advocacy

Connecting with each other, with education partners and the ability to gain a deeper understanding of topics within public education are key to engaging parents, PACs and DPACs. Thank you for making our 2017 DPAC Summit another resounding success! We appreciate you taking time away from your family, to join us last weekend. Please share the presentations from the 2017 DPAC summit with your PACs and parents.

Our annual Conference is a great opportunity for parents across the province to gather, connect, discuss and network. Thanks to all who attended for making our 2018 event a resounding success! We appreciate you taking time away from your family, to join us. Please feel free to share these breakout presentations from the Conference with your PACs and parents.

Funding Model Review

Early Learning

Gaming Grants

Student Success

Graduation Program

Rick Hansen School Program

Our annual parent education Conference is a great opportunity for parents across the province to gather, connect, discuss and network. Thanks to all who attended for making our 2019 event a resounding success! We appreciate you taking time away from your family, to join us. Please feel free to share these breakout presentations from the Conference with your PACs and parents.

Dr Shimi Kang Keynote Address - Raising Happy Healthy Kids

Social Emotional Skills thru Childhood

Funding Model Review Update from Ministry

Ministry Presentation re Learning Supports

My Education BC Portal

We also have three sessions recordedon YouTube that you can view/share: 

PAC A to Z (Presentation slides)

Advocacy in Action (Presentation slides)

Treasurer & Gaming Bootcamp (Presentation slides)

PACs and DPACs are reminded to apply online for Gaming Grants between April 1 - June 30, 2021 to receive Gaming Grant funding in Fall 2021 for the new school year. PACs and DPACs must apply annually to receive funding each year.

Similarly DPACs and PACs must report on the spending within 90 days of their own fiscal year end. All reports and applications are done online. See all details on the CGG website.

Community Gaming Grants revised and updated the 2021 PAC & DPAC Guidelines & Conditions. One of the biggest changes is that PACs can now use their Gaming funds to pay for their BCCPAC membership. DPACs are reminded that they can only use their Gaming funds to pay for their own individual DPAC membership with BCCPAC.

We partnered with Gaming branch staff to host a live 90 minute session to share the information including a Q&A session. IF you missed the session Thursday April 8 don't worry - its posted below on this page so you can listen to it all. It ran over 30 minutes as there were so many questions to be asked and answered! The presentation covers a program overview, revisions to the DPAC/PAC Guidelines and the Capital Project grant, advice and examples of eligible uses of PAC funding and commonly asked questions. 

Need Help? We strongly encourage you and your whole PAC/DPAC Executive team review these resources, especially the CGG presentation from April 8. It's hugely helpful.

BCCPAC Presentation Deck from April 8

Gaming Branch Presentation Deck from April 8

Recorded Presentation with Live Q&A from April 8 (runs 2hrs)(Q&A begins at 1:13 mark)

Q&A Document from Presentation

Read the Gaming Grants FAQ

Review the Gaming Grants Tutorials

FYI re Gaming Licenses (raffles etc)

All revenues from any gaming license must go into your gaming account. Section 3 on the Gaming Account Summary Report is where this would be reported. Licensing is entirely separate from Community Gaming Grants, however.

Member Feedback on Uses of CGG funding 2020-21

During December 2020, BCCPAC reached out to members for feedback about how they were spending their Gaming funds in the current pandemic influenced environment. The key themes of the member feedback is noted below and was shared by BCCPAC with CGG as a data point for development of the revised 2021 Guidelines. 

We are sharing the themes here as it may be beneficial to members to see what others are doing - lots of creative ideas!

