Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd be very happy to meet with the committee. I believe we actually have a date set for meeting with the committee to talk about the directive on March 30th. I'm looking forward to that opportunity. I know I've written to the committee requesting a time to meet with them to discuss the directive. We can certainly talk at that time about the different approaches.
There are two different approaches used in Canada. The one that Ms. Lee talks about is used in some jurisdictions where an individual is identified as having a certain need because they are in a category. I think we used to use categories here at one time, category one, two, three, four, and then you wind up though...That was often seen by people, though, as a way of labelling and is not considered sort of the appropriate way in which to handle the issue. So we switched, probably in the mid-'90s, from that sort of method to the one that's used now, which recognizes that almost every student at some point needs some level of support and leaving it to the schools, the boards themselves, the schools and the school boards to determine how to appropriately deal with the students that they have to provide the services to.
So there are the two different ways that you can do it. We've tried both ways now. This way seems to be working. I mean, I think it works better than the other way, because you also then wind up perhaps running out of money after you've dealt with all the level ones or the level fours and you have to say that's it for services, I guess.
So I'd be happy to discuss a different approach, though, with the committee and the different options that we have.
I think that knowing that we have worked with every single divisional education council, school body, with the Teachers' Association and other stakeholders, that we are also embarking on a very close collaboration with Health and Social Services and that we're going to see more of their teams in our schools in the course of the next little while here, that I think we are on the right track to make sure that we can deal better with the issues that are presenting in our classrooms. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.