National Inclusion Tracker Now Includes Child Care

Photo by DJ Paine

As of the current school year, the National Exclusion Tracker has been expanded to include a child care survey. The tracker allows parents and guardians of children/youth with disabilities and/or complex learning needs in Canada to report incidents of exclusion.

If you are a parent or guardian of a child or youth with disabilities and/or complex learning needs in Canada, The National Exclusion Tracker (NET) at https://exclusiontracker.com/ is a place to document their experiences of exclusion and ensure they are counted. Exclusion can take many forms—being sent home, not being included in class activities, field trips, extracurricular programs, or being denied access to child care/out-of-school care. If a child or youth feels excluded, it counts. You can fill out the survey each time your child or youth experiences exclusion.

The Exclusion Tracker was created by BCEdAccess in 2018 to document patterns of exclusion in the K-12 education system. After 7 years of data collection and advocacy, they asked the Family Support Institute of BC (FSI) to take over this work. For the 2025/26 school year, FSI has added a child care survey to the tracker, and is taking the survey national, collecting data for all provinces and territories.

The National Exclusion Tracker (NET)™ is intended to collect details of each instance of exclusion, no matter how small or frequent. Families are encouraged to complete the survey each time exclusion happens.

The Exclusion Tracker is one of a number of tools available to parents and guardians of children and youth with disabilities and/or complex learning needs in Canada through the Family Support Institute of BC. For a full list of the support tool links, go to https://familysupportbc.com/resources/.

Examples given of where exclusion may occur can include such incidents as:

• being placed on a gradual entry plan (not applied class-wide)

• being asked to stay home or sent home

• experiencing shortened school days

• being left out of field trips, classroom activities, or extracurricular programs

• being denied access to child care or out-of-school care

• not learning alongside peers

• being subjected to seclusion or restraint

• having essential health, safety, or personal care needs go unmet

Parents and guardians are encouraged to report each separate incident on the tracker. The website notes: “Documenting these experiences on a national scale highlights the magnitude of exclusion, raises awareness of practices that contribute to exclusion, and provides data that can be used to push for meaningful change in schools, child care programs, and education policy across Canada.”