Cooperative Education for Autistic Students in Ontario

Students enrol in co-op through their high school's course selection process, and all Ontario school boards with high schools offer co-op courses. Some placements have minimum age requirements, so families should confirm the available placements and requirements with the school's cooperative education teacher or guidance department.

Each co-op credit requires at least 110 placement hours. There is no limit on the number of co-op courses a student can take, but no more than two co-op credits can be counted as compulsory credits toward the Ontario Secondary School Diploma. A cooperative education teacher must ensure that the community placement is assessed before its community component begins.

For a student with an IEP, the Student's Cooperative Education Learning Plan must be developed with direct reference to the IEP. Teachers must consider the student's strengths, needs, learning expectations and accommodations, including the transition plan, and the IEP accommodations must be provided in both the classroom and community components of co-op.

Co-op planning should begin with the student's interests, strengths, needs and aspirations as recorded in the Individual Pathways Plan. The evidence supports individualized planning and accommodation; it does not support the draft's unsourced list of autism-specific placements or its named examples of job coaching, quiet spaces and gradual schedules as universal co-op entitlements.

The Ontario Human Rights Commission says employment protections include student internships and that employers must accommodate the needs of people with disabilities to the point of undue hardship. A student can communicate the need for accommodation without discussing the disability in detail. A placement decision may still turn on whether essential duties can be performed with accommodation and whether accommodation would cause undue hardship.

For an unpaid work education or experiential learning placement, the student is considered an employee of the Ministry of Education for Workplace Safety and Insurance Act coverage once the Work Education Agreement form has been completed and the placement has begun. The coverage statement depends on those conditions and should not be described as automatic before the paperwork and placement start are complete.