Letters from Heydon Park Parents/ Caregivers

Dec 16, 2025.

To whom it may concern,

I am writing to tell you how important Heydon Park Secondary School is to my daughter and our family and how it is an atrocity that the TDSB is trying to shut it down. My daughter is a grade 10 student at Heydon Park Secondary School and she has loved attending Heydon Park from the moment she started - she truly feels like part of a school community where she is respected, appreciated and supported. Heydon Park is TDSB’s diamond because it is an amazing, welcoming and inclusive school environment where vulnerable students are getting the education they have the human right to get.

My daughter has complex needs, not only does she have a physical disability, but she also has developmental challenges, anxiety issues and PTSD. She needs support for many things including toileting, classwork, getting into her walker and a stander at school as well as emotional support when she is feeling overwhelmed and anxious. She gets all this support at Heydon Park from the various educational and support staff daily - they know my child, understand my child, genuinely care for my child and are there for her on a daily basis, to ensure she is supported with her complex needs. I know for a fact that this would not happen in any other secondary school setting – I have many friends and family who are educators and see how children with complex needs get lost in the system as their needs are not a priority in integrated Ontario secondary schools.

Some input I have heard from many secondary school teachers in Ontario is there is a lack of educational assistants in the classroom - students with disabilities and special needs are not being serviced in the way their IEP states because of lack of resources. Most secondary school classrooms (especially in TDSB/TCDSB) are overcrowded and meeting the needs of students with exceptionalities is not possible for a teacher with little to no support in the classroom, never mind their potential lack of expertise working with children with IEP’s and disabilities. The average teacher does not have the skills, time, knowledge, experience or ability to serve the needs of this specialized population with all that they are already dealing with in the classroom daily. This is not an equitable system of public schooling where every child has the opportunity to be successful, students who require extra support are not getting it because funding continues to be cut.

Crowded classes do not allow for students with exceptionalities to have the same level of access to programs such as music, gym, or specialized classes like culinary arts or cosmetology. For instance, my daughter uses a TDSB walker during gym class to get out of her wheelchair and continue to build on the physiotherapy she does every day. This would never occur in a traditional secondary school, as it takes time and often some cajoling to get her into her walker - this happens every day at Heydon Park with the support of her awesome gym teacher and amazing support staff. My daughter also has a TDSB stander that she uses in English class – again to facilitate getting her back on her feet post trauma. This occurs each day because her incredible teacher and fabulous support staff are there to help make this happen – there is not a chance this would ever happen daily in a typical integrated secondary school where the supports are minimal, and the staff often overwhelmed by the number of students they need to support.

Heydon Park provides a safe, inclusive, supportive environment to a vulnerable population of students where they attend regularly, want to learn and get the education they deserve. As per the Human Rights and Education in Ontario Code, each student has the right to equal treatment and access to education, without discrimination and harassment. The Heydon Park educators and all staff, including administration have a collaborative approach to supporting students and this is a part of the magic that is the heart of the school. Students achieve success and reach their goals like graduating with a diploma or certificate that they may not otherwise achieve. Many students at Heydon Park would not get the education they have the right to receive, they would not have access to the same programs and life skill programs, they would not feel safe and secure, they would not feel included, they would not get the accommodation the board has the duty to provide and most importantly they would not feel part of a community in a typical integrated secondary school setting.

Please open registration and admissions to Heydon Park so that other students can achieve the same levels of success that current students and prior graduates have. Heydon Park was not even mentioned as an option when my daughter was graduating from grade 8, even though it was by far the best fit - thankfully, I was aware of Heydon Park and those involved in her placement agreed it would be the best place for her and her time here has proven we made the right decision. Do not take away her future at Heydon Park – she deserves to be successful like each and every student in Ontario.

Best regards,

Grace
Mother of current Heydon Park student

December 16, 2025.

Dear Ms Elliott,

I understand you will be visiting Heydon Park Secondary School tomorrow. As a parent, I look forward to meeting you and appreciate you taking the time to visit this vital school, which appears at risk of closure. Minister Calandra has stated that, under provincial supervision, the TDSB will refocus on student achievement, and decisions that put students first. I believe you will see that Heydon Park aligns perfectly with that vision.

