADHD, Dyslexia, Dysgraphia (Timeliness Application)
    • ADHD, LD, GAD, Depression – Transition to high school, not following IEP, paying for private school
    • ADHD – Post Secondary
    • Anaphlyaxis, Severe Allergies
    • Anxiety, Meaningful Inquiry, Self-advocacy, IEP, Transition to HS
    • Application for Anonymization
    • Bullying
    • Child Care Cases
    • Dismissal Applications – How to Respond
    • Duty to consult
    • Duty to facilitate – responsibility of the parents/guardians
    • Exclusion – Accepting “reasonable” accommodations
    • Get No Anonymization, TRB Decisions = HRT Decision – NOPE!
    • Late filing – Timeliness of Complaint, Autism, Post-secondary
    • Learning Disability (Dyslexia)- costs of private school, and discrimination test
    • Parent advocacy (Conduct) -communication with the school
    • Reasonable Accommodations (ADHD, Dyslexia)
  • OIPC Orders in Education
  • School Trauma
  • Legal Blogs
  • Education Advocacy Options
    • Section 177
    • Section 11 – Appeal to Board of Education
    • Education Law
    • Advocacy
    • Silence
    • Professional Conduct Unit (Formerly BC Teacher’s Regulation Branch)
    • Freedom of Information Request
    • BC Ombudsperson
    • Ministry of Education
    • MLA
    • Human Rights Tribunal
    • Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner
    • Board of Education Meetings
    • Education Language
  • Advocate Help Directory
  • Parent/Guardian Advocates in MEDIA
    • In the News/Human Rights Cases
    • Parent/Guardian Podcasts
    • Parent/Guardian Blogs
  • Annual Reports
  • P.A.T.H (Parent. Advocacy. Tribunal. Help)
  • Contact
  • Yelp
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Email
Speaking Up BC

P.A.T.H (Parent. Advocacy. Tribunal. Help)

Education Law
Duty to Accommodate
Services

www.kbpath.com

Search

Welcome to Speaking UP BC (Canada)

What does it take to be an advocate?

To put it quite simply…

You need to look at the pile of horse shit in front of you, view it as fertilizer, and then get to work. Oh…and be willing to fall ass backwards into it.

To all of the other parents who also make the decision to step into the advocacy role, however big or small, I cherish you. No one can ever make a difference, truly alone. We walk this together, even when we are fighting our own battles. And, it certainly can feel like a battle sometimes in these strategically designed systems.

“If you think you are too small to make a difference, you haven’t spent the night with a mosquito.” African proverb quoted by the Dalai Lama

Disclaimer: On this website are some general tips that I have learnt along the way that I wish I knew before I started down the advocacy path. I offer these as suggestions for you to consider for your own advocacy efforts. As a disclaimer: please see this list as a Sunday brunch buffet of options and not a prescription of exact steps that you need to follow. I hope this information empowers parents when moving forward to reflect on their own values and make their own advocacy decisions. I know for myself, that when I move down a path that aligns with my values, I feel that much stronger.

“Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine.” ― Alan Turing

 

 

