This presentation speaks to the practices of special education intake procedures and assessments in the Province of Ontario, Canada in the era between 1960 and 1990. Canada is a federal system in which jurisdiction for education is a provincial matter. Special education in Ontario has existed both in segregated and in integrated classes over the twentieth century. Through a dichronical lens, it is clear that from the 1940s through to the 1960s, special education intake and assessment in Ontario was often dependent on individual boards of education (i.e. school districts) and the availability of special classes. Intakes and assessments were also tied to particular disabilities. Some special needs children received no education whatsoever prior to 1960. With the arrival of the demographic bulge known as the “baby boom” in schools in the early 1960s, the demand for special education grew. Categories of exceptionality were defined anew by provincial legislation in the early 1960s. Government efforts at standardization continued through to 1980. The advent of Ontario Bill 82 in 1980 brought with it codified regulations for special education intake and assessment. Under this legislation, rules regarding Identification, Placement, Review Committees (IPRCs) were set out. Through this and the enactment of the federal Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982, a new era in special education was heralded. The presentation will examine whether efforts to standardize special education intake and assessment in local boards of education in the 1960-1990 period resulted in uniform procedures. Work to systematize special education processes can be probed through an analysis of intake questionnaires. It can also be explored in the changing personnel associated with these procedures in Ontario. Finally, evidence of systematization can be sought in evolving societal attitudes and the politics of special education in Ontario in the thirty-year period under study. This research will additionally examine the broader question of the image of the normal learner and the question of inclusion in regular class-rooms. Intake questionnaires, primary source documentation, and other forms from different boards of education and their archives as well as documents from the Archives of Ontario will be referenced by the presentation. This work will also link this research to the broader secondary literature on this topic.

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