Heydon Park is the TDSB’s only small, student-centred high school designed specifically for young women, transgender, and non-binary students with special education needs. For more than a century, it has supported students with complex learning profiles who have not succeeded in mainstream and specialized settings.

If Heydon Park were to close, many students would be left without a viable alternative. While inclusion in larger schools is a worthy goal, it’s not workable in practice without sufficient staffing and resources. Many students at Heydon Park have missed years of schooling and cannot simply be placed back into mainstream classrooms and expected to succeed. Most of the students at Heydon Park would require individual support and/or placement in ISPs with lower teacher-student ratios making it a more expensive proposition. Many students have already tried these scenarios and ended up at Heydon Park as a last resort. For many families, Heydon Park is the only setting where their children have a realistic chance of graduating.

Heydon Park is centrally located allowing students from across the city to attend. The central is ideal for community partnerships, including student co-op placements. For my daughter, access via streetcar rather than subway is essential due to sensory challenges. The Heydon Park building is fully equipped to support hands-on programming in the culinary arts, and cosmetology. There are two fully functional industrial kitchens, and multiple sinks and styling stations. The school is accessible - with elevator access to all floors. The school has also invested in equipment to support students’ sensory needs. The building setup allows for a safe school environment that is easily supervised. 

The staff at Heydon Park are exceptionally skilled and deeply committed. They provide clear structure, calm reassurance, and set appropriate expectations. Heydon Park is not a place where students languish or are warehoused - like the old Spec Ed that Inclusion was supposed to redress. Instead, at Heydon Park students are encouraged to achieve, develop skills, and plan for the future. Heydon Park’s structured, hands-on approach allows students to learn how to learn, and rebuild self-worth damaged by prior poor school experiences. At Heydon Park, students progress at an achievable pace using approaches that work. Students are even involved in practical school responsibilities like recording phone messages that are sent to parents/caregivers about schedule changes - building responsibility and independence within a supportive community.

Heydon Park also demonstrates inclusion done right. Unlike larger schools where MID programs are often isolated, students at Heydon Park learn together - in academic classes, field trips, and hands-on programs such as culinary arts, robotics, hair and aesthetics, and the arts - within one integrated school community.

My daughter’s experience illustrates the need for a school like Heydon Park. My daughter was diagnosed in grade 1 with Tourette’s Syndrome, ADHD (combined type), social anxiety, and generalized anxiety. Despite being kind, and bright, her neurological differences were frequently misinterpreted as behavioural issues. By grade 3, difficulties with organization and sensory overstimulation dominated her school experience. During the pandemic, my daughter was unable to participate in remote learning. She refused to be seen or heard online - even with extended family. She also experienced bullying from classmates in grade 7. During this period my daughter developed selective mutism. A private psychoeducational assessment in Grade 7 was rejected by the TDSB because of limited verbal responses.

In grade 8, my daughter attended only one day of class before being unable to return. With us accompanying her she occasionally made it into the school office. We received limited support from the school - which consisted mainly of meeting briefly with a school social worker, or sitting in the office completing worksheets without instruction - an outcome the TDSB considered “success.” At this time, she was diagnosed with dysthymia by SickKids and placed on a nine-month waitlist for a day program. She was demitted for non- attendance from the school she had been at since kindergarten. She did not graduate with her peers. My daughter was passed on to high school, though she did not graduate from grade 8.

After years of interventions - medications, private tutoring, therapy, residential treatment, and three different high schools - my daughter was finally diagnosed at age 17 with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Learning Disabilities. Her years of struggles, and years in bed finally made sense. My daughter had been treated as having a mental health issue when she really had a learning and communication issue. Girls are often diagnosed later with ASD as the diagnostic criteria were developed primarily around male symptom presentation - much like those for heart attacks. So girls miss out on early interventions, and are more likely to age out before accessing government supports. Girls need a place like Heydon Park to help them make up for lost time.

My daughter arrived at Heydon Park September 2025. She is in grade 12 with only two high school credits. Since arriving at Heydon Park, the change in my daughter has been miraculous. She attends school regularly, has learned to travel on the TTC independently, earns strong grades, and is recognized as a positive role model. Her progress is not coincidental; it is the direct result of a school designed to meet kids where they are, and support them to develop to their potential.

