This op-ed was originally published by the Edmonton Journal on October 7, 2026

Alberta’s government has promised a new direction for inclusive education. The fundamental question is whether students with developmental disabilities should learn alongside their peers in neighbourhood schools or in separate settings. The answer should be guided by evidence, educational expertise, and the values that inform public policy.

While evidence should lead, public policy is never value-neutral. Governments make choices through the lens of their priorities and values. As Alberta rewrites the 20-year-old Standards for Special Education, it is worth asking whether a government that frequently appeals to strong communities and families, fiscal responsibility, and opportunity for all recognizes inclusive education as advancing those objectives.

The current debate is increasingly framed as pitting evidence against values, or the needs of some students against those of others. The reality is that every school system will educate students who require additional support. The question is where and how those supports are provided: in neighbourhood classrooms alongside peers, or in separate settings apart from them.

Research and practice provide a clear answer. Four decades of evidence from Alberta, Canada and other countries has found that inclusive education produces stronger academic and social outcomes for students with developmental disabilities than segregated education. The same research has repeatedly found that inclusive classrooms have positive or neutral effects on students without disabilities. Properly supported inclusion is educational excellence from which all children benefit.

The evidence is clear. The remaining question is whether Alberta’s new policy will reflect that evidence and the values the government frequently champions.

First, inclusion supports families and opportunity. Parents know their children best and should be meaningful partners in educational decision-making. This is the principle emphasized in the Choice in Education Act. Families want opportunities for their children to learn and build relationships locally. Because inclusive education produces better academic and social outcomes, schools should begin with a presumption of inclusion, provide appropriate supports, and remove unnecessary barriers for families who choose it.

This is particularly important for a government that has identified employment for adults with disabilities as a priority. There is no separate labour market for people with disabilities. Students with developmental disabilities will eventually seek jobs and participate in the same communities as everyone else. Education policy should maximize their chances of success by setting high expectations and supporting academic achievement, social development and community connections from an early age.

Second, inclusion strengthens communities. Strong communities are built when people grow up together, learn together, and develop relationships across differences. When students with disabilities are educated separately, all students lose opportunities to develop empathy, co-operation, mutual responsibility, and respect. Inclusion strengthens the social bonds that help communities thrive.

Third, inclusion reflects responsible stewardship of public resources. Fiscal responsibility means directing resources where they produce the greatest benefit. The question is whether resources are best spent expanding segregated settings or strengthening schools’ capacity to support all students within their local communities. A fiscally prudent approach prioritizes investments in helping students succeed where they live and belong, rather than transporting students away from their neighbourhood schools.

Fourth, inclusion recognizes that relationships matter. Schools are communities, not just service-delivery systems. Students thrive when they are known, valued, and connected to classmates, teachers, and neighbours. Disability has too often been viewed primarily through a medical lens, focusing on deficits to be corrected rather than belonging to be fostered. Inclusive education reflects a different understanding: belonging is not a reward earned. Belonging is one of the conditions that makes learning possible.

Students with developmental disabilities do not graduate into a separate labour market or a separate adult life. Access to opportunities and relationships in school shapes their opportunities as adults. If Alberta wants more people with disabilities to live adult lives of contribution, employment and security, it should begin by supporting the educational approach most likely to produce those outcomes.

Rajesh Kumar is the parent of a child with intellectual disability and the president of Inclusion Edmonton Region.

Inclusion Edmonton Region Welcomes Decision to Cancel Proposed Segregated Autism School, Calls for Investment in Inclusive Education

April 15, 2026

Edmonton, AB — Inclusion Edmonton Region welcomes Edmonton Public Schools’ decision to cancel the proposed school that segregates students with autism. The organization says the decision creates an important opportunity to refocus efforts on strengthening inclusive education in neighbourhood schools—meaning students with autism and intellectual disabilities learning alongside their peers in regular classrooms, with the supports they need to participate and succeed—and to ensure families who want inclusive classrooms can genuinely access them.

For many families, the proposed school raised concerns that resources would be concentrated in segregated settings while long‑standing barriers to inclusion in community schools remained unaddressed.

“This decision matters because it reflects that the Board understood the negative implications of further segregating students on the basis of their disability,” said Rajesh Kumar, President of Inclusion Edmonton Region and a parent of a daughter with an intellectual disability and autism. “Many parents have been clear that they want their children learning alongside their peers in their neighbourhood schools. When inclusive education isn’t properly supported, families are left feeling they don’t truly have a choice. This decision creates space to address those barriers.”

Inclusion Edmonton Region notes that, in the past few years, parents have repeatedly told trustees they have been directed to the Division’s segregated classrooms when their preference is for their child to receive an inclusive education. Families described being told that supports were unavailable, that instruction could not be adapted, or that their child could only attend school part‑time unless they accepted a segregated placement. The proposal for a new segregated school had been justified on the basis of demand; however, the experiences shared by families raise serious questions about whether inclusive education has been meaningfully supported as an option versus being directed to segregated placements.

