Kindergarten Classrooms Are in Crisis—and No One Is Talking About It

I work in a kindergarten classroom with 26 children, one teacher, one ECE, and myself—the only Educational Assistant. Two of those children have special needs that require constant, individualized support.

But there’s only one of me.

Every day, we face moments of chaos and crisis. Children are being hurt. Educators are being hit, bitten, scratched, and spat on. Staff are going on medical leave from stress and injury. ECEs are being pulled away from their role to fill gaps meant for a second EA. The classroom becomes unstable. Learning is disrupted. The environment becomes unsafe—for everyone.

We are not okay.

In the past, EAs were assigned one-on-one to students with high needs. Today, we are being stretched thin—expected to do the work of two or three people without backup.

This is not just my story. This is happening in schools across the province.

The system is failing our children and burning out our educators. I am calling on the media, the public, and the government to pay attention. We need:

One-to-one EA support for children with special needs

Safe classrooms for students and staff

Respect for the professional role of EAs and ECEs

A system that protects—not exploits—the people who care for our youngest learners


This is a crisis. And silence is no longer an option.

Never in my years working have I experienced a low staff morale (in the last 2 years )as at St. Anne’s. Staff are mentally and physically exhausted with little to no support from admin. There are far too many students in the school with no clear boundaries or consequences for misbehaviour. Which in turn puts staff in dangerous situations. Staff are beat up(one sent to hospital) because a dangerous situation was not made awareness to staff, slapped, hit, kicked, spit on, verbally abused…etc. Staff really do their best to provide each other with support when needed but there is a lot of segregation in the building, there’s no “team” playing. I truly think this is from admin not listening to the needs of staff. Things are not dealt with properly and in turn, people are hurt. It really feels like an unsafe place to work. Sad to say.

Our children have attended this school since 2019. There is an exceptional team of educators and support staff at this school. The ECEs and teachers that we have dealt with have been incredible, with special mention of Campbell, Chapman and Ranieri for being the gold standard. The office staff have changed over the years but current ladies are very responsive and friendly. Our family personally has not had any experience dealing with the EA/SERT team. The custodial team is friendly and attentive, the school always looks clean and safe. The school is bursting at the seams with students to the point where the staff room has become a teaching space and the staff are now to use the stage as their break room which often also is the site for things like dance practices leaving them with no dedicated break space away from students. Parking around the school is a massive headache. Unfortunately, the atmosphere in the school has been negatively impacted this year by the arrival of a new principal. The entire school community has been gravely affected by this. New protocols that seemingly exclude parents from the school community, it feels like we are barred from the school and they are hiding things. The principal is combative and doesn't seem supportive. Progressive discipline doesn't seem to be happening and it has been a very disruptive year behaviour wise in our child's class. Other changes the principal has made have really disappointed the students (ie. removing the birthday shoutouts from the morning announcements, not permitting students to play with balls on the pavement, closing the playgrounds to students from Thanksgiving until Victoria Day).

I’m an educational assistant. I work in a small class. I’m hit kicked and punched every day at my job. There have been days that I go home unable to take care of my own young children due to injuries

got so hot in the school during the summer i threw up (it was like 40 celsius in there) so like maybe teach you teachers to keep the windows closed..?

My son has been spit on twice by a student that is not in his class or grade. Both times no one from the school contacted me and I had to hear about it from my 11 year old. Unacceptable.