A genuine commitment to putting students first and focusing on student achievement requires keeping Heydon Park open, visible, and accessible for those who need it.

Sincerely,

Jennifer
Heydon Park Secondary School parent

Dec 17, 2025.

Dear Minister Paul Calandra, Rohit Gupta and Stacey Zucker

I am writing to you as a parent of a daughter with complex disabilities and significant behavioural support needs, and as someone deeply concerned about the proposed closure of Heydon Park Secondary School. This decision has serious implications for student safety, mental health, disability rights, and the Ministry of Education’s legal duty to provide appropriate accommodation.

My daughter is behaviourally complex and multi-diagnosed. Without the right environment and skilled supports, her needs are often misunderstood and mismanaged in large, mainstream settings. At Heydon Park, she is not rejected, isolated, or locked away. She is part of a school community where she belongs.

In many large secondary schools with populations of 1,000 or more students, girls with complex needs are frequently placed in segregated MID or DD classrooms, removed from meaningful participation, and managed rather than taught. Staff in these environments are often focused on crisis response—preventing elopement or managing behavioural escalation—rather than teaching skills that support long-term regulation, independence, and safety. This approach is reactive and unsustainable.

Heydon Park provides a fundamentally different model. In this small, all-girls setting, my daughter is learning emotional regulation strategies, social skills, independence, and life skills. Highly trained Child and Youth Workers with expertise in behaviour management and trauma-informed practice are embedded in the school environment, allowing staff to intervene early, teach proactively, and prevent escalation before crises occur.

From a safety and sexual-violence prevention perspective, Heydon Park provides critical protective factors for girls with disabilities, including:

·   Reduced exposure to predatory risk

·   Increased staff awareness of vulnerability and consent-related issues

·   Stronger, consistent relationships between students and trusted adults

·   A contained, closely supervised environment where warning signs are noticed early

Removing this setting places girls with disabilities into larger, less specialized environments where supervision is stretched, staff are not behaviour specialists, and risks increase significantly.

There are also serious liability considerations for both the school board and the Ministry. When known risks exist—particularly in relation to sexual assault, mental health crises, and behavioural escalation—and protective environments are removed, the responsibility does not disappear. If harm occurs after these supports are withdrawn, families will rightly question why evidence-based safeguards were dismantled despite clear foreseeability of risk.

The consequences of inadequate educational support for students with complex behavioural needs are well documented. When emotional regulation, communication, and coping skills are not taught early, many young people are later routed into emergency mental health services, residential placements, or the criminal justice system. This trajectory is preventable. Heydon Park interrupts this pathway by teaching skills, not merely managing behaviour.

From a legal and human rights standpoint, this proposed closure raises serious concerns under the Ontario Human Rights Code. Students with disabilities are entitled to equal treatment in education and to individualized accommodation to the point of undue hardship. This duty is proactive and substantive. Accommodation must promote dignity, safety, and meaningful access to education—not simply physical placement in a mainstream school that lacks the capacity to meet a student’s needs.

Inclusive education must mean appropriate education, not merely physical inclusion. True inclusion does not place vulnerable students at greater risk in the name of efficiency or cost savings. It ensures that students receive what they need to be safe, regulated, and able to learn.

For my daughter, Heydon Park is not an optional placement—it is a necessary accommodation. Closing this school does not eliminate her needs or the risks she faces; it shifts them elsewhere, often into systems that are more costly, punitive, and harmful.

I urge you to reconsider the closure of Heydon Park Secondary School and to uphold the Ministry’s legal, ethical, and moral responsibility to protect and educate Ontario’s most vulnerable students.

Thank you for your time and for your consideration.

Sincerely,

M.R.

Parent

Dec 16, 2025.

Each and every student deserves access to effective education. Over the course of a decade our daughter has been isolated from the education system despite multiple attempts in different school programs that ultimately ended in severe regression and breakdown, but at Heydon Park she has found something different.