• Allow PACS to use gaming to cover costs of BCCPAC membership, parent education, childcare for meetings, costs of running a PAC -photocopying etc.
• Our school cohorts are color coded with designated areas for play during lunch and recess. We have just purchased color coded outdoor equipment for each cohort. There won’t be any confusion on who’s is who’s. They will have more choices for play since not everyone is on the playground at the same time.
• Perhaps not quite in line with the purpose of the input, but apparently there is an appetite at both the MoE and Gaming (it would require the participation of both) to add/amend language that would offer brand new PACs an opportunity to not have to suffer the 1 year 'penalty' of waiting to apply for gaming funds. PACs are established by school Boards (they must be upon application under the School Act) and whereas other groups may have to establish some sense of history and/or longevity or the ability to maintain, PACs are by nature and legislation, 'permanent' and already 'established'. Gaming and the MoE would have to work together to make those revisions happen. I had started this conversation with them both some months ago, and then like many other things fell by the wayside.
• So far we have purchased grade 6 hoodies for their grad year, school wide gingerbread houses and supplies for a competition and a school treat at Xmas.
• We are having a mural painted in recognition of last years grade 7 class to beautify one of our school walls.
• We are looking at possible virtual STEAM learning activities or even some school yard enhancements...nothing yet.
• We are purchasing a gaga ball pit as our intermediate students(4/5) are only allowed on the field and where the basket ball hoops are so they have nothing to do.
• We are purchasing a GagaBall pit at one school and a walking track at the other. Trying to spruce up outdoor spaces that will help during and after the pandemic.
• We are purchasing concrete tables for outside at the middle school. Enough for a whole class.
• We are purchasing inclusive playground equipment to upgrade one of our playgrounds so it is inclusive to children with various disabilities. We decided on this before the pandemic and will use next years funds to complete.
• We are using funds to enhance our outdoor space use (concrete tables, recess play equipment).
• We are using some for a local Indigenous artist to come to the school and work with the children for artwork that will greet all visitors to the school.
• We brought small pumpkins to the children (no field trips to the patch). Big hit, so now we are getting small lemon cypress trees. We also used grant fund for bringing a speaker (on zoom) for workshop for the children and our librarian is looking into author visit (online). Will also use the fund for adding graphic novels/comics. magazines orders (among other books) to the library as these are popular among students and pricey.
• We have not utilized our gaming funds beyond bursaries and agendas this year however this thread has been extremely helpful and will be referenced at our meeting this week. Thank you
• We ordered all students and staff a school t-shirt.
• We purchased some new sports jerseys at the end of last school season but won’t be seeing them used for a while yet. Put some money towards a bin of sports equipment for each class to use during recess. We usually use it for transportation for field trips but that is not required this year. We do find the rules for spending the money restrictive
• We updated our first aid/emergency supplies
• We usually budget most of our gaming funds for busses on field trips. This year we moved some of the things we normally pay out of general funds to gaming; presentations (virtual this year) being the main one.
• Amounts are allocated for club supplies and equipment, tournaments and competitions, athletic equipment, workshops, awards, prizes, scholarships, food. We're still fundraising (via Purdys) mainly for our annual staff appreciation lunch.  At last count, we have 140 staff and with COVID restrictions, our previous home-cooked meals (ie last year's Butter Chicken lunch cooked by a few PAC Execs) most likely will be replaced by individual meals which will cost a lot more. Currently we're saving on the coffee/tea & treats offered at each meeting and the occasional desserts/appetizers mini buffet offered at special events (first/last meetings and the occasional holiday themed meetings).
• And I am a bit concerned now about the budgeting decision we made at the outset, which was largely mirrored on past years' practices.  We have planned to spend $2,500 on an all-school field trip (or else in-school cohort fun days, if the typical end of year off-site fun day isn't possible).  We have planned a further $2,000 for classroom / cohort field trips, and $500 for some kind of grade 5 grad celebration.  So far, for the classroom / cohort field trips envelope, one of the presentations where the nature society was going to come to the school was cancelled and no more are being scheduled right now.  We have a fairly unique and specific challenge at our school in that it has a very tiny footprint of land that actually belongs to the school district.  Our playground is on school property.  We badly need a new bike lock up, and a scooter lock up, but there's virtually nowhere to make permanent or semi-permanent installations like that on our own property.  Trying to work with the city to get amenities for the school community / community centre is fairly painful and slow, and it seems we can't pay for things that would be on city property.  Our swings were taken down three months ago due to a safety concern with the supporting structure and still haven't been fixed.  So some of the things a PAC might be able to just do using gaming grant money or our own fundraising amounts seem to be a bit more limited at our school.
• "In terms of this school year, we have voted on spending our gaming money on the following projects / activities: In terms of this school year, we have voted on spending our gaming money on the following projects / activities:
  • Athletics (registrations & equipment, etc)
  • Seaquaria Aquarium (kept in our science department & enjoyed by all students who (for some) stop by daily to check out the tank)
  • Earthquake supplies (food & water replenishment as it will expire at the end of this school year)
  • Performing Arts department awards & engraving of annual as well as new awards
  • Forgotten Lunch program (lunches & snacks provided to students who didn't bring anything for the day)
  • Breakfast Club program (breakfast supplied to students 2 days a week, delivered in a covid-friendly manner)
  • Student Book Club
  • Poetry / writing workshops
  • Waterloo Math Contests"
• This year has been challenging as to how we are able to spend it. We often spend gaming on educational presentations for students, Field trips for students, teachers clubs etc. Due to COVID these are not possible. We are looking at options for virtual presentations. Each year we put aside funds for playground improvements or purchases and hope to do the same this year. In January we hope to start a virtual coding club where we can help purchase whatever technology is required. Grade 7’s have faced the same challenges we’ve had raising funds so if needed we hope to assist them in their goal to make this graduating year a great one We also have a school name change and logo and will require new sports jerseys and if allowable will help the school pay for those. We also plan to help beautify the school with educational and inspirational sayings. We also use funds for our helping hands program for those kids that come to school with no meals or snacks. We’ll be sure that whatever we decide for this crazy year falls within the gaming grant eligible items.
• This is what we have decided to spend our funding on (student clubs, student athletic teams and supplies, guest speakers, outdoor education).  Every year we host a gaming presentation evening where staff can present requests for funding, this year we had them present via email and we followed up with questions to the staff as well as asked for clarification form gaming to make sure that the expense we weren't positive on were in fact eligible.

