Reading Children's Books: Letter to Ms. Joyce Clayton, Alberta ...

From: Julie Ali
Sent: February-21-12 12:41 PM
To: 'Joyce Clayton'
Cc: 'edmonton.castledowns@assembly.ab.ca'; 'calgary.elbow@assembly.ab.ca'; 'Edgar Schmidt'; 'Shauna Shore'; 'Dave Colburn'; 'Heather Raymond'; 'edmonton.whitemud@assembly.ab.ca'
Subject: RE: more free advertisement about the Alberta Education system

Dear Ms. Clayton,

Thank you for this information.

I was under the impression (based on my school?s lack of responsiveness to my son?s difficulties) that the problem was the money.

Now I understand that the problem is ?in fact ?a lack of will and leadership---at the level of the school administration and at the level of the school district administration.

What this means to me as a parent, is that there must be an alteration in the philosophy and practices at Edmonton Public Schools.

At the school level ?there must be a willingness to see the child in difficulties as someone deserving of assistance and not extra work for the administration of that school. ?

At younger boy's? School there has been a persisting lack of assistance for special education students of any stripe or color and in general---it is my opinion that any student with an IQ that does not fit the high performance standard of the school?s preference ?has been quietly encouraged to move on to other schools that ?best suit the student?s needs.?? I do not believe the school has been accommodating ?at the level of the administration of the school.? The teachers ?on the other hand ?for the most part?have been professional and some of them have been exceptionally helpful.

I cannot help but wonder if my son had a lower IQ ?would we have been encouraged to move onto ?another school?? Because younger boy is near the gifted range?they did not have this excuse but I wonder if other students at this school ?with lower IQ scores ?have been encouraged to go elsewhere??

I am not happy with either Mr. Schmidt or Executive Services at EPS.?? While? I understand that Executive Services has no choice but to do what their CEO tells them to do?I feel that Mr. Schmidt needs to understand that he has to change the way he does business or he needs to find another job.? We ?the parents ?are in charge of the school system and we make the rules. And we want a public education system that is fully transparent to us ?the parents?and we want it now.?? At the school district level, the administration of Edmonton Public Schools must make every process in the handling of special education and indeed, any student transparent to the citizen.

What do I mean by this?? When Executive Services is called in to investigate why an IPP is being called ?fake? and discovers that the IPP has been developed over a year and has no parental consent on it?but has been used by the teachers in that school ---illegally---so to speak---well then?they must tell the parents the error?and they must get parental consent.

They may not hide this error from parents.

They may not build up a story for the parents at a later date when the parent discovers the error.

And they may not continue to lie about the error.

All public servants are paid by citizens.

Citizens?like myself-- take exception to lies and cover-ups.

We take exception to our children being without services for years due to the outright negligence, incompetence and laziness of school administration.

We take extreme exception to the fact that we have to go the Edmonton Public School Board to ensure that accommodations and alterations in curriculum provision?such as written notes?must be fought for ?rather than automatically given.

Parents will not tolerate this type of failures on the part of Edmonton Public School administration especially on the part of Mr. Schmidt who is the CEO of EPS. He is ultimately responsible for the failures in my son?s case because he sets the tone and practices for the whole system. Get going ---Mr. Schmidt. Bring your system up to date and make it accessible and open to us or we will not be willing to pay for the salaries of folks who do not do their jobs.

We now have the ability to fire CEOs through the new Education Act?with the mechanism of a school board decision.

This brings democracy to the level of the ordinary citizen. The new Education Act will be scrutinized very carefully by this mother who will remain active in the school system.

Administrators who do not do their jobs or who do the job in the way it was done in my son?s case?will in future?receive requests from citizens like myself---for termination of employment.

Please note that I am not satisfied with the response of your department or the Minister of Education with reference to EPS.

I believe direct disciplinary action is warranted.

As well, I believe that direct disciplinary action is warranted by EPS administration with reference to my school administration.

Both of these disciplinary actions are essential to prove to the ordinary citizen that their special education child is indeed protected rather than throwaway.

In addition these types of disciplinary actions should be open to the public.

Must citizens go to the CASS and the ATA to get such disciplinary action?

Or will your department instigate clear directives to school districts regarding an open, fair and effective complaint process for parents with reference to special education students and put in place a child?s advocate within the system itself?

These are matters you are responsible for and you need to deal with.

You need to set up a complaint system so that vulnerable children are protected.

Not many parents would do what I have done because they are afraid, or they lack the education or simply stay as ignorant as I was.? For the sake of these parents and their unprotected children?you must put in a complaint process that does not require a school board appeal?but that is still independent and supported by a child advocate.

I don?t believe most parents who work can be a full time child advocate for their kids. We need such an office?to protect the children who don?t have a mother ?of the sort that I am.

Sincerely,

Julie Ali

From: Joyce Clayton [mailto:Joyce.Clayton@gov.ab.ca]
Sent: February-21-12 11:11 AM
To: 'Julie Ali'; 'calgary.elbow@assembly.ab.ca'; 'edmonton.castledowns@assembly.ab.ca'
Cc: 'Edgar Schmidt'; 'Shauna Shore'; 'Dave Colburn'; 'Heather Raymond'
Subject: RE: more free advertisement about the Alberta Education system

Dear Ms. Ali,

Thank you for sharing your recent correspondence from the Canadian Association of Speech Language Pathologists and Audiologists. I am familiar with this organization and the work they do in terms of developing practice guidelines for their membership and was interested to see that they are developing national guidelines in this area. This information will be of interest to speech-language pathologists who work in Alberta schools and health systems. When the time comes, I am happy to share this information with colleagues who support Speech Language Pathologists in schools.

Budget 2012 provided an increase of $68 million in funding for children and students who require additional supports and programming in school to be successful. School jurisdictions are expected to use this funding to provide services to any student who requires additional assistance to help them learn and progress in school. This funding is not tied to the use of special education. As Alberta school jurisdictions implement inclusive education practices, they will be expected to provide services to any student who requires them even those who do not have a special education code or a diagnosis in place.

Inclusive Learning Supports Branch continues to support school system leaders in their work which includes but is not limited to special education. As work progresses on the development of regulations and policies to support the recently introduced Education Act the concerns you have raised through your correspondence will help inform this work.

Again thank you for contacting me and for sharing information from other provinces and organizations.

Regards,

Joyce

Source: http://readingchildrensbooks.blogspot.com/2012/02/letter-to-ms-joyce-clayton-alberta_21.html

cause of whitney houston death clive davis pebble beach keanu reeves whitney houston national anthem beverly hills hotel beverly hills hotel