New Regulation Limits Scope on Appeals to Superintendent of Achievement
The anticipated Order in Council was released today establishing the scope of appeals that can be made to a Superintendent of Achievement regarding a decision of a board employee under section 11.1 of the School Act.
BCSTA expressed strong opposition to the legislation that provided for appeals beyond the board level and subsequently has advocated extensively to the Ministry to limit the scope of appeals that could be heard by the Superintendents of Achievement.
Today’s regulation restricts such appeals to decisions that significantly affect the education, health or safety of a student AND fall within one of the following criteria:
- Expulsions or suspensions from an educational program;
- Disciplinary measures that require a student to complete all or part of an educational program by distributed learning if the program, space and facilities exist in the district in a non-distributed learning format;
- A student is not provided with an individual education plan (IEP);
- A parent or student is not consulted with on the placement of a student with special needs in an educational program, or the preparation of the student’s IEP;
- A complaint by a student or parent related to intimidation/bullying/harassment/threat or violence by another student;
- The exclusion of a student from school due to risks to the health or welfare of other students.
There is a general restriction (applying to all of the above) that an appeal will not be heard respecting allocation of resources to a student’s educational program (except to the extent that the appeal relates to application of the board’s hardship policies.)
The regulation comes into effect on March 3, 2008 and only Section 11.1 appeals dealt with by a board on or after that date will be subject to appeal to a Superintendent of Achievement.
Boards are advised to review their appeals Bylaws and processes to ensure that they are in line with the new regulations. Please refer to the Policy Backgrounder and sample bylaw distributed last week by BCSTA General Counsel Judith Clark
For more information contact:
BCSTA Executive Director Stephen Hansen
e-mail: shansen@bcsta.org
Phone: 604-734-2721 (115)
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