Ministry of Education

Aboriginal Education Enhancements Branch

2003

Aboriginal Education within British Columbia has undergone policy, legislative, and conceptual changes over the last several decades. Aboriginal communities are exercising increasing influence over the formal education of their children.1 Aboriginal Education Enhancement Agreements, also referred to as Enhancement Agreements (EAs), provide a framework to ensure that the needs of Aboriginal communities are reflected within schools. The EA process involves communication and the building of collaborative relationships. This process improves shared decision-making practices, and benefits all Aboriginal children by providing highly relevant education, focussed on their needs.   This resource guide is intended for use by school districts and Aboriginal communities that are interested in establishing a formal agreement to improve educational experiences for Aboriginal students attending public schools. The guide includes a framework for successful collaboration and outlines steps and best practices for implementation of EAs in British Columbia school districts.

BC Gaming PAC & DPAC Grants

Parent Advisory Council and District Parent Advisory Council (PAC and DPAC) grants are intended to benefit K-12 students in BC through the enhancement of extracurricular opportunities and community involvement. An overview of the programs is noted below. See Town Hall Parent Presentation (hyperlink - Pls put Town Hall PDF Preso as item to live on our site).   Full details of the Gaming Grants, how to apply and other online resources can be found here: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/sports-culture/gambling-fundraising/gaming-grants/pac-dpac-grants

Parent Advisory Councils and District Parent Advisory Councils (PACs and DPACs). Details provided in Sections 3.4, 7.1 and 7.5-7.10 of the Community Gaming Grant - Guidelines (https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/sports-recreation-arts-and-culture/gambling/grants/guide-cgg.pdf)

Overview

This document is a conceptual framework. Its purpose is to:

• assist the school system in  meeting its obligations under the Constitution Act, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the  BC Human Rights Code, the  Multiculturalism Act, the  Official Languages Act, the  Employment Equity Act, and the  School Act; and
• assist the  school system in  its ongoing efforts to create and maintain learning and working environments that are responsive to the  diverse social  and cultural needs of the  communities it serves.

This framework document describes key concepts, references guiding legislation and includes important implications for policies, strategies and initiatives in the school system related to:

• honouring diversity and promoting human rights
• preventing discrimination, harassment and violence
• responding to incidents of discrimination, harassment or violence when they occur

It is designed to assist in:

• reviewing existing policies and practices to ensure they are consistent with legislation
• enhancing existing policies and practices to ensure that they address diversity
• developing or implementing new  policies and practices to directly address the  diverse needs of the  people served by the  school system

​Recommendations from the Ministry of Education's funding model review Working Groups were released in October 2019.
Read the reports:

Financial Management
Adult and Continuing Education
Inclusive Education
Online Learning

Gaming Grants has developed a new 2019 presentation for PACs and DPACs. The presentation covers all of the basics, a few complex questions, and features an expanded list of eligible/ineligible disbursements (with better examples).