“Choice only exists when inclusive education is actually supported and available,” Kumar said. “Cancelling this project should be the starting point for addressing why so many families feel pushed away from inclusive classrooms in the first place.”

The organization emphasized that inclusive education is not simply a placement decision, but depends on investment in teacher and educational assistant training, collaborative teaching, flexible supports, and school environments designed for diverse learners.

Emily Mole, a Director with Inclusion Edmonton Region and a person with an intellectual disability who was segregated in school against her wishes, said the decision reflects what many students experience when systems prioritize separation over inclusion.

“When I was younger, I was told I had to leave my school and my friends because I had a disability,” said Mole. “I fought to stay included, but I was met with resistance. When students are separated, they can lose friendships, belonging, and opportunities to be part of their community. Cancelling this school sends a message that students with autism belong in their communities, not apart from them.”

Inclusion Edmonton Region acknowledges that the Division will continue to provide segregated classrooms, but questions the equity of requiring students with autism to travel long distances to a centralized Autism Centre of Excellence. Expertise and excellence in education should be available in community schools, not contingent on placement in a segregated setting.

“Students have always been diverse,” Mole added. “What needs to change is how teaching is designed and supported so that diversity is expected and welcomed.”

What Inclusion Edmonton Region Is Calling For Next

The organization is urging Edmonton Public Schools to:

• Invest in building inclusive capacity in community schools, including staff training and collaborative supports.

• Engage directly with families who are seeking inclusive education and experiencing barriers.

• Ensure planning decisions focus on removing barriers to inclusion, not bypassing them, and that inclusive education is implemented as the first choice in practice, not just in policy.

• Publicly report on the number of students on partial days and commit to ending this practice that violates the Education Act.

“The real measure of this decision will be whether families who want inclusive education can actually access it, with appropriate supports for both students and teachers,” said Kumar.

For more information, please contact: mail@inclusionedmonton.org.

Inclusion Edmonton Region calls on Edmonton Public Schools to honour parental choice of inclusive education

April 17, 2025

In an April 1st Edmonton Public School Board (EPSB) meeting, Superintendent Darrel Robertson responded to concerns of children with developmental disabilities being excluded from general education classrooms by saying that inclusion is the division’s first choice and that if parents encounter resistance at school to reach out to him and the division would work to ensure parental choice of an inclusive education is honoured. Fourteen parents and advocates attended EPSB’s board meeting on April 15th to describe how, contrary to the superintendent’s assurances, their choice has not been honoured. Parents are repeatedly told their child can’t be included in the regular education classroom, isn’t wanted, that there are neither the resources nor funding to support them, and that instruction can’t be adapted. They said families feel forced to accept placement in segregated Interactions classrooms—when this isn’t their choice.

Recordings of the speakers can be watched at three points in the meeting: first speakers, second speakers, and third speakers.

Inclusion Edmonton Region calls on the school division to commit to enforcing their publicly stated mandate that an inclusive education, where children with disabilities are welcomed into the general education classroom alongside their non-disabled peers, is their first choice, and ensuring that parental choice of inclusive education is honoured.

“This means not making parents feel guilty for asking for the support their child deserves, as if it was taking away from other children,” says Karen Pedersen-Bayus, a retired teacher of 30+ years, parent of an adult son with an intellectual disability, and a board member with Inclusion Edmonton Region, who spoke at the April 15th meeting. “It means not discouraging parents with comments such as ‘supports aren’t available’, ‘curriculum can’t be adapted’, ‘inclusion isn’t possible past Grade 6’ or ‘teachers aren’t trained to teach your child’.” 

“I just don’t think that in 2025, access to inclusive education should be a privilege,” says parent Andree Busenius. “It’s a right."

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For more information, please contact: mail@inclusionedmonton.org or (780) 695-1845

EPSB’s new planned segregated school for children with Autism.‍ ‍

Read Inclusion Alberta’s Facebook Post:

This planned segregated school for children with autism is being touted by the Edmonton Public School Board as a ‘choice’ for families, yet we know countless Edmonton School Division parents who have sought and continue to seek our assistance in having their child with autism receive an inclusive education in their community school alongside their non-disabled peers but are denied this choice, and who are told their child will only receive the support they require if they agree to segregate their child in an ‘Interactions’ classroom. One cannot claim parents are freely choosing, when in reality one option is readily available and the other, the inclusive classroom, is not. It is clear that this administration prefers to segregate children with autism.

Check out our curated news page to read the full article: https://inclusionalberta.org/curated-news-content/

Disability Advocate Sounds the Alarm After Government Slashes Funding.‍ ‍

Action is urgently needed.

Tell Minister Nixon that it’s time to fix the crisis in care:‍ ‍

Here are links to the Inclusion Alberta website where you can find more information about recent important issues:

1) Government of Alberta claws back Canada Disability Benefit

2) Contact your MLA about adults and children with intellectual disabilities being unable to get the supports they need to live a meaningful life.

3) Cuts to children and adults with intellectual disabilities and their families.

Inclusion Alberta’s Media Release:

4)Survey Results on Bureaucratic and Systemic Barriers to accessing appropriate supports:

5) School Support Worker Strike