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

• assessment delayed: Assessment delayed is used on k12complaints.ca to organise content about children’s rights, school experiences, and the systems families navigate when educational access is disrupted. Depending on the context, this tag may relate to disability, inclusion, complaint processes, school culture, emotional harm, or broader questions of fairness and accountability in BC’s K–12 system. Posts filed under this tag may explore lived experience, practical advocacy advice, policy interpretation, or legal pathways available when schools do not meet their obligations. The purpose of the tag is to help readers find connected discussions and understand how a single issue can sit within a larger pattern of educational barriers. It is especially useful where family experience, institutional response, and structural conditions overlap in ways that are difficult to see in isolation. Learn more
• assessment denied: Assessment denied refers to situations where a request for an educational, psychological, or developmental assessment is declined by the professionals responsible for triaging referrals. This may happen when a child is judged not to meet the service’s eligibility criteria or when available information is considered insufficient to justify an assessment. Because access to publicly funded assessments is often limited, triage decisions can rely heavily on observable behaviours and reported concerns. Children who mask their difficulties, present inconsistently across environments, or do not fit common expectations of certain conditions may be less likely to receive referrals. Some research and advocacy groups have noted that this can disproportionately affect girls and other students whose challenges are less visible in structured settings. When assessments are denied, families may face significant barriers to accessing information, supports, or services, and may need to pursue additional documentation or alternative pathways to obtain an evaluation. Learn more
• asthma support: Asthma support refers to the planning, medication access, environmental precautions, and emergency response a student may need to attend school safely. Refusing or delaying asthma-related support can create an attendance barrier and may raise accommodation concerns. Learn more
• attachment: Attachment refers to the deep emotional bond that forms between a child and the adults who care for them. In psychology, attachment describes the way children learn who keeps them safe, who listens when they are distressed, and who helps them regulate difficult feelings. When a child experiences consistent care, protection, and responsiveness from adults, they develop a sense of secure attachment. This means the child trusts that when they are scared, overwhelmed, or hurt, the adults around them will notice and help. That sense of safety becomes the foundation for exploration, learning, and social development. Attachment is most often discussed in relation to parents and caregivers, but children also form attachment relationships with trusted adults in other environments, including teachers and school staff. At school, attachment shows up through everyday experiences: a teacher who listens, a staff member who helps when a child is struggling, or an adult who takes concerns seriously. When children feel securely attached to the adults around them, they are more likely to take risks in learning, ask for help, and recover from mistakes. When that sense of safety is missing — when a child feels misunderstood, dismissed, or repeatedly left without support — school can become a place of stress rather than growth. In this way, attachment is not only a family concept. It is also a key part of creating school environments where children feel safe enough to learn. Learn more
• attendance: Learn more
• attendance barriers: Learn more
• autism: Autism is a neurodevelopmental difference that affects how a person experiences communication, sensory input, social interaction, movement, and patterns of attention or interest. Autistic people are highly diverse, and no single presentation describes everyone. In schools, autistic students may need supports related to communication, sensory regulation, predictability, transitions, executive functioning, or social safety. Many barriers arise not from autism itself, but from environments that are rigid, overwhelming, or built around non-autistic norms. This tag is used for content about autistic students’ educational experiences, rights, and supports, including masking, dysregulation, accommodation, exclusion, bullying, and access to inclusive education. Learn more
• autism and gender diversity: Learn more
• autistic children: Autistic children are children whose communication, sensory processing, social interaction, regulation, and learning profiles differ from typical school expectations. School support must address environmental and instructional barriers rather than treating autism itself as a behaviour problem to suppress or mask. Learn more
• autistic girls: Autistic girls is used on k12complaints.ca for content about neurodivergence, disability, learning differences, and the ways schools respond to students whose needs do not fit narrow norms. In education, these issues are never only about diagnosis; they are also about communication, sensory environments, executive functioning, regulation, stigma, and the supports a student needs in order to access learning and belong. This tag may appear in posts about accommodation, exclusion, behavioural interpretation, masking, assessment, late identification, and the mismatch between a child’s needs and institutional expectations. Learn more
• autistic students: Learn more
• Avoidant restrictive food intake disorder: Learn more
• bait and switch: Bait and switch refers to situations where a school or district promises or agrees to a support, accommodation, or plan, but later substitutes something different or significantly reduced. Families may initially be told that certain resources, staffing, or accommodations will be available to help a student succeed, only to find that the actual support delivered is less than what was discussed. In education advocacy, this can occur when commitments made in meetings, plans, or informal conversations are later reframed, delayed, or replaced with alternatives that do not meet the same need. The result can be confusion and frustration for families who believed a solution had been agreed upon. When expectations change without clear explanation, it can also make it harder to track accountability or determine what was actually promised. Clear documentation and written confirmation of agreements can help reduce the risk of misunderstandings or shifting commitments. Also see goalpost shifting. Learn more
• bandwidth taxation: Bandwidth taxation describes a form of institutional burden that consumes the time, attention, and emotional energy of families navigating complex systems. Rather than denying services outright, institutions impose layers of administrative work—forms to complete, meetings to attend, emails to follow up on, and documentation to repeatedly provide. Each demand draws from the limited “bandwidth” families have to advocate for their children. For families of disabled or marginalised students, this tax can become constant. Parents must learn specialised language, track shifting policies, and repair gaps in communication or documentation that should be handled by the system itself. While these processes are often described as collaborative, the practical responsibility for keeping them functioning frequently falls on families. Over time, this administrative burden can discourage complaints, delay supports, and shift accountability away from institutions and onto those already carrying the heaviest load. Learn more
• bandwidth theft: Bandwidth taxation refers to the cumulative cognitive, emotional, logistical, and relational load placed on families—especially those of disabled or marginalised children—by systems that require constant advocacy, documentation, and procedural navigation to access basic rights or support. Families must fill out forms, chase assessments, coordinate therapies, attend meetings, respond to emails, and repeatedly explain their child’s needs to new staff or professionals. Beyond these tasks, bandwidth taxation reflects the deeper drain on attention, executive functioning, trust, and emotional capacity. Time and energy that could be spent on care, connection, or rest are redirected into managing bureaucracy. This burden operates as a form of structural gatekeeping: systems rarely deny support outright, but instead impose layers of complexity that only those with the time, knowledge, and stamina to persist can navigate. Learn more
• barriers: Barriers are conditions, practices, environments, or decisions that prevent a student from accessing education on an equal basis. They can be physical, sensory, instructional, procedural, social, behavioural, or created by delay and lack of implementation. Learn more
• barriers to education: Learn more
• bathroom access: Learn more
• BC education system: BC education system is used on k12complaints.ca to organise content about children’s rights, school experiences, and the systems families navigate when educational access is disrupted. This tag is used to gather content that specifically relates to our education system in BC, especially political or policy changes. Learn more
• BC Human Rights Clinic: The BC Human Rights Clinic is a nonprofit legal service that provides free help to people dealing with discrimination under the BC Human Rights Code. Depending on capacity and eligibility, it may offer information, summary advice, assistance with drafting complaints, and representation in some cases before the BC Human Rights Tribunal. For families considering action against a school or district, the clinic can be an important starting point because education discrimination cases often involve disability accommodation, exclusion, and questions about how to frame the facts legally. This tag is used for content about the clinic’s role, services, and limits, as well as practical guidance for families seeking legal help in BC. It may also include discussion of referrals, triage, and the realities of limited clinic capacity in complex education matters. Learn more