Regina mom worried about what kindergarten will bring for daughter after special needs program cuts

For many parents the first day of kindergarten is a moment of pride and excitement, but one Regina mother is also filled with anxiety and fear after funding cuts to preschool programs for children with special needs.

Last spring, Regina Public Schools cut funding to three preschool programs for children with special needs — including Communication Preschool, a special learning centre for children who are deaf, hard of hearing or have speech disorders — to make up for a $9.5-million funding shortfall.

• 'A punch to the gut': Special needs programs cut at Regina Public Schools

"I cried. It was very overwhelming," said Jessica Tiefenbach, whose daughter Emily attended the Communication Preschool program, and who she hoped would be able to continue for a second year.  

"With Emily being deaf … she needs more support and patience than a typical child. Sometimes she doesn't know how to tell us what she's feeling and her speech is quite delayed, so she'll get upset quite easily if we can't understand," Teifenbach said.

Emily uses American Sign Language to communicate if she's not wearing her hearing aids, and because she lived without sound for roughly one-third of her life before she was diagnosed as deaf, her verbal skills are behind those of many children her age.

For Tiefenbach, the cuts meant a difficult decision as she weighed whether to send Emily to kindergarten, or keep her home another year.

Different classroom, different supports

After meetings with school administrators and teachers, Tiefenbach and her husband decided to enroll Emily in Henry Janzen Elementary's Deaf and Hard of Hearing Resource Room, a program for students with significant hearing losses that require more assistance than is available in neighbourhood schools.

Nevertheless, Tiefenbach said she's still worried about whether Emily will get all the support she needs.

"At the Communication Preschool, she had a teacher of the deaf, an interpreter in the room, as well as an educational assistant, and then six neighbourhood kids came in three days a week to be role models and peers."

At Henry Janzen Elementary, Emily will have weekly access to a speech pathologist and a full-time interpreter, but Teifenbach worries that the transition to a regular classroom, with roughly 20 peers, will be hard for everyone involved.

"My biggest concerns are social ones. I worry that she's not going to interact effectively with her peers.

"Say there are two children playing a game — right now, she doesn't know how to say, 'Hey, can I play with you?' Or she'll make that attempt but because her speech is difficult to understand, they just brush her off." That can result in Emily acting out, Tiefenbach said.

Nevertheless, she is cautiously optimistic.

"I'm excited to see what kindergarten will bring for her, but I'm nervous that it's not going to bring enough."

RPS says hearing program not affected by cuts

According to an email from Regina Public Schools, there have been no changes to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Resource Room Program at Henry Janzen Elementary due to this year's budget cuts, so Emily should receive the same level of support in the program she would have if she had enrolled before the funding shortfall.

Though RPS did not provide specific numbers on resources available, it wrote that specialists such as sign language interpreters and notetakers are available based on recommendations from professionals, in collaboration with school division intensive-support personnel such as speech language pathologists.

RPS also said that the program includes teachers trained to teach deaf and hard of hearing students.

For students who are not in the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Resource Room Program, a variety of services may be available following consultation and collaboration between parents, the student's school team and school division intensive-support personnel, RPS said.