Our daughter has been diagnosed with Complex PTSD, Mild Intellectual Disability and a Dissociative Disorder. These are clinically diagnosed, yet do not paint a complete picture of the struggles she has faced in integrating into the school system and has lead to a breakdown of her quality of life. The faculty at Heydon Park are a special type of educator within a unique program and environment. They have managed to meet our daughter where she is at educationally, intellectually and emotionally and offer her a level of individualized support that has not been possible in a traditional classroom setting, or specialized MID programs. 

She has found a sense of belonging and camaraderie that she has not been able to achieve previously. She is attending school on a regular basis and wants to be there. She is finding a sense of pride and dignity in herself and is enrolled in credit classes in the academic stream, something that proved impossible in her previous schools. She has a future presented before her now. The possibility of the school closing frightens her and brings her to tears.

If Heydon Park closes, she will not find another place where she feels she belongs and that her needs are being met, she has tried for 10 years. Losing this school would mean an end to her formal education due to an incompatibility between her and the typical secondary school regardless of the availability of any Mild Intellectual Disability programming.

It would be easy to believe that our story was unique, but it is a common one at Heydon Park. The students have found a place where they are freely accepted and supported in ways that are impossible elsewhere. These complex and special students need a place where they are met with kindness, understanding and optimism, and Heydon Park is that place. There are many more students who could use this school.

I implore you to read the testimonials of the students, the alumni and their parents or guardians. Heydon Park is a necessary haven for students who would be lost without it. It is a school that exemplifies all that an educational institution should be, a place where each student's potential is maximized in ways that a larger Secondary School could not. This is an extraordinary school for extraordinary students, and I hope that you can see the value in that.

Sincerely Chris

Parent of a student at Heydon Park Secondary School

Thu, Nov 6, 2025.

(emailed to Office of Supervisor)

To Whom it May Concern,

I am writing as a concerned parent of a grade 10 student at Heydon Park Secondary School. If you are not familiar with Heydon – it is a truly unique and special school. It is the only small student-centred public high school for young women, transgender and non-binary students.

My daughter started at Heydon last year in grade 9. The parents at Heydon are becoming increasingly concerned about the Board’s plans for Heydon. This fall there was no incoming grade 9 class and we have noticed that Heydon is no longer on the list of high schools with an open house this month. It is hard to stress how important Heydon is for my daughter’s success. While I understand that the Board believes that inclusion is the “best” approach – it is clear that all kids have specific learning needs and that a “one size fits all approach” is unlikely to meet the needs of our diverse student body.

Toronto teachers are stretched thin with large class sizes and an increasing burden of mental health concerns in all kids. Putting our kids into these classes without first drastically changing the funding model and resources provided to schools would be disastrous for our kids.

We have tried inclusion. My daughter, who received a mild intellectual disability (MID) diagnosis in grade 3 – stayed in her home school until part way through grade 8. That fall we attended an open house at Heydon. While listening to the stories and experiences of the students and parents we were both brought to tears. My daughter left that open house saying “this is a school for kids like me” – she wanted to start the very next day. It then became our mission as parents to make it happen. My daughter had reached a point at her home school where things were no longer working for her. She was crying every night, and every morning before school, she had not had a play date or been invited to a birthday party since grade 3 – she was alone and unhappy, frequently talking about self-harm. She was essentially bullied out of her home school. At the IPRC in January my daughter was offered an MID placement at a local middle school (to finish out grade 8) and a placement at Heydon. Things had gotten so bad that she decided to leave her home school mid-year and switch to the MID class. Immediately things changed. She had friends over, hung out with kids after school and had a crew of kids for the very first time. Now, at Heydon she has a solid group of friends who she looks forward to seeing every day and who she hangs out with after school and on the weekend. The “Case for Inclusive Education” document stresses the importance of social interactions in learning. I have seen firsthand the impact this has had on my daughter’s learning.

At Heydon, she has friends, she is a leader in her classroom, she plays on sport teams, and competes in competitions run by the Special Olympics. She is taking 2 “for-credit” courses and 2 “life-skills/MID” courses. In short, she is thriving and happy for really the first time. She is looking forward to participating in co-op placements and has already spoken to representatives at colleges that have strong ties with Heydon to discuss programs after high school.

