Lack of funding is failing Saskatoon students who need support, school board says

As the number of students requiring more support in schools increases, the board of education at Saskatoon Public Schools is calling on the Saskatchewan government to reconsider how it funds schools.

During a board meeting Tuesday, the school division's board of education reviewed data for students requiring what it calls "intensive support."

The data shows a growing rate of students enrolled in Saskatoon Public Schools who need additional support, such as students who have autism spectrum disorder or an intellectual disability, outpacing total enrolment growth.

Shane Skjerven, director of education for Saskatoon Public Schools, said the division has to pull as much as $11 million of annual funding from other operations to support students with special needs.

"That's why we would have larger class sizes; that's why we may have fewer caretakers; that's why there might be less sports equipment in schools," Skjerven said.

Skjerven said he's proud of the services they have for those students, but the funding is not readily available.

The number of students in the division needing intensive support climbed to 2,086 in the 2024-25 year from 1,326 in the 2015-16 school year, the division's data shows.

The rate of students needing intensive support has also increased, accounting for 7.22 per cent of students in 2024-25, compared to 5.52 per cent in 2015-16 (total enrolment in pre-kindergarten to Grade 12 increased over the same period to 28,878 from 24,023).

The data also shows a spike in the number of students diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, increasing to 841 in 2024-25 from 285 in 2015-16.

"What we're seeing is not only an increase in the number of students that have been diagnosed with both autism and [intellectual development disorder], but what we're seeing is the students are affected by these disorders in a much more significant way in recent years," he said.

Skjerven said the issue is that current provincial funding assumes that students with complex needs are spread equally throughout the province, but that's not the case. He said there are more students who need support in Saskatoon. 

He and the school board are asking the Saskatchewan government to reconsider its funding formula to acknowledge the differing needs in schools. Skjerven said the division has been asking for the change for several years.

Firstly, Skjerven said that John Dolan School, which serves students aged five to 21 with multiple and complex disabilities, should be funded separately from other public schools.

Secondly, he said, schools should have different funding depending on the number of students who need intensive support to ensure they have the right resources, like educational assistants.

About 149 students with complex needs — including medical, emotional, behavioural or cognitive — have been placed on an altered day plan, according to data presented to the school board. Skjerven said some of those instances are because there are not enough resources for them.

An altered day plan means the students are not in class for the entire day, with varied start and end times.

Class size and complexity was a major issue in recent contract negotiations between the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation and the Saskatchewan government. The two parties are engaged in binding arbitration.

In an email, the teachers' federation president Samantha Becotte said "intensive needs are one component that contributes to class complexity. This is the single biggest issue facing public education in Saskatchewan and is why teachers took job action last year."

"Class complexity, including intensive needs, can be addressed by restoring per-student funding to when we were first in the country."

The Saskatchewan Ministry of Education stood by its funding decisions in an email.

It said the province spends the most per capita among provinces and increased the budget for classroom supports by $45.6 million (up to $356.6 million) from the previous year.

"School divisions have the responsibility to make staffing and programming decisions within their allocated budget to address the needs of all their students to ensure that all students have equal access to, and benefit from, the provincial education program in an inclusive educational setting," the email said.