After over 16 years working in elementary schools and 8 as a school based administrator, I have attended and run many School Based Team (SBT) meetings.  A School Based Team is a team that can be made of the School Counsellor, the Child Care Worker, the Learning Support Teachers, the Speech Language Pathologist, the School Psychologist, the school Administrators and the child’s current classroom teacher.  The point of the meeting is to talk about the ways the school can support the child.

We always start our meetings with the student’s strengths, what we know about the child based on classroom assessments, observations and any documents provided by the parents from medical professionals.  We talk about the areas where the child needs more support and set next steps.  Examples of next steps might be:

1. Set up a parent meeting to get more information.  Depending on the situation and needs of the child, the information requested or questions asked will vary:
   • What strengths do you see in your child?
   • What goals/concerns do you have for your child this year?
   • Has the child had his eyes checked? Hearing tested?
   • What strategies have you used at home that work?
   • Have you taken your child to a paediatrician and if so, what was recommended?
2. Assessments- If the school feels further assessments might be beneficial they will likely inform you of school based assessments that may be done or recommend you take your child  to see a medical professional, such as:
   • A Psychoeducational Assessment -helps to identify areas of learning strength and challenges; will identify whether or not a child has a Learning Disability – depending on your school district, your child may need one done privately or within the school. Our school receives approximately 3 Psyche-Ed assessment from the Psychologist per year, so we are unable to assess all children that can benefit from the assessment.  For this reason often priority is given to children in Grade 7 so there is an assessment before high school and children in intermediate grades.  Although finding out how a child learns is beneficial at every age, sometimes if the child it too young it can be difficult to draw conclusions with clear results because the gap will not be broad enough.
   • School Based Assessment – includes regular assessments done by the LST team, such as a reading assessment, a standardized Math assessment, or baseline vocabulary assessment.
   • Medical Assessments – at times the SBT may recommend you take your child to the family doctor for a referral to a paediatrician.  A paediatrician can refer you for further assessments, such as Sunnyhill or Children’s Hospital Psychiatric for diagnosis.
3. Individual Education Plan or a Behaviour Plan – these plans are created to help the school set realistic goals for your child and as well to outline what the school staff needs to do to help your child reach these goals
4. Strategies- brainstorm strategies the teacher and child care worker can use right away to support the child – e.g. friendship groups, setting up a work/break schedule, teaching social skills, adjusting work area for the child (e.g. quiet space, headphones to decrease noise), offering alternate options for work completion, providing use of technology if needed, introducing programs such as the Zones of Regulation, or Mind up to the whole class etc.
5. Referrals for Ministry Designation– The school based team may also recommend that a referral be put in to request a Ministry Designation to get your child more support in the school.  There are many different designation, but for a child with ADHD, unless there is another underlying medical condition, the designation would be for a R (328) Behaviour Designation or an H (333) Intensive Behaviour.  Both signify that your child will receive Child Care Worker Support and that is a good thing.  The designation is what brings funding to the school district and support to the school, which is great for your child.  A school does not need parent permission to request a designation, however parent consultation is mandatory and a referral cannot be submitted without parental involvement.

Although I have been a part of this process for year on the school side and I know how helpful as SBT is and how beneficial it is to have the designations to get extra support in the school and for the child, as a parent, it feels very different.

This week I received a call from the Principal of JP’s new school to let me know they were bringing him up to School Based Team the following day.  The thought of everyone sitting around and talking about JP and possibly deciding to put in a referral for a designation hit me in a way I didn’t think it would and when I hung up, I sat down in my office I started to cry.  I know as an educator that the team is beneficial and will help JP in the long run as everyone will know what he needs, but it still hurt and was hard to hear.  I have always been compassionate with parents and understanding of their perspective, however I believed that the designation would bring the support for their child so I didn’t really understand why they might not want to do all they could to get their child help.  Now I realize that although I want JP to have all of the support he can get to be successful, having that designation attached to his name is a hard pill to swallow.  I want people to get to know JP for who he is, not to see him as a designation.  I know that educators try to look past that and get to know every child individually and wouldn’t be in education if they didn’t care about kids, but it still makes it hard to accept.  I still think, and know from experience, that SBT is a valuable tool in schools to get students the support they need, but this experience has brought forward a different perspective and layer for me.  At this point I don’t even know what the team discussed and what recommendations came out of the meeting, but I am thinking about all of the possibilities and I am both grateful he will have the support and worried for JP all at the same time.

I felt I wanted to write a post to outline for others, and again for myself, the intent behind School Based Team meetings and the desire to seek a designation when warranted.  Also, I hope this will be a reminder that even though it can make you feel sad for your child, please remember that it is because the school team cares so much about your child that it is happening in the first place.  As well, it’s a reminder for schools to approach the process with parents in a transparent manner, while remembering that it can be an emotional journey for parents.  It is so important that parents are consulted and kept informed on what is being discussed and decided by the SBT, while keeping in mind that parents and schools are both on the side of the child and know the child in different ways that are valuable to the process.