The number of students who need Intensive Support and Inclusion and Intervention Programs (IIP) in the Prince Albert Catholic School Division continues to grow.
Each year in December the Ministry of Education requires school divisions to submit the number of students that need IIPs. The memo included data from the 2019-2020 school year to 2025-2026. There are currently 255 students on Inclusion and Intervention Plans, or eight per cent of students compared to all enrolment.
In 2024-2025 there were 237 students on IIPs or seven per cent. When the reporting began in 2019-2020 there were 206 students on IIPs or six per cent.
Director of Education Lorel Trumier said that there are always students who need intensive supports and historically the division has hovered between six and eight per cent.
“It’s important to note that some children will require intensive supports, perhaps in the earlier stages of their education, and as they grow, the need becomes less,” she explained. “In some cases, the need is throughout their education, sso that six to eight per cent will vary from year to year, depending on the core students that are attending our schools. But you can see they’re all relatively in the same range of numbers there for enrolment.”
Each student in the Early Learning Intensive Support (ELIS) program requires an Inclusion and Intervention Program (IIP).
Trumier said the current government support has been vital to meet the increased need.
The Ministry of Education collaborates with other ministries to collect prevalence rates of students with specific diagnoses. The information is then used to develop programs, approaches and supports to meet the needs of students currently enrolled in schools and to support their smooth transition as they leave school and enter the community.
This information is also part of the data used to determine each school division’s Supports for Learning funding.
Superintendent Charity Dmytruk presented the data to the board of education at their regular meeting on Monday. Trumier said Dmytruk has the intensive supports as part of her portfolio.
“Our SSS (Student Support Services) teachers and our class complexity teachers are a team of people at each school really trying to look at supporting students with intensive needs, and so she does the monitoring and management and support for that domain of work within our system,” Trumier explained.
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