Moving my daughter into a mainstream high school environment would upend her confidence and the significant academic progress she has made. She is socially at the level of a grade 4/5 student; her math is at a grade 3 level and her reading (a strength) is at grade 5 level. Would you put a 8–10-year-old into a high school classroom? No – you wouldn’t. You would be concerned for their safety, their social experience and for their learning. This is how the parents of Heydon students are feeling now as we see the future of this truly special school is uncertain.

We have requested to attend a SEAC committee meeting (there was no room on the agenda until December – which is after the open house time frame). This matter is very urgent, and we are hoping that you can advocate on behalf of our kids and our school.

Thank you for your support,

Jennifer

November 7, 2025.

(emailed to Trustee Services)

Good Morning,

I’m writing to you today to advocate for my daughter, and to ask that you take the current situation at Heydon Park Secondary School very seriously. My daughter is a 14 year old girl with an MID classification, an ADHD diagnosis, and a seizure disorder. She tried valiantly to attend mainstream public school for most of her young life. And until she found Heydon Park, it was very challenging. She had a hard time making friends, she struggled to keep up academically, and she acutely felt the “otherness” that was cast upon her by her peers and teachers.

That all changed when we went to the open house at Heydon Park in the fall of 2023. She lit up when she toured the school and listened to students and teachers speak lovingly about their experiences there. She saw herself in those kids and declared on the spot that she wanted to go there as soon as possible. “That is a place for kids like me,” were the words she uttered upon leaving.

There just isn’t another school like it in the entire TDSB. A place where the faculty are so fully invested in the kids and the mission. Where the kids treat each other with kindness and acceptance as they all see pieces of themselves in each other. Where class sizes are tailored to kids with all-manner of learning challenges. Heydon Park is one of one, and the uncertainty that has been communicated from the TDSB about its future is of great concern.

My daughter would not cope at a school the size of Eastdale. She requires smaller class-sizes and a staff who can deal with her daily seizures. We do not have the money to send her to private school - and even if we did, we believe full-heartedly in the public school system. We believe it needs to be preserved and that kids who don’t fit neatly into “mainstream” boxes should also have the opportunity to benefit from it.

I ask that you please list this year’s upcoming open house, that the school be able to accept incoming grade 9 students next year, and that you take the closing of the school off the table.

Respectfully,

David 

Dec 15, 2025.

I am writing to you today to share a hopeful and heart warming experience with the Toronto District School Board. Across Ontario, school boards provide special education programming to eliminate barriers, encourage inclusion, and work toward successful futures. Inevitably, there are students who still slip through the gaps and who do not fit the programming that is provided for most. TDSB has an answer to some of these gaps and it is Heydon Park Secondary School.

Our daughter is a student who has slipped through those gaps. She has not been able to attend school for most of her school years because of the barriers that exist even in typical special education programming. Her experience with PTSD, Dissociative Disorders and Mild Intellectual Disabilities has made attending school impossible for her. Despite many attempts with different schools, the programming didn’t fit or the staff just were not prepared for her exceptional experience, and each time she would regress severely, feel more isolated and would miss out on what every student has a right to have access to. No one seemed to be able to know where to place her or how to reach her. Our daughter works hard to get through each day, she deserves to have access to school and now that she is 15, she needs to be near other students more than ever.

This summer we found a glimmer of hope in Heydon Park Secondary School. We reached out to Debra Muchnik, principal at Heydon Park, who welcomed us with a confidence that they could support our daughter. She introduced us to the guidance counsellor, Annissa Hosein, who has been a bright light in this journey and helped usher our daughter into the school. And here is the heartwarming part, after 10 years of not being able to attend school, she is attending. She is attending!!! She is not just attending, she is wanting to attend, she is meeting friends, and she is beginning to feel more confident and to have a belief in herself. She finally has access to an education like her peers. Hers is not an isolated experience with Heydon Park, just ask the students and their parents.

