Mother ‘ecstatic’ son with autism can return to school

On Tuesday, after the Victoria Day long weekend is over, 11-year-old Aaron Palaro of Sault Ste. Marie will join the few students in Ontario allowed to learn in person at a conventional, structured, bricks and mortar school.

Palaro, a Grade 6 student at Holy Cross Catholic Elementary School, is on the autism spectrum.

Under Ontario’s current COVID-19 pandemic stay at home order, almost all elementary and secondary school students, staff and teachers are restricted to learning or working remotely from home, with the exception of special education students who need that in person interaction with teachers and educational assistants (EAs).   

Lisa Reid, Palaro’s mother, was shocked and disappointed to learn her son, despite autism, would not be allowed to attend school when the province’s stay at home order went into effect April 8.

Reid said the Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board (H-SCDSB) informed her that Aaron did not meet the criteria needed for special education students to receive in person instruction.

“My son is falling through the cracks,” Reid told SooToday earlier this week.

“Nobody can give me a specific answer as to what’s going on.”

“The problem with Aaron online (referring to online learning, which almost all students are currently experiencing) is that he needs the support...teachers are equipped to deal with this.”

Reid said she experienced frustration in her attempt to reach Holy Cross and Huron-Superior officials in an appeal to get her son back into the classroom.

“Aaron very much needs structure and consistency. He needs to be with his learning team. The resource teacher and EAs have been with him since Kindergarten. They’re the ones that can calm him or ease his need to self harm. They know his face, they know his heart and most of all they know his capabilities,” said Reid in an email to SooToday.

In an email received Thursday in response to a SooToday question as to what criteria are needed to be met in order for special education students to receive in person instruction, Joe Chilelli, H-SCDSB superintendent, told us while he was not at liberty to speak of specific student/parent situations, “in our board, students who are blind/low vision, deaf/hard of hearing, non-communicative, or medically fragile met criteria.”

“The special education department made the initial list and double checked with each principal to ensure no student was overlooked. Students could also be brought forward at a later date for consideration by the school principal and these are considered on a case by case basis.” 

“We have reviewed our criteria with our Special Education contact at the Ministry of Education and they affirmed our criteria and process.” 

“We continue to do our best to balance the health and safety of all during the school closure/stay at home order with providing all access to education,” Chilelli wrote.

However, also on Thursday, Reid learned from the board her son would be allowed to return to in person learning next week.

“We’re happy Aaron got in…I’m ecstatic,” Reid told us.

“I feel that it’s resolved. I’m thrilled.”

There was no lack of trying to adjust to remote learning on Aaron’s part, Reid said.

“We would start in the morning and we would try to do our thing and then it would just break down from there. We would have these stories on YouTube, but then Aaron wanted to do other things. It broke down from there.”

“With kids with autism, they like structure, they like routine,” Reid said.

As for Aaron’s reaction?

“He’s a typical boy. He doesn’t want to go back to school, but he does (at the same time),” Reid said.

“He loves who he works with. He has a really good relationship with his EAs and his teachers.”