The presentation is 25 slides and should take 30 minutes to deliver. PACs and DPACs are reminded to apply online for Gaming Grants between April 1 - June 30, 2019 to receive funds in Fall 2019.

Many parents are not sure what to expect at an Individual Education Plan (IEP) meeting. When they meet school staff on behalf of their child, they may feel vulnerable or even frightened. Often, they don’t know what to do and are not clear about their role in the process. In this guide, our focus is to help you understand how an IEP meeting works and how you and your child, working together with the school, can get the most out of this process for the benefit of your child. You know more about your child than anyone else. The school needs this information to tailor its teaching to your child’s way of learning. A good IEP brings together your knowledge about your child with the school’s knowledge about teaching. The IEP meeting will produce a plan of what the school will do to teach your child and help her succeed.

BCCPAC is pleased to provide this valuable resource in several languages. Every effort has been made to ensure these translations are correct. If you find an error, please let us know by contacting the office.

Individual Education Plan Guide - English 2014

Individual Education Plan Guide - Arabic 2014

Individual Education Plan Guide - Chinese 2014

Individual Education Plan Guide - Korean 2014

Individual Education Plan Guide - Punjabi 2014

Individual Education Plan Guide - Russian 2014

Individual Education Plan Guide - Spanish 2014

Ministry of Education page on Special Needs with Resources, Policy and Cross Governement Initiatives.

​In June 2021, Ministry of Education staff met with Distributed Learning educators and also met with BCCPAC President Sinclair and CEO John Gaiptman to explain the proposed plan and to engage us as part of the consultation process which is just now beginning. During that discussion, it was agreed that BCCPAC would assist the Ministry with parent focus groups in the fall of 2021 to ensure they were hearing directly from families. 

Read the Parent Information Sheet. Please review the Timeline

​For more information about the overall timeline, the consultation process, proposed changes and what to expect, please visit the Ministry’s information page on The New Model for Online (Distributed) Learning. 

Parents/guardians/caregivers are encouraged to review the materials and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

​There is a three year implementation timeline and work has only just begun as work was delayed due to the pandemic. The initial steps were completed during the Funding Model Review in 2018; online learning had its own group and BCCPAC participated in those discussions as all the education partners did. 

The OLWG published a series of recommendations around how to best modernize the delivery of online programs in BC while addressing critical gaps and facilitating better program choices and learning outcomes for students. The recommendations included a new model for Online Learning (previously referred to as DL) including a provincially supported infrastructure consisting of:

• Single Online Learning Policy
• New Online Learning Management Service
• Selected Provincial Service Providers
• New Quality Assurance Framework
• Shared resources for educators

Read that Online Learning Report.

Over the last year, the Ministry, in consultation with public and independent administrators and educators, has begun drafting the criteria, guidelines and procedures for each of the five workstreams to best enhance the equity, quality and availability of Online Learning for students. Subsequently, during the pandemic, safety measures accelerated students’ and teachers’ engagement with online learning and blended learning programs, increasing the need for implementation of the OLWG’s vision.

The proposed changes are all about improving equity and access for all students and families to programs that:
- are of high quality,
- provide flexibility for families and their students,
- ensure that wherever a child lives in the province, they have access to a program that meets their unique needs.

Families of children with unique learning needs will continue to have supports whatever type of schooling they select.

​In support of the new Online Learning legislation which came into effect July 1, the Ministry has contacted Boards of Education who currently have a DL agreement in order to sign an Interim Online Learning Agreement. Interim Online Learning Policies have also been posted. Parents can review these interim online learning policies which school districts must adhere to.
BCCPAC is supportive of the review of the DL/OL programs across all 60 school districts as they aren’t all the same as regards quality, flexibility, equity and access.

Read about Standards for K-12 Online Learning and Standards for Online Learning Content

​For more information about the overall timeline, the consultation process, proposed changes and what to expect, please visit the Ministry’s information page on The New Model for Online Learning. 

Parents/guardians/caregivers are encouraged to review the materials and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

Read the Parent Information Sheet. 

What is BCCPAC? WhatisBCCPAC2017 A presentation to summarize BCCPAC's purpose and goals and priorities for 2016-17, including 10 reasons why your PAC and DPAC should become a member. Being a member of BCCPAC helps strengthen the parent voice across the province.