From the Learning Disabilities Association of Ontario (LDAO) March 2025
Dear SEAC Members,
As the 2025–2026 budget season progresses, the Learning Disabilities Association of Ontario (LDAO) extends our sincere thanks for your ongoing commitment to students with exceptionalities. Your work ensures that the voices and needs of students with learning disabilities (LDs), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and related exceptionalities are central to local decision-making across Ontario.
We recognize that boards are working through complex planning processes. As special education models continue to evolve, what remains clear: the specific needs of students with LDs and ADHD have not changed. These students continue to require timely, structured, and individualized supports—delivered through a full continuum of services, including Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions, access to trained professionals, and accommodations that are matched to cognitive and learning profiles.
SEAC’s Legislated Role: Supporting Student-Centered Planning
Under Regulation 464/97, SEACs are formally mandated to advise on both special education budgeting and planning. The decisions you help shape this spring will directly influence staffing, service delivery, and access to interventions in the year ahead.
To ensure meaningful progress for students with learning disabilities (LDs) and ADHD, we encourage SEAC members to bring forward student-centered and solution-focused questions, such as:
- Tiered Supports: How are Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions being sustained, staffed, and resourced across the board? What systems are in place to ensure timely access to direct, explicit instruction and individualized supports?
- Continuum of Placements: What options remain available for students who may require alternative or specialized settings? How are placement decisions being made to ensure alignment with individual learning needs and equitable access to appropriate supports?
- Transition Planning: What structured processes are in place to support students with LDs and ADHD as they move between schools, programs, or instructional models? Are individualized transition plans embedded in IEPs and supported by dedicated personnel?
- Educator Capacity: What professional learning is being prioritized to build educator capacity in structured literacy, direct and explicit instruction, differentiated instruction, universal design for learning, strategies to support executive functioning, and other evidence-based interventions?
- Equity of Access: How are disparities in access to specialized supports across different program pathways and school contexts being addressed? What steps are being taken to ensure students with LDs and ADHD receive consistent, individualized supports regardless of their placement?
As always, your work at the SEAC table ensures that policy and funding decisions reflect real student needs and drive equitable outcomes across the system.
Building on Momentum: From Early Screening to Sustained Support
We are encouraged by the introduction of early diagnostic assessment and intervention strategies across Ontario, including the Ministry’s investments in universal screening and evidence-based reading instruction. These are promising steps forward and align with the recommendations of the Right to Read inquiry report and its Year Two Update.
To maximize the impact of these early efforts, boards must also plan for sustained, individualized support across the entire student journey. This includes not only Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions, but also structured transition planning as students move between programs and schools. The Kindergarten to Grade 12 (K–12) Education Standards Development Committee has emphasized the importance of embedding structured, individualized transition planning into IEPs to ensure continuity of supports as students move between schools and programs. The report also calls for dedicated Transition Facilitators to help families and students navigate these changes. Without well-resourced, accountable, and student-informed transition processes, there is a risk of widening learning gaps and disrupting progress for students with LDs and ADHD.
As SEAC members, your role in ensuring that Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions are protected—and expanded where needed—is critical to achieving true equity for students with exceptionalities.
A Shared Commitment to Collaborative Advocacy
At LDAO, we see SEACs as essential partners in this work. We are here to support you—whether through policy insights, curated resources, or thought partnership around motions, planning, and provincial trends.
To support your ongoing advocacy, we’ve included:
Our two most recent LDAO SEAC Circulars (February and April 2025), which highlight provincial priorities such as the Right to Read implementation, mental health supports, special education planning, and structured transition processes.
A link to our new video resource: SEAC Motions: A Guide for Effective Systemic Advocacy. This short on-demand webcast was developed quickly in response to requests from SEAC representatives. It offers practical guidance on how SEAC motions can influence policy, programming, and funding—along with tips for clarity, collaboration, and effective follow-up. You’ll also find the full transcript of the webcast for your reference or to share with your SEAC colleagues.
LDAO’s Policy Statement on Educational Inclusion for Students with Learning Disabilities, which affirms the right of students with LDs to access a continuum of placement options based on their individual needs. This includes alternative settings and individualized supports, where appropriate, to ensure equitable access to learning.
Thank you again for your service, leadership, and dedication to student success. We are proud to support your role in shaping inclusive, accessible, and responsive education systems across Ontario.
In partnership,
Dr. Steven Reid
President and CEO Learning Disabilities Association of Ontario (LDAO)
steven@LDAO.ca | www.LDAO.ca | Toronto, ON
