While kids across Quebec return to school after the holidays, nine-year-old Ellie isn’t among them.
“I was so mad at my parents,” she said. “Cause I want to go to school.”
CBC News is withholding Ellie’s last name to reduce online harm and bullying. She normally attends St. Lawrence School on Montreal’s South Shore, but this year, the school hasn’t been able to provide her with the support she needs and she’s been staying home since November.
Ellie is autistic and has dyslexia. Her school had been providing extra support, such as staff who’d help her get breaks when needed, calm her stress and help her with her reading skills. But this year, that support wasn’t what it once was, and her mother says it had a significant impact on her daughter.
“It was incredibly distressing for Ellie, for her classmates and the staff of the school, and of course, for us as her family,” said Celyn Harding-Jones, describing her daughter’s “meltdowns” that were “unbelievable out of control” without the extra support.
Nine-year-old Ellie has not been able to return to classes at her school on Montreal’s South Shore. After being diagnosed with autism and dyslexia, the school provided extra support. But it wasn’t able to offer the same additional help this year — something more parents of children with disabilities in Quebec are struggling with.
That’s why Harding-Jones said her family and the school decided to take a break from class.
The school now provides a tutor three times a week for two hours a day.
Harding-Jones has taken a break of her own — stopping work to help her daughter get back to school.
“This is why I’m sort of speaking out because I’m sure that there are other children out there and other families who are struggling immensely,” she said.
$570M spending reduction
Harding-Jones isn’t the only one feeling the effects.
Two weeks before the end of last school year, at a time when school boards and school service centres are normally finalizing their budgets, administrators were told by the Education Ministry to reduce their spending by $570 million.
While most administrators said it was too soon to give a breakdown of where and how the cuts would be applied, they warned of devastating consequences and said parents are right to be worried.
Chris Craig, chair of the Riverside School Board, which oversees St. Lawrence School, said the decision to keep Ellie home was collaborative.
“She wasn’t asked to leave. They chose to homeschool, which I think in the short term might be a good idea,” he said. “They’re looking at potentially reintegrating next year.”
Craig explained that schools have fewer services due to longstanding budget pressures, starting with austerity measures under the previous Liberal government, and continuing under François Legault’s administration, which also restricts how budgetary surpluses can be used.
“It’s really tying our hands in terms of how much money we are able to release to support students,” he said.
He added that the board has been forced to make cuts and cannot provide services at previous levels due to these restrictions and a rising number of students needing support.
Thousands of students see break in services
Bianca Nugent heads the Coalition de parents d’enfants à besoins particuliers du Québec (CPEBPQ), which advocates for the educational rights of children with disabilities.
She said some students are learning at home not by choice, but because of service disruptions affecting students with disabilities and learning adaptations.
“When we send home children, we breach their rights to socialize and develop as any normal student would,” Nugent said, adding families are often forced to find solutions themselves, creating “a large toll” on them.
She added the number of students sent home for short periods, those on part-time schooling agreements and others are often excluded from official government counts.
Information obtained from Quebec’s Education Ministry by Quebec’s Liberal Party and shared with CBC shows thousands of students with different types of disabilities across the province are experiencing what’s called a “break in services” due to a lack of resources.
In 2021, close to 1,500 students were affected. The number dropped by about 100 in 2022, and then spiked to 2,562 in 2023. The numbers continued to climb and by 2025, 3,417 students experienced a break in services.
Nugent said the province’s education policy for students with disabilities has not been updated since 1999, failing to account for the fact that nearly half of some classes need individualized education plans.
As funding instability drives specialized staff to the private sector and leaves remaining educators with unmanageable caseloads, Nugent said, the “social contract is getting broken,” leading frustrated families to pursue legal action and make human rights complaints.
Advocacy group pans lack of resources
Laurence Simard-Gagnon described the service break that Ellie is experiencing as illegal and unacceptable. She is on an education committee with the Ligue des droits et libertés, a civil rights group.
She too said children with disabilities are increasingly excluded from school under precarious or part-time arrangements that aren’t counted in official statistics.
She said budget cuts and unstable funding have worsened conditions and stressed the need for proper resources, full-time specialized staff and monitoring to ensure inclusive education.
According to the Protecteur national de l’élève, the province’s student ombudsman, these service breaks are a violation of rights under the Education Act. The agency’s 2023-24 annual activity report identifies “schooling or service disruptions” as one of its major concerns.
CBC data journalist Tara Carman gathered data from school boards across the country and found that reported illnesses have tripled in some school districts. And Montreal was no exception. Experts told her that mental health issues could be a factor in the rise in school absences.
These disruptions frequently affect students with disabilities or learning and adaptation difficulties, as well as those with behavioural challenges. The report attributes these problems to several systemic issues, including financial and material resource limits, gaps in school staffing and inadequate rules for reintegrating students.
The report states “all necessary means must be undertaken to ensure the schooling of students.”
In a statement, the education minister’s office said it’s always concerning to know that some students face complex situations and that their schooling is more challenging.
“However, in most cases, these students continue to attend school for part of the week,” the statement says. “Sometimes, for their well-being and that of others, a temporary withdrawal is unfortunately necessary.”
In recent years, the ministry says it has significantly strengthened the network — there are more professionals, more support staff, classroom aides in one out of every two classes and nearly 2,000 specialized classrooms, it says.
“We will continue to invest in students’ well-being and pursue collaborative work with the school service centres as well as health network resources, always with the students’ best interest in mind,” the statement says.
