Ontario education workers raise alarm about EA shortage ahead of contract deadline

Ontario education workers and parents are raising alarm bells over a province-wide educational assistant (EA) shortage as pre-school-year contract negotiations loom.

Because schools are short-staffed, advocates say care is “rationed” across multiple classrooms, leaving vulnerable students without steady support.

Pamela Boniferro, President of the Dufferin-Peel Education Resource Workers’ Association, told CBC Toronto that provincial funding models ignore the importance of human support over physical resources.

“You could put an educator in front of a student with no paper, no pencil, no nothing, and the student will learn,” she said. “But you can put pencil and paper in front of a student with no EA, and nothing is going to take place.”

In a statement, Emma Testani, press secretary for the Minister of Education, said the province has increased annual education funding to a record $30.6 billion. She noted the province supported hiring over 4,500 additional EAs, but staffing decisions ultimately rest with local school boards.

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Ontario education unions say teachers want change. Here’s what they’re asking for

Ontario’s five big education unions representing teacher and education workers in public, Catholic and French schools served a notice to bargain on Wednesday as their contracts are set to expire in August. As CBC’s Lorenda Reddekopp explains, all sides are anticipating tough negotiations.

But for Boniferro and others in the sector, raw funding is useless without a strategy to attract and retain workers. She and others pointed to an abundance of daily “fail-to-fills” — absences that go completely uncovered because no supply staff are available — as proof that a collapse in college enrollment has left boards with a true recruitment crisis. 

These warnings come as a unified coalition of education unions negotiates new collective agreements ahead of an Aug. 31 deadline. Unions are fighting to pivot the bargaining table toward mandatory staffing ratios and permanent job security over standard wage hikes.

Lisa Weiler Haskins, president of the Educational Assistants Association, told CBC Toronto the government must understand the tangible impacts on all students, and points to one specific EA who is split across four classrooms.

“For that hour a day that she’s in there with this grade three student, it is magnificent,” she said. “And everybody’s learning, him and the other children. But when she leaves, that student isn’t getting the support. And so he’s acting out … and the teachers can’t teach.”

Lack of support often leads to ‘classroom evacuations’: union president

When high-needs students are left unsupported, the resulting distress frequently forces “classroom evacuations,” Weiler Haskins said — a traumatic disruption where entire classes are rushed into hallways while staff manage a situation with a dysregulated child, which can sometimes involve them tearing apart a room. 

Similar circumstances also often lead to EAs sustaining injuries on the job, she said.

This environment has driven widespread burnout, Boniferro added, noting members frequently report sitting in their cars crying before shifts.

Parents are then often left to deal with the fallout. Cataldo Brugnano, whose son is on the autism spectrum and recently left public education, told CBC Toronto that navigating the system was a constant battle where accommodations never materialized.

“People want to help out … but they had no resources because my son is one of many,” he said. “We would actually often have to badger and badger and badger for something to happen.”

Brugnano feels low pay drives a turnover rate that directly harms vulnerable students who require stability.

“My son’s gone through 15 counselors in five years. It’s ridiculous,” he said. “It becomes very frustrating for both parents and child.”

Boniferro stressed again that fixing this crisis requires the province to actively incentivize people to enter the workforce, pointing to previous health-care recruitment strategies.

“You put the 911 call out for PSWs, you put it out for nurses, you offered premiums on education, you offered all that,” she said. “Where’s the incentive to get these people in [EA] programs?”