I have been asking BC school trustees for several elections if they would support a stand-alone category for ADHD in special education so ADHD students can get accommodations and IEP’sfor several election cycles with either no response or the usual politician pretending to care but doing nothing was frustrating.
Especially when I heard 15 years+ of horror stories from parents with children with ADHD in BC schools at CHADD Vancouver ADHD Support Group meetings or my Vancouver Adult ADD Support Group meetings or just coaching my adult ADHD clients over the phone.
Made worse by the fact that parents often were too stigmatized to complain to politicians and the media and the politicians and the media saying If ADHD was a real problem, people would complain about it. The ADHD Catch 22.
Research shows ADHD children and teens have higher rates of: academic and social skills problems, executive function problems, school expulsions, dropouts, depression, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, alcohol and drug addiction, and suicidal thoughts and attempts, car crashes, emergency room visits, teen pregnancies and crime.
I was pleasantly surprised on May 24th, 2018, when I asked the same question to another school trustee. One City Vancouver party’s @OneCityVan current School Board Trustee Carrie Bercic @CarrieBercic who is running for reelection.
Carrie Bercic supports ADHD students in BC schools and will ask BC Education Minister Rob Fleming to follow through on his promise to add ADHD as a stand-alone category in special education so ADHD students can get accommodations and IEP’s (Individual Education Programs.)
Here are the tweets.
As a trustee will you demand the BC government stop discriminating against the biggest number of special needs students? ADHD students? See BC's failing grade in @CentreforADHD school report card https://t.co/MS548bOajO #bced #bcpoli pic.twitter.com/yIdLxcJfsR
— Pete Quily (@pqpolitics) May 25, 2018
Already have this one on the horizon. 100% agreed on this piece. #advocacy
— Carrie Bercic (@CarrieBercic) May 25, 2018
Great. You're the first BC school trustee #AFAIK to agree to stop BC education system from discriminating against #ADHD students. Thank you. Will you put it in your platform and campaign on it & ask other #Vsb39 school trustee candidates to do the same? #vanpoli #bced #bcpoli
— Pete Quily (@pqpolitics) May 25, 2018
Peter @OneCityVan platforms are being developed as we speak but my platform will be very student centered and heavily focused on equity. Appreciate your advocacy on this.
— Carrie Bercic (@CarrieBercic) May 25, 2018
good but general equity plans generally ignore ADHD, so please put a specific policy in there on ADHD specifically accommodations. Here's some data on the economic costs of ignoring ADHD , scroll to the last 2 pdf. https://t.co/7EL0mToIEM #bced #vanpoli #vsb39
— Pete Quily (@pqpolitics) May 25, 2018
Thanks again for your support for ADHD students getting a stand alone category for ADHD so they can get #IEP's and accommodations. Helped to inspire our BC #ADHD advocacy campaign #IEPsForADHD
What do you think of it? https://t.co/9Gjt2dkbfT #bced #bcpoli #vsb39
— Pete Quily (@pqpolitics) October 3, 2018
Here Are The Screenshots
So thank you Carrie Bercic for doing what all the other school trustees refused to do over the years, support the biggest number of mental health and special needs students in BC, students with ADHD and committing to asking for a stand-alone ADHD category in special education so ADHD student can get accommodations and #IEPsForADHD so they are more likely to stay in school vs dropping out and having better educational and social outcomes which will likely lead to less co-existing conditions with ADHD and better quality of life for them too.
You help inspire me to do this campaign. Already have 3 other BC school trustees who have done the same and will do blog posts on them
I hope other BC School Trustees follow your lead.