Here is a definition of the terminology used on this site.

• advocacy fatigue: Advocacy fatigue refers to the physical, emotional, and cognitive exhaustion that can arise when individuals—often parents or caregivers—must advocate continuously for a child’s basic needs, rights, or accommodations. In education settings, advocacy fatigue can develop when families repeatedly request supports, attend meetings, document incidents, and challenge decisions over long periods of time without meaningful resolution. The ongoing effort required to navigate complex systems, respond to setbacks, and remain calm and organised under pressure can be overwhelming. Advocacy fatigue does not mean the concerns are less valid; rather, it reflects the sustained burden placed on families to secure access to education and appropriate support. Over time, this strain can affect well-being, relationships, and the ability to continue pushing for change. Recognising advocacy fatigue highlights the importance of shared responsibility within education systems to reduce barriers and respond to concerns more effectively. Learn more
• advocacy groups: Advocacy groups are organisations that work to support individuals or communities in understanding their rights, navigating systems, and addressing barriers or injustices. In education contexts, advocacy groups often assist families whose children are experiencing difficulties accessing appropriate supports or equitable treatment in school. Their work may include providing information about policies and legal rights, helping parents prepare for meetings, assisting with complaint processes, and raising awareness about systemic issues affecting students. Advocacy groups are typically independent from schools and government agencies, which allows them to support families from an external perspective. While many advocates are not lawyers and cannot provide legal advice, they often play an important role in helping people organise information, communicate concerns clearly, and connect with legal or community resources. Many also work toward broader policy change by documenting patterns and promoting more inclusive education systems. Learn more
• advocacy guide: Resources that explain how to advocate or escalate concerns within education systems. Guides typically address documentation strategies, escalation pathways, legal frameworks, communication tactics, and decision points for moving from informal to formal complaint processes. Effective guides acknowledge the emotional and practical costs of advocacy, provide concrete language for letters and meetings, and help families recognise institutional delay tactics, gaslighting, and procedural exhaustion strategies deployed against them. Learn more
• advocacy language: Learn more
• advocacy punished as aggression: Advocacy punished as aggression describes a pattern in which a parent or caregiver raising concerns about a child’s education is treated as hostile, disruptive, or confrontational rather than as a legitimate participant in problem-solving. This can occur when requests for accommodations, documentation, or accountability are reframed by institutions as personal attacks or unreasonable behaviour. Once advocacy is interpreted as aggression, families may face subtle or overt consequences such as being excluded from meetings, dismissed as “difficult,” or having their concerns minimised. This dynamic can shift attention away from the underlying issue—such as a child’s unmet needs or barriers to learning—and toward managing the parent’s behaviour. Recognising when advocacy is being framed this way helps highlight power imbalances within institutions and the challenges families may face when trying to secure equitable access to education for their children. Learn more
• advocacy strategy: Advocacy strategy means choosing the order, tone, evidence, and escalation path most likely to produce a practical remedy. It involves deciding what to document, what to ask for, when to follow up, and when informal discussion has become a barrier to accountability. Learn more
• advocacy toolkit: Advocacy toolkit refers to a collection of practical resources designed to help individuals understand their rights and take informed action. Learn more
• affective economies: Affective economies is a concept from Sara Ahmed that describes how emotions circulate within institutions and communities, shaping relationships, decisions, and power dynamics. Rather than belonging only to individuals, emotions such as fear, frustration, sympathy, or suspicion can move through systems and become attached to certain people, identities, or behaviours. These emotional currents influence how situations are interpreted and how individuals are treated. In education contexts, affective economies can shape how parents, students, and staff are perceived. For example, expressions of concern or urgency from families may be interpreted as hostility, while institutional discomfort or defensiveness can influence responses to complaints. Over time, these emotional patterns can reinforce existing hierarchies and expectations. Understanding affective economies helps explain why conflicts sometimes escalate and why certain voices are welcomed while others are treated with caution or resistance. Learn more
