Balance Support & Self Care Studios Responds to Ontario's Latest EQAO Results

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Hamilton, Ontario – September 2026

The latest EQAO results provide Ontario with another snapshot of student achievement. They also raise an important question: what do these results tell us about the students who continue to experience the greatest barriers to success?

Ontario's 2025–26 results show modest year-over-year increases in mathematics achievement in English-language schools. Grade 3 mathematics increased from 64% to 65% of students meeting the provincial standard, Grade 6 increased from 51% to 52%, and Grade 9 increased from 58% to 59%. Literacy achievement remains considerably stronger at several grade levels.

We acknowledge that improvement.

However, the results also show persistent disparities for students with special education needs, something EQAO itself has identified as requiring further attention.

For Balance Support & Self Care Studios, this is where the discussion needs to go deeper.

We need to look beyond the overall numbers

A provincial average can tell us whether achievement has changed. It cannot, on its own, tell us why students are or are not meeting a standard.

For students with disabilities and other special education needs, we need to ask:

• Are students receiving the accommodations they require?

• Do they have meaningful access to the curriculum?

• Do they have access to communication supports, including AAC where needed?

• Are sensory, executive-functioning and other disability-related needs being appropriately supported?

• Are students being provided with accessible learning environments, or are environmental barriers contributing to disengagement and difficulty learning?

• Are students sometimes placed on modified or alternative expectations when better accommodations and supports could have provided access to the curriculum?

These are educational questions that achievement scores alone cannot answer.

EQAO results are data — not an explanation

We remain concerned about treating standardized assessment results as a complete measure of what students know or what a school, educator or education system is accomplishing.

In our December 2025 statement, we noted that standardized testing can be affected by circumstances such as stress, illness, tiredness and other factors, and that test results provide an incomplete picture of a student's abilities.

We continue to hold that view.

EQAO itself describes its assessments as a snapshot of student achievement and is now publishing achievement results alongside student questionnaire information and cohort data to provide additional context.

That broader information is important.

A test score tells us what happened on an assessment. It does not automatically tell us what prevented a student from demonstrating their knowledge.

The achievement gap for students with special education needs should be a central concern

EQAO's own 2025–26 findings show that disparities for students with special education needs persist across elementary and secondary grades.

That should lead to questions about access, support and inclusion, not simply questions about how to raise the score.

Disabled and neurodivergent students should not be viewed primarily through the lens of whether they have met a standardized benchmark.

The education system should also be asking whether it has removed the barriers that make it harder for those students to demonstrate their knowledge.

We welcome attention to assessment exemptions — but the questions matter

Education Minister Paul Calandra has also raised concerns about an increase in assessment exemptions in some school boards and has directed EQAO leadership to investigate the reasons for that increase. The Minister's statement notes that exemptions are intended for students who cannot complete an assessment even with permitted accommodations.

We agree that this deserves careful examination.

But the investigation should go beyond asking how many students are exempted.

It should also examine:

Why were they exempted?

What accommodations were considered or provided?

Were those accommodations accessible and effective?

Were disability-related barriers properly understood?

Were families and students meaningfully involved in the decision?

And perhaps most importantly:

Are students being excluded from assessment because they cannot access it, or because the system has not adequately adapted the assessment environment to their needs?

Those are very different questions.

EQAO states that accommodations are available for students with special education needs and that exemptions are intended for students who cannot complete an assessment even with permitted accommodations.

We still believe the education system needs broader measures of success

We need reliable information about student achievement. But standardized testing should not become the only lens through which we judge student learning, school quality or educational success.

Students also need opportunities to demonstrate learning in different ways.

They need accessible classrooms.

They need appropriate accommodations and supports.

They need communication access.

They need educators who understand disability and neurodivergence.

And they need educational environments that recognize that students do not all learn, communicate, regulate or demonstrate knowledge in the same way.

What should happen next?

Last year, we called for meaningful consultation with frontline educators, unions, organizations and parent representatives in any examination of EQAO and student achievement.

That remains important.

But as this year's results make clear, consultation should also include students with disabilities, autistic self-advocates, disabled people and families of students with special education needs.

The latest EQAO results give Ontario more data.

The next step should be to use those data to ask better questions about who is being supported, who is facing barriers, and whether our education system is providing students with what they need to demonstrate what they know.

A student's worth, potential or future cannot be reduced to a test score.

For more information, please contact our team at balanceSSCS@gmail.com

Balance Support & Self Care Studios was created with parents and caregivers of individuals with diverse needs in mind. We recognize the value of the staff and community. We are committed to striving for excellence through inclusiveness, team collaboration, quality of services, and the participation and contributions of volunteers and community members. To learn more, please check out our website

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