Hon. Titus Allooloo's return to Question W43-12(2), asked by Mr. Antoine on June 24, 1992:

a) Referrals to southern Canadian facilities for multidisciplinary assessments related to teaming difficulties are made by a medical doctor or a hospital clinic. Since the Department of Health is responsible for paying the costs associated with such assessments, I have asked the Minister of Health to have the department research and provide information on the cost of these services as soon as possible.

Boards and divisional boards of education do not receive any designated funding to contract specialized services for their students. In a very few cases, a board may have contracted with a private company or a facility in southern Canada for an assessment, or may have contributed a portion of the cost for a southern assessment if training of school personnel was involved. As the majority of schools are now closed for the summer holidays, specific information on expenditure by boards will not be available until the beginning of September. I will provide this information directly to the MLA for Nahendeh, Mr. Antoine, at that time.

b) Educational assessments are currently conducted by a number of education staff employed by boards and divisional boards of education. Classroom teachers, special needs teachers, and special needs consultants use a number of different assessment methods. These range from classroom observation to more formalized individual testing to assess the student's strengths and needs in order to plan an appropriate program. At present, no individuals are employed as educational psychologists by boards or divisional boards of education, although boards may have staff with the qualifications to conduct certain types of assessment.

c) Boards are responsible for the hiring of special needs consultants and special needs teachers. When hiring for these positions, the boards advertise for teachers with specialized training and experience in the field of special education. Part of this training would deal with identification assessment and program planning for children with learning disabilities. Information on the specific training of individual teachers currently in the school system is kept by the boards. The Department of Education to provides funding for 11 special needs consultants and 58.5 special needs teachers.

d) All contribution funding related to "special needs" is given by the Department of Education to boards and divisional boards of education. These boards have the mandate to provide education and support to all NWT students, including those with special needs.

In the 1991-92 school year, the department contributed approximately $7.6 million to boards and divisional boards of education for special needs. The department does not provide contribution funding to any community organization. The Department of Education special needs funding is designed to provide in-school education programs and support to students and teachers. Families are involved in the program planning and delivery.

The Department of Education is very concerned about the level of all support services including assessment available for children. The tri-ministry committee of representatives from the Departments of Education, Health and Social Services is studying the accessibility, availability and delivery of services to children, and will be making recommendations during the next school year based on their research of service models operating here and in other jurisdictions.