Choosing a School That Fits: Placement Questions Parents Ask

You have started looking at other schools, and every website says the same three things about small classes and individual attention. There is no ranking to fall back on and no regulator to check with. Choosing a setting for a child who learns differently is the part families tell us they find hardest, so here is how the ground actually lies.

Do private schools in Ontario work the same way as public schools?

No, and this surprises almost everyone. Private schools in Ontario are businesses or non-profit organizations that must meet requirements set by the Education Act, but they are independent of the Ministry of Education. The ministry is direct about what it does not provide for them: funding or financial support, regulation, licensing, accreditation, or oversight of operations (private schools).

Three consequences follow, and they all matter for a child with special education needs.

Schools the ministry does not inspect are not required to follow the Ontario curriculum. The ministry inspects private high schools seeking or approved to grant credits towards the OSSD, and checks that the standard of instruction in those courses meets its curriculum, assessment and evaluation requirements. Private elementary schools and high schools that do not offer OSSD credit courses are not inspected at all.

Principals and teachers in private schools do not need to be certified by the Ontario College of Teachers. Some schools employ mostly certified teachers by choice. Others do not. You have to ask.

Nothing requires a private school to provide special education programs or services, because the framework that governs IEPs and IPRCs, O. Reg. 181/98, applies to school boards. Each private school decides for itself what support it offers, which is exactly why the questions you ask on a tour carry so much weight.

What should I ask before I enrol anywhere?

Ask the ministry's own questions first. Ontario publishes a list of what to ask before entering into a contract with a private school, and it is a better starting point than anything on the school's brochure:

• Is your school inspected, and can it issue an Ontario Secondary School Diploma?
• Does your school follow the Ontario curriculum?
• Do you employ teachers who are members of the Ontario College of Teachers?
• Do you conduct criminal reference checks on staff?
• Do you publish your admissions policy and your OSSLT results?
• Do you have a procedure for resolving complaints by parents and students?
• Do you have a policy on access to student records, such as the Ontario Student Transcript and the Ontario Student Record?

Then add the ones that are about your child rather than the school:

• Who on staff is responsible for learning support, and what is their qualification?
• How many students in this class have a similar profile, and what does support look like for them?
• What happens in the first term when something is not working?
• Is support included in tuition, or billed separately?
• How do you communicate with parents between report cards?

Ask for answers in writing where you can. A school that answers plainly is telling you something useful, and so is a school that does not.

How do you narrow a long list into a real shortlist?

We start by learning about your child: strengths, needs, learning style, what a good day looks like and what a bad one looks like. Only then do we research schools that may be able to support that profile, weighing class size, teaching approach, available supports and overall fit.

You get three to five schools that may be the best match, the reasoning behind each one, and a plan for applications and timelines. Not a single answer, and not a ranking. We research the fit rather than the reputation, because reputation is measuring something else entirely.

Does this work if we are not in Toronto?

Yes. Consultations and assessment reviews are done virtually, so we work with families across Ontario. In-person sessions are available across the Greater Toronto Area.

What it costs depends on what you need, from a single hour of consulting to a full placement search. We go through the options on the introductory call, before you commit to anything.

What about the move to high school and beyond?

Placement decisions get heavier at two points: the move into Grade 9, and the year or two before your child leaves school. We work with elementary and high school students and with the transition to post-secondary.

For students in the public system there is a regulated hook here. Where a pupil is 14 or older, the IEP must include a plan for transition to appropriate post-secondary activities such as work, further education and community living (s. 6(4)). The exception is a pupil identified solely on the basis of giftedness (s. 6(5)). In developing that transition plan, the principal is to consult the community agencies and post-secondary institutions considered appropriate (s. 6(7)).

If your child is 14 or older and the transition section of the plan is one line long, that is the question to bring to the next meeting. A change of school is one answer to a fit problem. A better transition plan is sometimes the cheaper one.

Go deeper

If you want help building the shortlist itself, School Placement Support covers exactly this: matching your child's profile to a set of schools, and a plan for applications and timelines.

Frequently asked questions

Will a private school write an IEP for my child?

Some do and some do not, and the document may look nothing like a board IEP, because the regulation setting out what an IEP must contain applies to school boards. Ask directly what the written plan is called, who writes it, who sees it, how often it is reviewed, and ask to see a sample with the names removed.

Does my child keep their IPRC identification at a private school?

The identification was made by a school board committee under the board's process, so it does not carry authority inside an independent school. Keep the statement of decision and the assessment reports anyway. If your child later returns to a board school, that documentation is what the new school team will work from.

How many schools should we look at?

Three to five is usually the right shortlist. Fewer and you have no comparison, more and the tours blur together. Visit on an ordinary school day rather than an open house, ask to see the room your child would actually be in, and write your impressions down in the car before you drive away.

When should we start looking?

A full year ahead is comfortable, and the autumn before a September entry is when most application timelines tighten. If an assessment is part of the picture, start earlier, because report timelines and application deadlines rarely line up on their own.

Sources

• Private schools, ontario.ca
• O. Reg. 181/98: Identification and Placement of Exceptional Pupils