1. What is the average cost of a teacher's aide within the school system?

Student support assistants are funded through the inclusive schooling funding formula. Five and one-half person years are provided through this formula for every 1,000 students enrolled. The funding allocated for each student support assistant person year is $32,000. The salaries and benefits for student support assistants provided by school boards, excluding vacation travel assistance, totals $38,000. Student support funding is in addition to the school funding formula.

2. How many special needs students are there in the NWT school system?

In some jurisdictions in Canada, students with "special needs" are identified and counted under categories of exceptionality. In these jurisdictions, funding for "special needs" is based on obtaining categorical data and establishing incidence levels of "special needs" students. However, this approach is changing across Canada, and the Northwest Territories is considered a leader in implementing an inclusive schooling philosophy in North America.

Rather than identifying "special needs" students, the Northwest Territories, and a number of other provinces, assess students in terms of the support services they need to succeed, such as adaptations of their school programs.

Most students need some support at some time in their schooling. The type and amount of support varies according to the needs of each student, and naturally some students have greater needs than others. Our goal, through an inclusive approach to schooling, is to provide the support services each child needs to succeed.

In the spring of 1993, we completed a report called, "Student Support Services Information System: Classroom and School-Community Profiles," which analyzed the data we had collected on the number and types of support services required by students in classrooms in all NWT schools. We had gathered this data through a survey completed by classroom teachers. Teachers were asked to complete a profile in which they identified the number of students they had in their classes who were receiving a particular service, as well as in their opinion the number of students who needed a particular support services, but were not receiving it. Thirty-two support services were identified in the profile and they were grouped into four broad categories: personal assistance; counselling services; programming assistance; and, rehabilitation services.

The report indicated that about 30 per cent of the school population is receiving at least one of the 32 services, while about the same percentage require a service or services which they are not receiving. This does not mean that 60 per cent of our student population needs support services; many of the students who were identified as needing a particular support service, which they were not receiving, were already receiving other support services. The report concluded that an estimated 30 per cent of our student population requires one or more support services.