“I'm Currently Looking at Changing Careers…”

I work in an intensive support program for Kindergarten students. At the start of the year, I spent our limited classroom budget on crucial self-regulation and feeding tools. Since then, I've spent twice the allocated budget of my own personal money to ensure my kids have what they need to access the curriculum. After the first two months of the school year, our board placed so many new students in my program that it became impossible to teach the curriculum anymore. Each student needs close supervision and physical support to ensure their personal safety, help with mobility, and work towards their individual goals.

How does one educator give all these students one-to-one support?

My students are regressing. I'm bitten, punched, and scratched every day, and parents are shocked at what class is like when so many students are packed into one program! Each day I become more disheartened, and I find myself putting 20 or more hours of my personal time into planning to help our students and families each week. I'm currently looking at changing careers because the brokenness of this system is breaking my heart.

– Toronto Teacher