What is the difference from her previous experiences? It is Heydon Park, it’s the staff, the students and the one of a kind programming that they have carefully cultivated. She feels included, supported and safe. She feels understood in a world that often does not understand her struggles. She is truly being met where she is at in a school setting for the first time ever and can envision her future. Other schools tried with the resources they had but they couldn’t wrap it around the bigger picture of her academic needs and her specific mental health struggles. Heydon Park has the staff, the knowledge and experience with students like her and they clearly have the passion and compassion to help these students succeed where they would otherwise drown or melt away elsewhere. My daughter and students like her at the school are no longer lost in the gaps.

I was disheartened to learn that they closed admissions to grade 9 this year. Heydon Park Secondary School is a lifeboat for students like our daughter. This is a pathway for some students that leads them to hopeful futures they have found no where else in the school system. It is a resource that needs to be cherished and nurtured not allowed to atrophy. I hope the TDSB refocuses support for and makes efforts to grow Heydon Park Secondary School to catch those kids that fall through the gaps. We cannot let them fade away when there is a resource like Heydon Park Secondary that is ready to help kids thrive.

Sincerely and with hope,

Jennifer

December 16, 2025.
 

To whom it may concern,

Help keep Heydon Park. As a parent to an MID student of Heydon, I am really concerned about the future of this incredible school.

Heydon Park is a well established school with academic and MID students all female and LGBTQ. Many of these students had difficulty fitting in with previous schools and delt with bullying or targeted othering.

Heydon provides a safe environment for these students and as we know once people feel safe and secure they are able to preform and even thrive.

My child is outgoing and quick to make friends. In some cases to the point of "people pleasing". Her previous large school had students quick to take advantage of this fact and try to convince her to do/accept inappropriate things (approaching sexual assault).

I felt safer sending her into an environment that removed the teenage sexual exploration, and fostered team building.

In the past 2 years of her attending Heydon, she has gained the confidence to speak up for herself. She has learned about safety in and out of the school. And academically she has developed an interest in reading and writing stories (computer assisted). She has cultivated skills that will transfer through life (culinary and cosmetology).

She now actually has friends. Peers with like needs and challenges which, normalizes her abilities. She is also now happy to attend school and comes home daily ready to talk about her day.

I truly believe that all of her success comes directly from this unique school and the community they have created.

I feel with a little advertisement we could easily receive enough students to fill a grade 9 and 10 cohort and build up this school. A school with a strong foundation, good support system and with a community structure.

Thank you 

Dec 04, 2025.

Dear Premier Ford,

I watched you at question period today and I am not convinced you have any interest in Education let along Special Education.  You want to get back to basics (some of the curriculum makes sense) and bring police to deal with difficult safety issues in schools (this is nuts). Special needs will not be met by throwing our kids back into the regular classroom, increasing class sizes, burning out our teachers. CRAZY!!! Do you want a breeding ground for the next generation of Alek Minassians? Then you can wear the blood on your hands. Speaking of blood – did you know that 83% of developmentally disabled women are victims of rape? Did you know that children with disabilities have a 2.2 times higher rate of sexual abuse?

DO YOU KNOW WHY IT MATTERS TO SAVE HEYDON PARK?? – this school is serving an incredibly vulnerable population of girls – they could not be better served. AND it saves money. There are two streams of kids at this school:

1. MID (mild intellectual disability) – many of these kids are actually being served in a higher % teacher-child ratio than they have ever been in before (some coming from 1:1 support situations). WHY? Because Heydon Park is a female focused school and the teachers want to be with these kids. 

2. A regular academic stream, but all the kids have IEPs (Individual Educational Plan) and some sort of diagnosis. Many of these kids came from 1:6 ratio classes. Without the boys (sorry – different needs) and with these WELL-trained teachers who have made a home for these girls with love – the ratio is now 1:20 with these girls. 

HEYDON PARK SAVES THE GOV’T MONEY!!!!! Congrats HEYDON!!

And with that – here is my long-form letter…

Top 4 Points on the Mis-guided/Proposed Closing of Heydon Park SS: 

1. Stop saying there is low interest and enrollment in Heydon Park - it hasn’t been listed on the TDSB website in a way anyone could find (as an alternative option) for years (at least 4 now, as that is when I started looking, but likely many more); it’s been word of mouth for these years and prior to that when it was listed there was a wait list to get in to the school - (stop saying there is not a desire or need when the TDSB cut off the oxygen and access to finding this school); please stop LYING!!!

