The September Scramble, Part 2: The Quiet Surveillance for Category H Funding

In September, schools across BC scramble to meet the Ministry deadline that locks in inclusive education funding for the year. This rush shifts attention away from supporting students and toward collecting paperwork, files, and evidence. While parents may notice the pressure of this deadline, what they may not see is what happens behind classroom doors in the weeks leading up to September 29.

Parents deserve to know what is happening inside classrooms. Across BC, many children are being observed in school without families ever being told or giving consent. These observations are often framed as support, but in practice, they are typically about tracking and documenting behaviours.

Students in Category H (Intensive Behaviour Support / Mental Illness) are the most likely to be singled out for this kind of scrutiny. School and district staff enter classrooms, watch children, and record their behaviours and interactions. But families are rarely informed that it has even taken place, let alone asked for their consent.

Category H requires that there is documented evidence that a student’s behaviour places the student or others at serious risk, and/or interferes with their own academic progress or that of other students. Observations are often carried out with this purpose in mind. The concern is that the documentation created is usually tally marks of how many times a student was “off task,” “non-compliant,” or “aggressive.” Rarely is context provided. What led to the behaviour? What stressors were present? What strengths were overlooked? Without context, children are reduced to marks on a page, and those marks may then be used as evidence to justify a Category H designation.

The troubling question is: where does this information go? Does it even make it into a student’s official file, or does it remain in informal notes passed between staff? And how might these observations be used to frame a child without parents ever knowing what is being written, or what story is being told?

This lack of transparency should alarm every parent. Observations that happen in secret erode trust between families and schools. They strip away dignity and reduce children to data points rather than human beings with strengths, needs, and rights. When information is collected without transparency, parents cannot know whether it is accurate, how it will be interpreted, or how long it will follow their child.

Behavioural observations are never neutral. They are filtered through the lens of the observer’s assumptions, training, and expectations. Without family involvement, there is no accountability for how those notes and impressions are used. The result can be a permanent record, official or unofficial, that shapes how a child is seen by teachers, administrators, and even future schools.

Parents must be aware of this practice and demand transparency. If your child is being observed, you have the right to know who is doing it, for what reason, and how the information will be used. You have the right to give or withhold consent. Schools cannot claim to be supporting children while hiding practices that impact their educational journey and long-term outcomes.

Every child has the right to be treated with dignity and fairness. And every parent has the right to be a partner in decisions that affect their child. Observing students without consent is not support, it is surveillance. Families must speak up to ensure that transparency, accountability, and consent are at the centre of any process that involves their children.

The September scramble is not only about paperwork, it is also about the quiet, unspoken practices that happen in classrooms to justify funding categories. Families must demand transparency, insist on consent, and refuse to let children be reduced to tally marks on a clipboard.