Support for Students with Handicaps, Social Maladjustments or Learning Difficulties

The various tools and guides below are made available to help the education network support students with handicaps, social maladjustments or learning difficulties, and foster their educational success.

The Québec Education Program (QEP) consists of all the programs of study for students in preschool, elementary and secondary school.

Some students with a moderate to severe or profound intellectual disability can, in accordance with the exemption from the application of the provisions concerning the subject-time allocation set out in section 23.2 of the Basic school regulation, use the programs of study listed below if they are best for the student. The choice of program is part of the student’s individualized education plan process.

Differentiated instruction aims to help all students to develop the competencies targeted by the QEP, regardless of their abilities, needs, interests, ages, backgrounds, aptitudes and skills.

The document entitled Differentiated Instruction – Helping All Students Achieve Educational Success emphazises in-class pedagogical flexibility, which concerns all students. It also covers adaptation and the modification of expectations associated with QEP requirements that are applicable to certain students. Two complementary tools related to pedagogical flexibility are also available to the education network. A third complementary tool provides avenues for reflection on the individualized education plan process for coherent shared implementation of the adaptation measures and for modification of the expectations associated with QEP requirements for certain students with handicaps, social maladjustments or learning difficulties.

The individualized education plan process involves planning concerted, coordinated actions to support students with handicaps, social maladjustments or learning difficulties in their learning and social development so that they can obtain a qualification. A responsibility of the school administration, the process involves parents, school stakeholders as well as the student if able to participate. The individualized process associated with the education plan allows for the different stakeholders to come together and collaborate to identify the student’s needs and implement means to foster their educational success.

The document entitled Individualized Education Plans: Helping Students Achieve Success guides schools in becoming familiar with the individualized education plan process.

The Policy on Special Education, Adapting Our Schools to the Needs of All Students aims to help students with handicaps, social maladjustments or learning difficulties achieve success with regard to knowledge, social development and qualifications. It is comprised of a basic orientation and six lines of action that the education community should prioritize to help the student succeed.

In addition to the Policy, two action plans were developed to support the education community in implementing the orientations.

The document entitled Acting to Foster the Educational Success of Gifted Students is intended to support the education network in its various courses of action. This document explains what giftedness is and illustrates the wide variety of profiles for gifted students. It emphasizes the needs of gifted students and presents 10 courses of action that can be implemented, including a new action: the personal education project.

The document entitled Learning Difficulties – Reference Framework for Intervention aims to sheds new light on how best to provide assistance to students with learning difficulties and facilitate the search for effective intervention measures that meet their needs.

The education network and the health and social services network share the development of young people as an objective. A variety of documents pertain to this agreement.

Students with behavioural difficulties are a source of concern for teachers, who are often obliged to call into question their own practices when dealing with them. The document entitled Working with Students with Behavioural Difficulties is intended for teachers and other elementary and secondary school staff. Its purpose is to help them provide proper support and supervision, at school and in the classroom, and to manage their classrooms effectively.

The document entitled Organization of Educational Services for At-Risk Students and Students with Handicaps, Social Maladjustments or Learning Difficulties suggests an integrated approach to the organization of such services. Its main objective is to provide educators (administrators, managers, teachers, student services personnel, etc.) with an unequivocal understanding of the concepts and mechanisms that underlie the organization of services.