2. Girls with special needs don’t always need ISP (Intensive Support Program ) programs; before Heydon Park SS my high functioning autistic daughter and her friends were in ISP programs with a 1:6 teacher/student ratio; girls with special needs have SPECIAL NEEDS - a ratio of 1:20 does work for her if the boys with behavioral needs are removed; her autism means she needs more - but not what is available outside of Heydon; you close Heydon and my daughter and her friends will all be asking to go back in their ISP programs - this costs more (and delivers less)!!!!! STOP believing closing Heydon Park will save money!!

3. Stop removing the options for kids; our kids landed here for a reason; if you want to lower suicide rates and lower the risk of the next Alek Minassian - then don’t try and stuff our kids in a main room classrooms and call it inclusion; teachers need to desire to work with our kids and the main room teachers are burnt out and didn’t ask to be teaching many of our kids – it’s not possible for all teachers and not even for some of the best teachers; please stop it; The blood will be (and already is) on your hands!!!!

4. Inclusion does not come from creating a completely uniform school board – nor can you call that equity; our schools are not factories.

Heydon Park High School is a small TDSB school with a specialized mandate supporting kids with unique needs, one of only two schools in the Canada's largest school board with this kind of directed and highly effective specialization. As such it is a unique and highly valued educational institution that provides a highly effective and holistic learning environment catering to this growing community in the city of Toronto, in a way that works wonderfully for these often-vulnerable children.

The TDSB closed enrolment for the grade 9 intake at the school this past year, citing low enrolment, as an unsustainable challenge for the board. This low enrolment was ONLY a result of a targeted attack by the TDSB to limit public knowledge that this school exists. 

This school has been hidden, but it is a gem in the school board. The school is not listed and cannot be found on the schoolboard website. It seems surprising that a proven and effective school, catering for the well documented growing population of unique kids in our society, would not be celebrated and made more publicly accessible for families, often facing significant challenges with the specific and sometimes daunting needs of their kids. One must ask why is it that the TDSB seems to be actively preventing families from knowing about this important school for children in need of the support it offers, to a diverse range of kids needs it serves. This is a human rights issue and I have every intention of making this known. 

There was a time this school was listed on the TDSB website - a time when there was an application process and wait list to get into this school. The demand was heavy and would be heavier if families in need only knew it existed. 

I will tell you that the kids that my daughter is friends with are all high functioning girls on the spectrum. There is NOWHERE else they belong and some are at risk of suicide. You close this school and the blood will be on your hands.  

Prior to this school my daughter had to be in an Intensive Support Program (the Autism stream) costing the TDSB a lot more money than is required for her education now. It was a terrible fit as was the main stream classroom.  

If you think closing this school will save money you are wrong. There is no other place for these female identifying kids. 

Our daughter was diagnosed with Autism (ASD) at a very young age, and throughout her school journey, we as a family have tried several schools, along with many additional educational support programs, to enable her to reach her potential.

It has been a struggle finding a good fit, with many dead-ends and many ineffective programs within other TDSB schools she has attended. On one occasion, having found a pilot program at a downtown Toronto school that worked very well for our daughter (Kensington Community School), the program was cancelled after her first year enrolled. This was a good fit but required 2 full time teachers in a class of 20. Heydon Park is MUCH more cost effective. 

There is a clear pattern in the TDSB, where schools incorporating alternative education models, are being phased out, by the board's own announcements to rationalize and streamline education, due to chronic provincial government underfunding. The stated aim is to more comprehensively integrate special needs kids into mainstream programming. Integration does NOT mean equity. It is false and we all know this.

Our experience with our daughter is that this kind of mainstreaming is not effective, and the model of a targeted school like Heydon Park is far more effective at meeting the needs of special needs children, allowing them to thrive and meet their potential in a far more complete way.

Given the TDSB makes it virtually impossible to know of the school and its specialized programming, it is hard not to believe this announcement is a step in an orchestrated plan to cut off oxygen and lead to the eventual closure of the school, as part of the rationalization and cost saving that appears to be the larger agenda of the board.

Please consider this plea and the many others you have received.

Many Thanks,

Melana