I’d like to congratulate and thank School District 83 administrators and trustees for recognizing that school boards have the obligation to fund Speech and Language services for school-aged children. They have shown this commitment by reversing the proposed cut to this service in the 2015-16 school budget.
Though there will be no decrease in funding in 2015-16, there is no increase either. At current levels of funding, only about 50 per cent of referred children actually receive help. This is simply due to the lack of resources and varied complexity in caseloads.
We have an opportunity to be proactive in working with groups and government, now, to find solutions to helping our children with needs in this area.
If we, as a community, esteem literacy to be of great importance, we need to value and fund Speech and Language services.
Jennifer Henrie