Sorry I know its been awhile, and I promise to post more often. With my ADHD time blindness that means it will continue to be sporatic. Sorry

I spent most of last summer editing and re-editing this op-ed to be published at the end of September prior to students returning to school. After much back and forth, it did not get published. I was upset and angry, moved on and forgot about it but then I found it while going through the many documents on my computer that are forgottten. I like this op-ed, and I think it speaks to many more people than I realize so I am posting it here because I think it is important. Here it is…

We don’t often give this much thought, but the education system is a mighty institution, possibly one of the most powerful in the world. If you stop to think about it, the Ministry of Education (MOE), the gatekeeper of diplomas, can impact your life’s trajectory. A diploma, for most, can be one of the most influential pieces of paper one can attain.  Most students don’t give this much thought, but for other students, especially those with ADHD, this can be terrifying. The unfortunate reality is that the fate of the student with ADHD lies within the policies of the MInistry of Edcuation MOE) that view their diagnosis as unworthy of recognition by excluding it from one of its categories of exceptionality, resulting in no academic support.  

In Canada, education policy is a provincial responsibility. However, the Ontario Ministry of Education has excluded ADHD from any of its five exceptionality categories, which include behavioural, communicational, physical, intellectual, and multiple. CADDAC (Center for ADHD Awareness Canada) reports that 5-9% of children are affected by ADHD. In a class of 30 students, a small class by today’s standards, an estimated three students have ADHD. At least three children per class learn differently without considering other mental health issues.  Research indicates, “Anxiety disorders occur in approximately 30% of patients with ADHD”.  How are the rights of these students worth less than those of the other 27 students? 

The Canadian Mental Health Association (2019) describes Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), one of the most diagnosed disorders globally, as a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by persistent patterns of in-attentivity and lack of impulse control that interfere with function and development and present in two or more settings such as school and home. 

In 2023, the MOE provided schools with “Policy/Programme 169,” intending to outline a “comprehensive and responsive plan to meet the needs of each and every student.” This “comprehensive” plan to address student mental health only mentions ADHD once throughout the whole document under the ‘mental health and substance use’ subheading by stating, “For example, a person might use alcohol to cope with feelings of anxiety or use drugs to cope with symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.”  

The MOE regulates each school board within Ontario to have a Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC).  The purpose of SEAC is to “make recommendations to their board or authority on anything that impacts the establishment, development and delivery of special education programs and services.” In 2023, like others before me at other school boards, I was a delegate at the Special Education Advisory Committee meeting advocating for ADHD to be recognized by the Ontario Ministry of Education as qualifying within the communication category of exceptionality. This resulted in the Niagara District Board of Education (DSBN) passing a motion to send a letter to the OME, making the case that ADHD should qualify for support. I am not the first SEAC delegate to have a letter sent to the ministry with this request successfully. However, we have all received a response that refuses to make the necessary policy changes that definitively indicate ADHD as qualifying within the communication category, along with autism and learning disabilities, two other neurodevelopmental conditions. 

There is a long-standing argument to include ADHD within the OME categories of exceptionality. Yet, under extreme circumstances, some school boards will provide a student with an ADHD diagnosis with an IEP (Individual Education Plan) if the school deems it necessary. Still, the child will not qualify for an IPRC (Identification, Placement and Review Committee). What’s the big deal, you ask?  An IPRC provides a student identified as having an exceptionality of qualifying within one of its five categories. Unlike an IEP, this identification makes any support provided to a child legally required. In contrast, an IEP without an IPRC identification can be removed at any time without notice. 

The Ontario Ministry of Education deserves an “F” for meeting the needs of students.  Someone must tell them they have a “Human Rights, Equity, and Inclusive Education Plan.” The second paragraph of the plan mentions that “non-inclusive environments, lack of accommodation, systemic barriers” are detrimental to the learning success of students. I am afraid to continue reading because they are two for two in non-compliance with their own plan.

In 2018, the Human Rights Commission stated,  “The definition of disability in the Code, and as interpreted in human rights case law, is broader than the Ministry of Education exceptionality categories. For example, human rights jurisprudence has explicitly recognized ADHD as a disability requiring accommodation under the Code”.   Despite this statement, the Ministry of Education continues to exclude ADHD despite the Human Rights Commission warning that they “found that the Ministry of Education could be potentially liable for discrimination where its definition of exceptionalities prevented or delayed a student from receiving required accommodations.”  

It is now 2025, how is it that the human rights of students with ADHD continue to be violated every time they walk through the school doors?  At what point does the education system start to practice what it preaches? Inclusivity, diversity, and equality must be more than just buzzwords; they must be actions.  We are at a time when we preach inclusion and diversity but do not apply this to learning; in turn, we are destroying opportunities for children before they are even given a chance.  All children deserve a chance.