Most of the research with and about youth with special needs, particularly in Canada, either relies on small samples and/or is qualitative in nature. Although such research provides valuable in-depth insights into their experiences, there is little population-based research available, specifically about adolescents with special needs.To address this gap, our study utilizes the McCreary Centre Society’s 2013 British Columbia Adolescent Health Survey (BCAHS) (https://www.mcs.bc.ca/ahs) data to address and answer key questions about the health and well-being of BC’s adolescents with special needs.
The overall goals of this project are to: understand the impact of COVID-19 on inclusive education for students with disabilities and complex learners in British Columbia’s (BC) public education (K-12) system, and use this new knowledge to inform advocacy activities during subsequent waves of the pandemic, including informing hybrid models across online and in-person learning modalities to provide inclusive education.
This state-of-the-art project will begin to address a significant gap in knowledge by investigating population-based education trajectories of students with special education needs and disabilities (SEND) across multiple categories of need. We will also engage in an innovative, integrated Knowledge Mobilization (KMb) study with educational leaders so this new knowledge can help inform local and provincial educational policy, programs and practices.