Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a few parents recently reach out to me, and they talked about the challenges within the education system. Now, it's not a question of the school boards not meeting their needs; it's their inability to actually rise to the necessity. And it's not just these parents, Mr. Speaker; it's dozens upon dozens of parents struggling with these problems, not to mention one could only imagine the depth the problems get into the community. So what am I talking about? Assessments for students, Mr. Speaker.
We have children who are going unassessed. Their learning disabilities are being ignored or overlooked only because we don't have the staff or the abilities to rise to these occasions. Mr. Speaker, collectively, some parents have more than one child struggling with learning disabilities, whether it's considered things like autism, dyslexia, or other types of matters, Mr. Speaker, before them. These are day-to-day struggles some of these parents cover with.
Now to put this unfairly maybe on the school system wouldn't be necessarily the right approach, but the reality is they are the ones with the tools and mechanisms to support these parents. That said, they have limited resources. We all know that. So when you're a lucky parent who has a child who can go through the SLP program, many parents tell me they've been on the list so long their kids age out before they actually get services. So parents then step up and pay for the assessments on their own. Some costs as high as $3,000, Mr. Speaker. And if you don't have a program, whether you're through a government insurance program or something to pay for it, you've got to work for that extra scratch to be able to afford that.
Mr. Speaker, I believe deeply that many parents care very much about their children as a general rule, but that said, I mean, some people just don't have the money no matter how much they care about their children; they just can't afford it. But some do. Some make sacrifices, and they pursue these assessments on their own.
The assessments are very expensive, but the question starts to wonder is if the education system isn't able to rise to the necessity of assessing these kids and coming up with the right learning plans and support mechanisms, who should ultimately be responsible?
There are certain sections under the Education Act, in particular section 7, that talks about supports for children. Maybe we need to start asking ourselves if they can't get the supports here through the system, how are we supporting parents who are finding different methods to do this? Are we saying only the rich deserve support? I don't think that's fair. We should make sure it's equitable supports are available and in meaningful ways, so our young people have the tools they need to move forward in life in a productive way. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Members' statements.
