Inclusive Education

B.C. teachers believe in inclusion and have adopted a policy that every student is entitled to an appropriate education. Students with special needs have a right to access an inclusionary public education system which prepares them for full citizenship in a democratic society.

BCTF Policy Statement on Inclusion

The 2018 Annual General Meeting passed a policy statement on inclusion, Policy 9.W.01, confirming the BCTF’s commitment to inclusion of all students in a fully funded universal public education system, expressing principles with regard to inclusion of students with special needs.

Provincial Specialist Associations

There are six BCTF provincial specialist associations which focus professional thinking on practices and strategies to serve the needs of students who, for example, have a learning disability, are gifted, face physical challenges, or who fit within other categories of special education. They are:

• Association for Educators of Gifted, Talented, and Creative Children in B.C. 
• B.C. Alternate Education Association 
• B.C. Educators for Distributed Learning PSA 
• B.C. School Counsellors' Association 
• Learning Assistance Teachers' Association 
• Teachers of Inclusive Education - British Columbia 

BCTF reports, publications and submissions

• Recruitment and retention of teachers of the deaf and hard of hearing in BC public schools (May 2018)
• Summary of BC Ministry of Education Annual Class Size and Composition Data 2006-2018 (Apr 2018)
  
• Recent developments in Special Education/Inclusion, January 2013 (Jan 2013)  
• Inclusion in British Columbia's public schools: always a journey, never a destination? (Nov 2005)