Pasma Slams New School Support Offices for Replacing Real Advocacy With Dead-End Bureaucracy

OTTAWA – As the new Student and Family Support Offices came into effect this morning in five supervised school boards, it confirmed what critics have been saying all along: these changes implemented by Education Minister Paul Calandra simply replace meaningful support with layers of bureaucracy. NDP Shadow Minister for Education Chandra Pasma (Ottawa West–Nepean) released the following statement:

“This announcement just confirms what parents, advocates, and the NDP have been saying all along: Minister Calandra is replacing real advocacy with more bureaucracy. These so-called ‘support offices’ are just phone numbers and email addresses, with no named staff and no new capacity. Parents are being told they have to go to the teacher, then the principal, then the superintendent, and only then this new office; where they’re asked to retell their story, get a case number, and be triaged to someone else. By the time families reach the board, they’ve gone through five layers, and no one has the power to advocate for them. Previously they could make one phone call, to a trustee, who would navigate the system and advocate for them. Families need advocates, not a call centre that assigns them a number while they wait on hold.”