The children of more than 30 Black families in Ottawa were placed in a language proficiency support program without their parents’ consent, advocates say.
The families only learned two months into the academic year that the Conseil des écoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario (CEPEO), a French public school board in Ottawa, had placed their elementary school-age children in the program, Actualisation linguistique en français, which is meant to develop language skills so students can follow the regular curriculum.
Charline Grant, the chief advocacy officer at Parents of Black Children, said the families received a note about their children’s enrolment attached to their progress report cards.
Some parents, she said, discovered that their children had been in the program for years, and they believe it uses a watered-down curriculum for French-language classes.
“Every call we got is they didn’t know and they found out in the progress report, which is the upsetting part about it,” said Ms. Grant, whose organization is one of several advocating for the families and has met with the board. “Without saying the words, you are telling them you don’t think they’re capable of making a decision for their children.”
The advocacy groups are calling for an independent investigation into why Black students were placed in the program without the consent of their families.
“If their intentions are good, why wouldn’t they give the parents that respect and sit down with them and have it be a collaborative decision between parents, school and students?” Ms. Grant asked.
It is unclear just how many children have been placed in the program without their parents’ consent or knowledge and how many are Black students.
In an e-mailed statement, CEPEO declined to make its board’s staff available for an interview. The board said the program is for children whose first language is not French or who have limited knowledge of the language. It is meant “to achieve a level of French language proficiency sufficient to follow the regular curriculum and succeed in school.”
The board said educators do not require parents’ permission and that enrolment is noted in report cards, although the families and their advocates said they were never told and wouldn’t have known what to look for.
The board added that a “parent communication form” was created this year “to provide more transparency in the delivery of the service and to foster collaboration with parents.” It did not directly answer a question about what prompted the new form.
Ms. Grant and other advocacy groups say the practice puts a spotlight on streaming in public education, which separates students based on their abilities and has negatively affected low-income, racialized and special-needs students.
The Ontario government plans to end streaming for all Grade 9 courses in the next school year. The province is the only jurisdiction that divides students as they enter high school into a hands-on applied stream or an academic track that sets them on the path for postsecondary studies. Research has shown that Black students and those from low-income families, with Indigenous backgrounds or with special needs are more likely to be enrolled in the applied stream and are 4½ times more likely not to earn a diploma than their peers in the academic stream.
Critics of streaming, however, argue that it starts as early as kindergarten.
“We’re trying to put our kids in a more marketable position, education-wise. There are barriers to prevent them from getting in, and when they’re in, they are targeted and being made to feel unwelcome and made to feel that they don’t belong,” Ms. Grant said.
One parent, Hassan Ahmed, learned this past fall that his son, who is in Grade 6, has been in the Actualisation linguistique en français program since Grade 2. He grew curious about what his son was learning when he told him at dinner one night that he would regularly complete his schoolwork faster than other students in his class and that it was easier.
Mr. Ahmed is a fluent French speaker and was a teacher in Africa before moving to Canada. In Ontario, students can enroll in French-language schools if a family member has studied at a French elementary school in Canada. School boards also accept students based on their French-language proficiency.
Mr. Ahmed approached the principal but has yet to hear why his son was put in the program or how he has progressed.
“I was flabbergasted. I was angry. It was ridiculous,” he said. “They never approached me that they’re putting my kid in there.”
He added: “They stole the future of my kid. He is a watered-down French speaker now.”
Similarly, Haweya Farah, a graduate of the school board, said her family requested documents as to why her youngest brother, in Grade 4, was placed in the program. She has received no explanation. Ms. Farah spearheaded the advocacy on behalf of the families.
“None of the families received a reason why they were put in the program,” she said. “There’s no transparency.”
Alice Audrain, a parent advocate at Parents for Diversity in Ottawa, said parents feel their children are “streamed out of the regular curriculum.” Some of the parents she represents received no indication that their children were struggling in school.
Ms. Audrain said many Black children already feel they don’t belong in the school environment. So placing them in a special program, she said, even if they’re sitting in their own classroom, will only add to their challenges.
“There’s no transparency. There’s no equity lens. There’s no inclusion. They don’t take into account the needs of the community they serve,” she said.
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