Petition:
Equity and program choices in high school for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and students with intellectual disability

Petition text

CONSIDERING THAT when students with ASD or an intellectual disability reach the age of 21, they generally do not have the skills required to be gainfully employed and to be integrated to society;

CONSIDERING THAT most of them are faced with one single program of study in the existing special needs classes and this program varies from one school board to another due to the disparity of available services;

CONSIDERING THAT several students with special needs show strengths and aptitudes in certain areas but these aptitudes are not sufficiently stimulated, exploited or developed;

CONSIDERING THAT academic and social adaptation problems are often noted in these students and that the services dispensed do not adequately meet their educational needs;

We, the undersigned, ask the Government of Québec to:

1. Review the curriculum of students with ASD or an intellectual disability and develop adapted, craft-oriented work-study classes that would last all through high school. For example: cooking, photography, computers, visual arts, circus and street arts, sewing and wall painting;
2. Develop field expertise by way of pilot projects;
3. Offer them the choice between an adapted craft-oriented work-study program and staying in a special needs class or in a regular classroom context, in accordance to their needs and aptitudes;
4. Standardize their special needs programs across Québec;
5. Provide them with the same amount of hours of instruction as the rest of the students throughout Québec.

The signing period for this petition is over.

Signing deadline : May 22, 2013

Number of signatures : 2224

Need help?

Telephone: 418 643-7239 or, toll free, 1 866 337-8837
Email: renseignements@assnat.qc.ca