Equality in Education and a School Board's Duty of Accommodation: Can Segregation Be Accommodation?

Overview & Synopsis

Human Rights statutes prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability, which includes learning disabilities. As such, the pedagogical debate on whether to educate special education students in mainstream or segregated schools, is also an equality and human rights issue. The author attempted to analyze, by looking at current legal cases and writings on equality in education and for people with disabilities, the extent of Ontario School Board's obligations to accommodate special education students in non-segregated placements. This paper attempts to argue that the current emphasis in the law on inclusion, participation and society's construction of disability, may place new obligations on Boards and create higher standards in order to justify segregated placements. (Contains 4 footnotes.)