Comparative Studies in Special Education

22. Canada

22 Canada MARGRET A. WINZER Canada is a vast country made up of ten provinces and two territories. With the confederation of 1867, the federal government in Ottawa conferred a number of powers on the provinces, among them education. Although Ottawa retains some control over adult education and the education of Native people, general education is the exclusive right and responsibility of the provinces. The lack of a federal office of education, combined with the huge geographical distances of Canada, the cultural diversity of the country, and the high urbanization of the population, makes any statement about education difficult. Each of the ten provinces and the two territories has its own school system based upon provincial education legislation. Each provincial government can develop its own legislation, regulations, policies, and procedures to ensure that all children receive a free and appropriate education. Although there are great similarities in such areas as curriculum, control, and funding, there are also regional and provincial differences. The differences seen in the general educational arena are compounded in the area of special education. Differences in prevalence figures, in etiology , in definitions of exceptionality and labeling, in identification and placement procedures, in eligibility for special education services, in funding formulas, and in early intervention programs are readily observed across the country. Although each province and territory has elevated rnainstreaming to the dominant ideology, the legislation and approaches to placement and practice differ. About the Author • Margret Winzer is in the Faculty of Education at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, where she teaches courses in educational psychology and special education. She has published in these two areas. Her special interest is in the history of special education. 370 Canada 371 One commonality apparent in Canadian special education is the dramatic increase in interest and involvement that has been witnessed in the past three decades. Not only have we seen rapid expansion, but special education has moved from educating children in institutional settings, to specialized separate classes, to the integration of many students into regular programs and regular classes. However, while there is a contingent of proponents of fully integrated schooling in Canada, it can be said that full educational integration is the exception, rather than the rule, across the country. Special classes and resource room withdrawal programs dominate the delivery of special education services; the most common mode is the regular classroom-resource room combination. Another commonality found in Canadian special education is American influence. Geographically, Canada sprawls across the north of the United States, so it is not surprising that, in both historical and contemporary terms, Canadian special education has paralleled or followed the U.S. model. Canadian educational issues, both administrative and curricular, are directly influenced by events, philosophies, and pedagogy from the United States. As a result, Canadians have a touchstone against which to critically assess their progress and greater freedom to meld practices and philosophies to Canada's unique educational system. Prevalence of Exceptional Conditions It is extremely difficult to determine the numbers of individuals with disabilities in Canada. The numbers of those with severe disabilities and developmental disabilities prove easier to determine than do the numbers of individuals with mild disabilities or of children who are biologically or environmentally at risk. Within the school system, students are only labeled as exceptional when they receive special funding as such, which means that numbers of children with mildly disabling conditions served fullyin regular classrooms may not be counted. Further compounding the difficulties in obtaining accurate prevalence figures are the lack of a national survey and the varied prevalence rates found in different parts of the country. Newfoundland, for example, shows relatively higher rates of spina bifida than does the rest of the country; however, more orofacial defects are found in British Columbia. There is also much movement among the traditional categories employed within special education; children previously labeled as mildly mentally retarded or speech and language disordered are now more often categorized as learning disabled. In fact, learning disabilities is currently the major focus of many school districts. In 1986, for example, those with a learning disability made up the largest single group of disabled learners26 percent (Nessner 1990). 372 APPROACHING INTEGRATION Perhaps the greatest hindrance to obtaining accurate prevalence figures arises from the lack of universally accepted definitions of many exceptional conditions. No consensus has been reached on what actually defines learning disabilities, behavior disorders, developmental delays, or even giftedness. Hence a...