As we look to the second half of the school year, the Star explores how staffing levels impact classrooms in a two-part series. This part focuses on educational assistants, and the other part looks at teacher, which are the categories with the most significant challenges.
When a colleague is absent, Habiba Aden braces for a difficult day.
She’s an educational assistant in the Toronto public school board, working with some of the most vulnerable students in the system who have complex needs.
The job is tough to begin with — she has been punched, kicked and head-butted — but when there’s no substitute for an absent colleague, it gets tougher, says Aden, who works at a school that provides intensive special education.
When there’s an unfilled position, she says educational assistants — commonly called EAs — give up their breaks and take on more responsibilities. That leads to staff burnout and students are more likely to act out because their routines are disrupted, and they don’t get the attention they need.
“There are days when you get very exhausted and mentally drained,” says Aden, who works with kids who have intellectual, physical, medical and behavioural needs. “Every time someone is away sick it gets more challenging.”
The Toronto District School Board says it’s committed to improving coverage of unfilled jobs across the system.
“We recognize that when enough occasional staff do not pick up open jobs, other staff step up to help and we’re truly appreciative of their hard work,” said spokesperson Ryan Bird.
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Across the province, principals are grappling with daily staff shortages in all job categories, according to the Ontario Principals’ Council, which represents 5,400 administrators. Shortages stem from insufficient staff allocations, vacancies, and not having replacements to cover leaves and absences.
“Support staff shortages this year are enormous, in particular at the educational assistant position,” OPC president Ralph Nigro told the Star, adding this impacts student learning and safety.
He says EA wages are low — it’s the lowest paid position in the classroom — so it’s tough to recruit and retain staff for such a demanding job. According to the federal government’s job bank, EAs earn a median hourly wage of $24 in Ontario.
On its surface, that may not seem low, but Nigro says when you consider that many positions are for about 30 hours a week, and 40 weeks a year, “That’s not a lot of money for people to live on.”
Provincial organizations representing public, Catholic and French administrators are in talks with the Ministry of Education on how to improve staffing levels, especially amongst teachers and EAs, which they say have the most significant shortages. To increase the number of EAs, they recommend a signing bonus, replacing the required college diploma with a quick training program, improved working conditions and better salaries.
The ministry says it values education workers and recognizes the economic challenges faced by Ontarians. Recent bargaining with unions representing education workers – the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the Ontario Council of Educational Workers, and the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario – led to negotiated wage increases of $1-an-hour, which equates to a 4.2 per cent increase for someone making $39,000 a year.
“The government continues to invest in the recruitment and retention of education workers who make a difference in Ontario classrooms,” said Isha Chaudhuri, spokesperson for Education Minister Stephen Lecce.
She says since taking office in 2018, it has hired 7,500 additional teachers and education workers, including more than 3,500 EAs, and increased mental health funding by more than 550 per cent.
Annual funding to support the salaries and benefits for EAs is provided mostly through the Special Education Grant of the Grants for Student Needs. This year, the ministry gave boards about $20 million for additional services that support student well-being and maintain clean schools — funding that could also go toward additional staff, such as EAs.
While the province is responsible for setting policy that governs the allocation of funds, it’s up to boards to use the money based on local need. This gives them flexibility to make decisions about staffing and program delivery that best meets the needs of its students.
In Toronto, public school principals are struggling with daily absences in all staff areas, and “challenges with the initial school allocations that they were given at the start of the school year,” says Rita Gallippi, who represents public school administrators.
“They continue to do their best to support students with more complex needs while managing with fewer support staff like educational assistants, special needs assistants, child and youth workers, clerical staff, and lunchroom supervisors,” said the chair of the Toronto School Administrators' Association.
Gallippi says a key challenge for elementary schools this academic year has been the reduction of lunchroom supervisors. Some schools no longer have one lunchroom supervisor for each kindergarten class, which means having to sometimes combine two kindergarten classes or spread-out students to eat lunch with other kindergarten classes. She says this is problematic because these classes are staffed by a teacher and a designated early childhood educator all day, but at lunch — “the most unstructured part of the day” — classes are combined and may be overseen by one lunchroom supervisor caring for at least 40 children.
“These are our youngest students and sometimes they have exceptionalities and needs that require additional attention,” she explains.
The TDSB says the province's elimination of pandemic-related funding and a decline in enrolment has resulted in fewer staff. (As part of this year’s budget, the TDSB cut 423 school-based positions that were temporarily created — including about 200 lunchroom supervisors, 35 child and youth workers and 29 clerical staff — because time-limited pandemic-related funds from the ministry had expired.)
"The TDSB continues to focus on ensuring all lunchroom supervisor positions are filled to the best of our ability and is working to address the uptake of open jobs when someone is away," said Bird, noting administrators can adjust schedules to best support student needs.
Overall, the board says there isn't a staffing shortage in most job categories, but it has been a particular challenge finding replacements for absent EAs. The percentage of EA jobs filled by a substitute between September and early November was on average 72 per cent. By comparison, it was 79 per cent for lunchroom supervisors and 93 per cent for designated early childhood educators.
Meanwhile at the Peel District School Board, the percentage of EA jobs covered from September and early December ranged, going as high as 64 and as low as 28 per cent. (Coverage for designated early childhood educators was as high as 96 and low as 70 per cent in that time.) A board spokesperson says, “ongoing recruitment initiatives are actively aimed at improving absence fill rates.”
And at the York Region District School Board, the greatest need for new hires is educational assistants — there, coverage in mid-December was 84 per cent, whereas for teachers and designated early childhood educators it was in the 90s.
John Weatherup, president of the Toronto Education Workers CUPE Local 4400, at his office in Toronto, December 28, 2023.
Andrew Francis WallaceBoards say they are working to recruit new hires and improve coverage. But fewer folks are wanting to become an EA, and more are quitting earlier, says John Weatherup, president of the Toronto Education Workers CUPE Local 4400. That’s because the job involves working with students who have very complex needs, which can be physically demanding and subject to violence.
“It’s one of the most difficult jobs at the board," he says. "People have no idea the severity of issues (they) deal with.”
And when EAs are absent or on leave, there are few replacements, he says. Many people don’t want the job because there’s no guaranteed number of hours, start pay is low, and they’re likely to earn more working at a coffee shop, he says. But not having enough replacements can mean there may not be enough staff to carry out safety plans or lockdown procedures. And there’s an academic impact to students, who are among the most vulnerable, because they don’t get the help they need.
Concerns about safety are echoed by educational assistant Aden, who believes staffing challenges are fueling an increase in violent incidents. She’s part of the TDSB's joint health and safety committee and says reports by staff in all job categories about workplace violence has been on the rise. In 2022, there were 376 reports by TDSB staff in September, followed by 473 in October and 434 in November. By comparison, in 2023 there were 516, 668 and 665, respectively. True figures are higher, she says, because some occasional staff don’t report incidents, fearful it could jeopardize their job.
The board, however, says the increase is because of many factors, including enrolment and in-person learning having increased year-over year and some students still struggling with pandemic-related impacts on wellbeing. (Research shows Canadian teens experiencing mental health crises rose significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic.)
“The job can be very stressful," Aden says about being an EA. "But it can also be very rewarding because you’re making a change and you’re helping students. We do what we do because we love the children.”
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