Half of Ontario schools cap special-education assessments

Nearly half of Ontario schools put a cap on waitlists for special education assessments, a new report has found, leaving unknown numbers of students without the learning supports they need.

The findings surprised even the report's authors and prompted the Minister of Education, Laurel Broten, to promise Sunday to review whether caps should be allowed at all.

"I'm going to look into it to see whether that practice is appropriate," Ms. Broten said in a telephone interview with The Globe and Mail.

The report, to be released Monday by parent advocacy group People for Education, found that 47 per cent of secondary and 50 per cent of elementary schools have a cap on the number of students they can recommend for assessment. The caps were most common in Eastern Ontario, where 80 per cent of elementary schools reported having one in place.