Guide to the 2024–2025 Special Education Fund

How we fund special education

We fund 72 district school boards and 10 school authorities through various types of funding, such as day-to-day operations, special projects, and the construction and improvement of school buildings.

Learn how we fund school boards and authorities.

We support students with special education needs through:

• Core education funding, previously known as the Grants for Student Needs (GSN)
• Responsive education programs (REP) funding, previously known as Priorities and Partnerships Funding (PPF)

Core education funding has 6 funds, including the Special Education Fund. School boards must use all of the Special Education Fund exclusively for special education programs and services.

School boards may also use other core education funds to support students with special education needs.

The Special Education Fund

The Special Education Fund supports positive outcomes for students with special education needs. This funding is for the additional costs of the programs, services and/or equipment these students may need.

School boards have flexibility to use education funding to support their special education policies, programs and services. This means, for example, that your school board makes decisions about classroom placement, classroom programming and staffing.

The Special Education Fund is made up of 4 allocations:

Your school board must reserve any unspent funding each year and spend it on special education in the future.

The following outlines each of the 4 allocations of the Special Education Fund. If you would like more detail about any of these, please read Core education funding: technical guide for school boards 2024–25.

Per pupil allocation

This funding is primarily intended for staffing costs, such as:

• teachers
• educational assistants
• professional/para-professionals
• professional development and learning materials

We give school boards an amount based on the total enrolment of all students, not just students with special education needs. This fund provides each school board with a base amount of funding for special education. We supply this funding to every school board to help with the costs of giving additional support to students with special education needs.

Differentiated needs allocation

We allocate this funding based on assessments of special education needs in school boards and each school board’s varying ability to support its students with special education needs. We look at factors such as:

• geography
• language
• socio-demographics

The differentiated needs allocation has 7 components:

Special Education Statistical Prediction Model

This model estimates the percentage of students in a school board likely to need special education programs and/or services. We use these percentages to help allocate funding.

The model considers anonymous neighbourhood profiles for all students across Ontario and in each school board. We develop these profiles using data from the federal government’s long-form census and other sources. Data includes factors such as:

• parent level of education
• family income
• unemployment
• recent immigration to Canada

Measures of variability

Measures of variability reflect differences among school boards. It is uses 7 categories of information grouped into 2 areas: school board profile of special education needs and school boards’ ability to respond to these needs.

School board profile of special education needs

Three of the categories use data to develop a school board profile of special education needs.

• special education programs/services: students reported as receiving special education programs and/or services
• Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO): participation and achievement in EQAO assessments by students with special education needs
• credit accumulation, locally-developed and alternative non-credit courses: credit accumulation and participation in these courses by students with special education needs

We look at different data sets and compare each school board’s data to the provincial average. This comparison helps us determine the amount of funding to give each school board.

School board ability to support special education needs

The remaining 4 categories assess external factors that affect each school board’s ability to support its students with special education needs.

• remote and rural adjustment
• Indigenous adjustment
• French-language school board adjustment
• northern adjustment

We use this information to fund each school board in a way that takes its ability into account.

For example, the northern adjustment provides funding to all northern school boards and school authorities. It helps to address challenges with providing programs and/or services to students with special education needs in Northern Ontario.

Collaboration and integration base funding

We give this funding to every school board. They must use it to explore collaborative and integrated approaches to serving students with special education needs.

Multi-disciplinary supports

Every school board gets this funding, which supports all students with special education needs.

Each school board can use this funding for a multi-disciplinary team of up to 4 staff.

This team:

• helps to build board capacity
• supports special education assessments
• helps educators and other staff understand and adapt to the unique needs of their students

Funding also supports other staffing resources to support students with special education needs in a way that reflects their local needs.

Local special education priorities

School boards can use this funding to enhance supports for students with special education needs by addressing local priorities.

This can include more educational and/or professional and para-professional staff such as:

• special education resource teachers
• educational assistants
• speech-language pathologists
• occupational therapists
• psychologists

Funding can also support other local needs such as:

• evidence-based programs and interventions
• transition supports

Early math intervention

We provide this funding to school boards so they can run early math interventions for elementary students with special education needs. This funding is meant to:

• help increase student engagement
• close learning and achievement gaps
• reduce below grade level curriculum expectations
• provide supports for the transition into a de-streamed Grade 9 curriculum

It may be used on instructional staff or resources.