• after-school collapse: After-school collapse describes the distress, exhaustion, shutdown, or dysregulation a child may show after holding themselves together through an inaccessible school day. It can be evidence that the school environment is exceeding the child’s capacity, even when school staff report that the child appears fine at school. Learn more
• aggression: Learn more
• ai as accommodation: Learn more
• alexithymia: Alexithymia is a term used to describe difficulty identifying, understanding, or expressing one’s own emotions. People with alexithymia may struggle to recognise what they are feeling, find it hard to describe emotions in words, or focus more on physical sensations than emotional states. Alexithymia is a trait that can occur in the general population and is more common among some neurodivergent people, including autistic individuals. In educational settings, alexithymia can affect how students communicate distress, frustration, or overwhelm. A student may appear withdrawn, confused, or behaviourally reactive without being able to explain why they feel that way. Understanding alexithymia can help educators respond more effectively by using clear language about emotions, offering structured supports, and recognising that difficulty expressing feelings does not mean a student is unwilling to communicate or engage. Learn more
• alibi: Institutional justifications used to excuse inaction or harm. Common alibis include resource scarcity narratives, claims that harm serves pedagogical goals, assertions that excluded children pose safety threats, or insistence that current practices represent best practice or evidence-based intervention. Alibis function to preserve institutional legitimacy while deflecting accountability, transforming systemic failures into individual problems or unavoidable circumstances rather than policy choices that could be altered. Learn more
• anaphylaxis: Anaphylaxis is a severe and potentially life-threatening allergic reaction that requires clear prevention, emergency planning, and prompt access to medication. In schools, anaphylaxis planning is part of safe access to education, not an optional extra. Learn more
• anonymous: Learn more
• anxiety: Anxiety is used for content about the emotional, relational, and embodied effects of educational conflict, exclusion, and chronic institutional stress. On k12complaints.ca, harm is not treated as a side issue separate from policy or legal process. It is understood as part of the evidence of what schools, districts, and systems do to children and families when needs are ignored, support is delayed, or distress is managed through punishment and removal. This tag may appear in posts about fear, grief, burnout, trauma, shame, recovery, or the long tail of educational harm after a crisis has supposedly ended. It also captures how repeated advocacy demands can affect family life, trust in institutions, nervous system regulation, and a child’s sense of safety, dignity, and belonging. Learn more
• anxiety at school: Learn more
• apology: In many school disputes, families are seeking something simple but meaningful: an acknowledgement that harm occurred and that it should not have happened. An apology can validate a child’s experience and help repair trust between families and institutions. In British Columbia, the Apology Act allows individuals and organisations to apologise without that apology being treated as an admission of legal liability. Despite this protection, apologies are rarely offered in formal complaint processes. Institutions often focus on resolving the dispute administratively rather than acknowledging wrongdoing. As a result, families may be left without recognition of the harm they experienced, even when policies or practices later change. Many parents find that part of moving forward involves accepting that formal validation may never come, and finding ways to create their own sense of closure outside the system. Learn more
• Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA): Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is an approach to therapy and education that applies principles of behaviourism — particularly reinforcement and repetition — to shape observable behaviour. It is commonly used in autism services and has influenced many school behaviour systems. In practice, ABA-based approaches often involve breaking skills into small steps, rewarding behaviours that are considered desirable, and reducing behaviours that are seen as disruptive or inappropriate. From a neurodiversity-affirming perspective, ABA is understood as a method designed primarily to change outward behaviour rather than to understand the underlying experience of the autistic person. Critics note that historically many ABA programs focused on encouraging autistic children to appear more “typical,” sometimes by discouraging natural forms of communication, movement, or self-regulation such as stimming. Many autistic self-advocates argue that support should prioritise communication, autonomy, sensory needs, and safety, rather than compliance or behavioural normalisation. Increasingly, educators and clinicians are re-examining behaviour-focused approaches and moving toward supports that focus on removing barriers in the environment and helping neurodivergent people thrive as themselves. Learn more
• ARFID: Learn more