Bill 96 and Special Education: What Anglophone Parents in Quebec Need to Know

Bill 96 — Quebec's 2022 amendments to the Charter of the French Language — reshaped language policy across the province. For Anglophone families navigating the special education system, particularly those in French-sector schools or families with children who have language processing disorders, the implications are real and largely unaddressed in official guidance.

This is what Anglophone and allophone parents in Quebec need to know about Bill 96 and how it intersects with their child's rights in the special education system.

What Bill 96 Changed for Parents in Schools

Under Bill 96's amendments, public school personnel in the French sector can now face disciplinary measures for communicating in a language other than French with parents who have resided in Quebec for more than six months.

What this means in practice: if your child is in a French-sector school and your French is limited, you may be denied an interpreter during:

• Plan d'intervention meetings
• Psychoeducational evaluation review sessions
• Disciplinary hearings
• Any formal school communication

The research on this is documented. A 2022 analysis from the Institut universitaire SHERPA on Bill 96's impact specifically noted that language barriers, previously mitigated by informal interpreter accommodations, are now formalized and in some cases legally constrained. Parents with limited French fluency are being left out of conversations about their own children's educational needs.

English-Speaking Children in French Schools

Some Anglophone families place their children in French schools for various reasons — geographic, social, or because their child was born after the eligibility cutoff for English schooling. For children in French schools who have language processing disorders, autism, or severe dyslexia, Bill 96 creates compounded challenges.

Specifically: children for whom English is the dominant language of communication at home may be misassessed in French-only evaluation settings. The natural friction of second-language learning can be — and has been — misidentified as a cognitive learning disability. Conversely, genuine learning disabilities may be attributed to "language acquisition difficulty" rather than receiving appropriate clinical investigation.

If your child is undergoing a psychoeducational evaluation in a French school and English is their dominant language, you have the right to request that:

• Evaluation instruments be adapted to account for second-language factors
• The evaluator's report explicitly address the bilingual context
• The interpretation of scores accounts for language background

Document this request in writing before the evaluation proceeds.

CEGEP Access for English-Speaking Students with Disabilities

This is the longest-term concern that Bill 96 creates for families of students with disabilities.

Under new requirements, students graduating from English-language secondary schools must complete core CEGEP program courses in French to graduate with a DEC (Diplôme d'études collégiales). For English-speaking students with language processing disorders — severe dyslexia, autism, or ADHD that makes second-language acquisition significantly harder — these requirements create potentially insurmountable barriers.

The concern is not academic: a student with dyslexia who reads at grade level in English, with the right accommodations, may genuinely struggle to meet French-language academic writing requirements even with extended time. The same tools that scaffold English-language learning (Lexibar for French orthography, for instance) are available — but the cognitive burden of demonstrating knowledge in a second language while managing a learning disability is substantially higher.

What to do now, while your child is in secondary school:

1. Ensure the PI explicitly addresses bilingual context and documents the student's language profile in both French and English
2. Research the specific French-language proficiency requirements at the CEGEP programs your child is interested in attending
3. Consult CEGEP services adaptés early — before the child applies — to understand what accommodations are available for language-related requirements
4. Talk to the Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) and the English Parents' Committee Association of Quebec (EPCAQ) about current advocacy for exemptions or modifications for students with diagnosed language disabilities

Bill 96 Exemptions for Special Needs: What Currently Exists

As of 2026, formal Bill 96 exemptions for special education contexts remain limited and inconsistently applied. There is no blanket exemption that automatically permits English-language communication during PI meetings for Anglophone parents in the French sector.

However, several avenues exist:

• Private discussions with individual principals about accommodation within the law
• Requests for written communication in English alongside French (some schools will comply informally)
• Use of a formal advocate from organizations like EPCAQ who can represent the family at PI meetings

The absence of a codified exemption for special needs assessment contexts is the subject of ongoing advocacy by Quebec's English-language school boards and parent associations.

Navigating Both Systems: English School Boards and the French MEQ Framework

English-language school boards in Quebec — the EMSB and the Lester B. Pearson School Board — operate within Quebec's broader MEQ framework while maintaining their own administrative structures. Historically, English-language schools in Quebec have achieved significantly higher inclusion rates (90.1% of EHDAA students in regular classrooms, versus 76.5% in the French sector).

However, English boards have faced severe budget cuts that have disproportionately stripped front-line special education support. The EMSB has joined legal challenges to Quebec budget cuts specifically to protect EHDAA students. The Lester B. Pearson School Board faces similar resource constraints.

If your child is in an English-sector school, the PI process follows the same LIP framework but English is the operative language of all meetings and documents. The Bill 96 constraints on French-sector personnel communications apply primarily when Anglophone parents are in the French sector.

The Quebec Plan d'Intervention & Accommodations Blueprint covers both the French-sector and English-board contexts, with specific guidance on language rights in PI meetings and the current state of Bill 96 impacts on CEGEP access for students with disabilities.

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