Under the Ontario Education Act, every student with special needs is entitled to an Individual Education Plan (IEP) and access to an Identification, Placement and Review Committee (IPRC)
School Support
Plain-language school guidance, the record to keep, and the next step available to your family.
Every Ontario school board has a Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC). It includes parent-association representatives and advises the board on special education programs and services. SEAC is not a complaints tribunal. It will not fix your child's individual situation. Use SEAC for system-wide patterns. Examples include unfilled EA absences, exclusion patterns, and waitlists for assessments. Your incident log can turn "my story" into evidence of a pattern.
Find your SEAC
Check your board's website for SEAC meeting dates, members, and its procedure for public input.
Turn your log into a pattern
Strip identifying details and summarize: what happened, how often, what it cost. Ask other families to do the same.
Ask how to submit
Delegation rules are board-specific. Ask how to request agenda time, send written material, or contact the SEAC chair.
Keep your individual track separate
SEAC is for the system. Your child's specific case still runs through principal → superintendent in writing.
I would like to bring an issue to the SEAC's attention. When does the committee next meet? What is this board's process for public input, delegation requests, or written submissions? If I cannot present, how can I send material for circulation or the public record? Please reply in writing.
SEAC is a board-level advisory channel — useful in parallel with, not instead of, your own escalation.
See the full escalation ladderSOURCE
Government of Ontario • 2024-01-01
Last updated: 2026-07-04
Evidence on this page
Key claims are paired with their source, evidence tier, and verification date so readers can inspect the public record directly.
Under the Ontario Education Act, every student with special needs is entitled to an Individual Education Plan (IEP) and access to an Identification, Placement and Review Committee (IPRC)
91,974
children are registered in the Ontario Autism Program
1 in 50
According to the 2019 Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youth, about 1 in 50 children and youth aged 1 to 17 in Canada had an autism diagnosis
22.5%
Only 20,711 children have active funding agreements (22.5%), less than one in four
WHO recommends accessible, community-based early interventions for children with autism. Timely evidence-based psychosocial interventions improve communication and social engagement