Teachers and parents in Surrey, B.C., have launched a new tool to track how often classrooms are being cleared due to a student in crisis.

It was launched by the Surrey District Parents Advisory Council (DPAC), with the support of the Surrey Teachers’ Association and CUPE 728 unions, who hope collecting the data leads to more support for kids with complex needs and their educators.

Surrey DPAC chair Anne Whitmore says there are many students who have a complex needs designation who do not have an education assistant (EA) to help them.

“You probably will not have a one-to-one EA,” she said on CBC’s .

“You might have a shared EA, but there’s a good chance you won’t have an EA at all, and that support falls on a classroom teacher.”

Anne Whitmore, president of the Surrey District Parents

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