President's Message

It seems hard to believe that a whole year has passed since I became President of ABC Ontario. I would have liked to see more progress in some areas but recognize that as with any all-volunteer organization, other priorities constantly intervene. For those who over the past thirty years developed ABC Ontario policy documents, responded to innumerable Ministry of Education policies, guidelines, and discussion documents, participated on local Boards of Education Special Education Advisory Committees, organized local ABC activities, responded to parent queries, and wrote articles for our Newsmagazine, we are truly indebted. They have created a foundation for the provision of educational services to gifted and bright students in this province and have helped to increase the awareness of the needs of these students amongst parents, educators and others.

Highlights of the past year include:

• Family Fun Day at the University of Toronto in conjunction with our Annual General Meeting. Over fifty members were on hand to hear Nancy Corbett and Dr. Joanne Foster. A summary of both presentations is provided in this issue of the Newsmagazine. Many thanks to Carol Seto, Annie Dupuis, Yvonne Raaflaub and Becky Hurwitz for their hard work in handling all the details that go into making an event like this a success.


• Reinstatement of our status as a charitable organization. The reinstatement date corresponds with when our status was revoked in 2002. If you have made a donation in the intervening period of more than $10 and did not receive a receipt for tax purposes, please contact our Treasurer through the mailing address for ABC Ontario or by email (treasurer@abcontario.ca).


• Development of a response to the Ministry of Education publication The Individual Education Plan (IEP: A Resource Guide (2004). Many school boards are working to implement a revised framework for IEPs for the fall 2005. You may have already found that your child’s statement of needs on the statement of decision from the Identification, Placement and Review Committee (IPRC) was significantly different this spring in comparison to previous years. The new IEP Guide is premised on a deficit model which is difficult to apply to the gifted exceptionality. For gifted children, their strengths are synonymous with their needs. Current plans are to have the next issue of the Newsmagazine focus on IEPs. We hope to have it in your hands before your child’s IEP is finalized in early to mid October.

Plans are already underway for the coming year. We have already arranged for Dr. Karen Rogers, the author of re-Forming Gifted Education: Matching the Program to the Child to be our speaker. Our plan at this point is to host a two day-event. Concurrent programming for children will only be available on the second day (a Saturday in early May). If you would be interested in helping out with this event in any way, let me know.

Elizabeth Buckingham
President, ABC Ontario