Like Us On Facebook

Facebook Pagelike Widget

Newsletter Sign Up

Search

Kim Block

parent.advocacy.tribunal.help

Human Rights. Education. K-12. Disability.
New Blog: Understanding Systemic Change A necessar New Blog: Understanding Systemic Change A necessary blog. https://www.speakingupbc.com/.../understanding-systemic.../ #HumanRights #Disability #Education #Law #Advocacy
2 New TRB complaints. There was a two month gap p 2 New TRB complaints. There was a two month gap period of nothing, and then 2 postings yesterday where the teachers names were both anonymized. The database to all of the decisions is just linked below. Their website is a maze and I find it hard to navigate. I have people contacting me because they can't figure out how to submit a complaint. I get it. They don't make it easy, and I assume there is purpose to that. Here is the database. https://teacherregulation.gov.bc.ca/.../DisciplineOutcome... The one that I want to focus on, is this one because....well for one it's ridiculous that this even happens, but that access to a washroom also connects to anxiety. They anonymize names when: "This summary is published under section 54(3) of the Teachers Act to protect the identity of students who were harmed, abused or exploited by the teacher." This teacher was refusing to let students use the bathroom, even though they have been instructed to let students use the bathroom in the past. (There is more to this situation). The reason I picked this one to highlight is because when students have anxiety, depending on the severity, it can most likely impact their digestive system in multiple ways and many people can feel the urge to urinate more often. Kids who are constantly running to the bathroom, is a sign of anxiety that the BC Children's Hospital will use as one of their criteria. Regardless, denying a child access to the washroom is going to drive up their feelings of not being safe in school. If they have anxiety, it will likely make it worse, and they'll be put in survival mode. Kids sometimes use going to the washroom often to take breaks in class, because they are not getting their needs met. They need breaks, and they have figured out this is the only way that they can get them. They also sometimes escape the class to avoid the shame. Here is the complaint. The teacher resigned. https://teacherregulation.gov.bc.ca/.../Dis.../T-BL-2024.pdf
New Human Rights Decision! We have a new Human Ri New Human Rights Decision! We have a new Human Rights Decision issued in October but was just posted on their website on December 12th, 2024. Ward and others v. Ministry of Education, 2024 BCHRT 306 This is a VERY interesting decision as it is a parent claiming discrimination to not having equal funding and this unequal funding they felt was discriminatory. Funding is a reason many parents would like to file a class action against the Ministry. This decision supports the reality, that we can’t just sue the government over lack of funding. Especially, the Ministry of Education and Child Care. And the main crux of the argument of why we cannot file a complaint against the Ministry of Education and Child Care in connection to funding is because they are just following the legislation that is voted on and passed in the Legislature. The Legislature creates the School Act. The funding is given to the school districts. The school districts make the decisions on how the funding is allocated. As stated below the Tribunal dismisses complaints against bodies whose only role in funding is oversight. Every human rights decision that I have ever read that included the Ministry of Education in a complaint, has been dismissed every. single. time. I really encourage everyone to read this case in full. The analysis is very interesting. I thank this parent for filing such a complaint and allowing the tribunal to apply their interpretation and analysis so that we can learn from it and understand how the system works. I really can’t say it enough, that if you think you have a case, filing complaints is a form of advocacy. Even if you personally “lose” it is not a loss for the community. This is a HUGE form of advocacy. It’s information and knowledge that lets us understand where the lines are. Where the boundaries are. We could end up wasting TONS of time and energy advocating in the wrong direction. These decisions are literally GOLD. https://www.speakingupbc.com/2024/12/15/new-human-rights-tribunal-decision-against-the-ministry-of-education-funding-dismissed/
New Blog: Families are Advocating - A Year in Revi New Blog: Families are Advocating - A Year in Review https://www.speakingupbc.com/2024/12/13/families-are-advocating-a-year-in-review-for-human-rights-oipc-decisions-and-the-media/ Social movements are slow. And this is what advocacy for disability rights is. A social movement. It will always be too slow for anyone’s liking. Really. While we wait for change, harm is being done. Some people feel defeated and think what is the point, the system isn’t changing. Change very rarely occurs in leaps and bounds. Certainly not in human systems. It’s normal for it to be 2 steps forward, 1 step back, 3 steps forward, 1 step back, It’s always messy. Never a straight line from A to B. More like a zig-zag all over the place. But this is how humans work. Especially in large groups. Societies. No way to get around that. Just need to muddle through it. But we are seeing more advocacy tools pop up. Decisions and accessibility legislation. Families are advocating. More external watch bodies are taking notice. Change is slow. But it is occurring. The roots are growing. What is scary and dangerous is when the system feels no one is watching. That they are untouchable. Then the system will change in leaps and bounds. It can always get worse. We need to hold the line. Send the message that we are here. We are watching. We are learning. We will take action. And clearly, we have. Let us focus on this: Many seeds have been planted this year. May they take root and grow To my community of families, Happy Holidays, and I wish you all the best for 2025.
Load More Follow on Instagram
  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • February 2022
  • December 2021
  • October 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Understanding the Duty to Accommodate
  • Understanding Exclusion
  • Understanding Systemic Change
  • Where do I start?
    • Resolution Options in Education
    • Where do I Start?
    • Commonly Used Acronyms in Supportive Education
  • Human Rights Decisions (Cases)
    • Adding yourself to your child’s human rights complaint
    • ADHD, Dyslexia, Dysgraphia (Timeliness Application)
    • ADHD, LD, GAD, Depression – Transition to high school, not following IEP, paying for private school
    • ADHD – Post Secondary
    • Anaphlyaxis, Severe Allergies
    • Anxiety, Meaningful Inquiry, Self-advocacy, IEP, Transition to HS
    • Application for Anonymization
    • Bullying
    • Child Care Cases
    • Dismissal Applications – How to Respond
    • Duty to consult
    • Duty to facilitate – responsibility of the parents/guardians
    • Exclusion – Accepting “reasonable” accommodations
    • Get No Anonymization, TRB Decisions = HRT Decision – NOPE!
    • Late filing – Timeliness of Complaint, Autism, Post-secondary
    • Learning Disability (Dyslexia)- costs of private school, and discrimination test
    • Parent advocacy (Conduct) -communication with the school
    • Reasonable Accommodations (ADHD, Dyslexia)
  • OIPC Orders in Education
  • School Trauma
  • Legal Blogs
  • Education Advocacy Options
    • Section 177
    • Section 11 – Appeal to Board of Education
    • Education Law
    • Advocacy
    • Silence
    • Professional Conduct Unit (Formerly BC Teacher’s Regulation Branch)
    • Freedom of Information Request
    • BC Ombudsperson
    • Ministry of Education
    • MLA
    • Human Rights Tribunal
    • Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner
    • Board of Education Meetings
    • Education Language
  • Advocate Help Directory
  • Parent/Guardian Advocates in MEDIA
    • In the News/Human Rights Cases
    • Parent/Guardian Podcasts
    • Parent/Guardian Blogs
  • Annual Reports
  • P.A.T.H (Parent. Advocacy. Tribunal. Help)
  • Contact
  • Yelp
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Email
Speaking Up BC Proudly powered by WordPress