I am a Canadian who is teaching/living abroad with my American husband and two daughters. We are leaving our home in China after nine years. We are open to living in either the U.S. or Canada, but we need information in order to make this decision.
Not having taught in Ontario, and being overseas for the past 15 years, I have no knowledge of how a student with ADHD gets access to learning services, what services exist, and how that looks from board to board.
I would appreciate any information that you could share regarding the structure and delivery of services in Ontario schools for students with ADHD. We would be returning to Canada when she would be entering 4th grade.
Here's some info on my daughter. My daughter has been diagnosed with ADHD almost three years ago. In second grade, she coped fairly well due to having a flexible and dynamic teacher who provided daily feedback. She provided ample opportunities for success by differentiation work, as well as the implementation and delivery of curriculum. Her warmth, humor, and firm behavior management were also critical to my daughter's social development. The problem is the curriculum at the school does not allow students to work at their individual level. At this time, my daughter is in third grade but working at a 2nd grade level in math and writing, and at grade level in reading. However, the school wants her to be working at 3rd grade level in math and writing. So we had to make the decision to pull her out and place her in a smaller school for students with special needs(highly unusual opportunity abroad). There are many problems with this school also, and I've come to realize that we simply need to return to North America to be able to get the services that my daughter needs.
At this point, North America could mean either Canada or the U.S. Our first priority is a school for my daughter.
I appreciate any feedback at all.
thanks,