Professional assessments

School boards use this funding to conduct professional assessments (for example, speech and language, psycho-educational). Professional assessments are one of the sources from which educators might draw information about a particular student's strengths and needs.

School boards can use this funding to:

• conduct or provide professional assessments in person or virtually
• purchase, develop and/or enhance a board-level information system to track data, processes and practices related to conducting professional assessments
• provide funding for professional services to develop school board infrastructure

One example of school board infrastructure would be electronic case management information systems that:

• manage wait lists
• track professional assessments
• respond to professional staff shortages
• complete professional assessments in a timely way

This is a new component of the differentiated needs allocation. It used to be part of Priorities and Partnership Funding which is now known as responsive education programs funding.

Read Core education funding: technical guide for school boards 2024–25 if you would like more detailed explanations of the 7 components of the differentiated needs allocation.

Complex supports allocation

This funding is for specialized supports for students with complex special education needs.

This funding has 3 components:

Special incidence portion

This funding supports students with extremely high needs who require more than 2 full-time staff to address the health and/or safety needs of these students, as well as other students at their school.

School boards use this funding to help cover the costs of the extra staff they need.

Education and community partnership program

School boards use this funding to provide education programs to students in care, treatment or detention facilities. A school board may provide these education programs under a written agreement between the school board and the facility.

Eligible facilities include:

• children’s aid societies
• hospitals
• psychiatric facilities
• custody and correctional facilities
• licensed community group homes
• intensive support residences
• supported group living residences
• long-term care homes

For programs that qualify, this funding goes toward costs such as:

• teacher salaries and benefits
• educational assistant salaries and benefits
• classroom supplies

Behaviour expertise

We fund school boards to hire board-level Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) expertise professionals, to support educators with implementing ABA instructional methods programs. This funding also covers training opportunities in ABA and provides after-school skills development programs for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other special education needs.

Behaviour expertise is made up of the following:

• ABA expertise professionals amount
• ABA training amount
• after-school skills development amount

ABA expertise professionals amount

This funding is for boards to hire professional staff at the school board level who have expertise in ABA to support educators:

• with implementing ABA instructional methods
• in providing and coordinating ABA coaching, training and resources
• in facilitating school boards’ collaboration with community service providers and parents

ABA is an instructional approach that research has shown to be helpful for many children with ASD and students with other education needs.

ABA training amount

School boards use this funding for training opportunities to build staff capacity in ABA.

After-school skills development amount

This funding is for after-school skills development programs for students with ASD and other special education needs. School boards run these programs which occur outside the regular school day.

These programs provide opportunities that equip students for classroom success. Examples include communication and social skills development.

Specialized equipment allocation

This funding helps school boards to buy specialized equipment for students with special education needs. 

This funding can be used for specialized equipment that is essential for students to:

• attend school
• access the Ontario curriculum
• participate in a board-determined alternative program/course

This funding is made up of 2 components

• formula
• claims-based

Read the Specialized Equipment Allocation 2024–25 Directives, Spring 2024 for information about eligibility and portability requirements for equipment bought with this funding.

Accountability for special education funding

We set policies, standards, expectations and accountability requirements that school boards must meet. The authority to do this comes from:

• the Education Act
• related regulations

School boards are:

• best positioned to recognize the local needs of their students, communities and parents
• responsible for delivering local education within the accountability framework set out by us

Financial accountability framework

We have a financial accountability framework with school boards. This framework evolves over time and recognizes the need for school board flexibility to address local conditions. It helps ensure transparent budgeting, public accountability and collaboration.

Learn about financial accountability in our school system.

Access to special education

All publicly funded school boards must provide special education programs and/or services for students with special education needs. This includes students identified as exceptional by an identification, placement and review committee (IPRC), and those who are not.

2022-2023 special education funding supported roughly 350,000 students which is about 17% of all students in kindergarten to Grade 12. Of these students 46% were identified as exceptional though an identification, placement and review committee .

The goal is to ensure equity in access to learning for all students with special education needs.

Learn more about how to access special education programs and services.

More information

For information please contact:

• your school board superintendent responsible for special education about your school board’s specific special education policies and approaches
• a member of your school board’s Special Education Advisory Committee for more information on the overall delivery of special education programs and/or services within your school board

Find your school board’s contact information.

Learn about Special Education Advisory Committees.

Learn more about special education policy, programs and services.

Read 2023–24 Education funding: a guide to the Special Education Grant.