Manitoba Student Services Administrator and Resource Teacher: Who Does What

You've been told to "talk to the school" when things aren't working. But Manitoba schools have multiple layers of staff with distinct roles and distinct authority — and approaching the wrong person wastes time and gives the school an easy way to deflect your concerns. Knowing who holds what authority, and in what order to engage them, is one of the most practical tools available to parents navigating special education.

The In-School Team: Your First Point of Contact

The people you interact with daily are the in-school team. For students with identified learning needs, this team typically includes:

The classroom teacher — delivers day-to-day instruction and implements adaptations that don't require additional resources. If your child's accommodation needs can be met through modified instruction, extended time, or adjusted materials, the classroom teacher should be doing this already as part of standard practice. When they're not, that's the first conversation.

The resource teacher (also called learning support teacher) — coordinates specialized support within the school. Resource teachers typically manage the SSP development process alongside the principal, deliver direct intervention to students (reading support, math intervention, social skills groups), and liaise between the classroom teacher and outside clinicians. When a classroom teacher identifies that a student needs more than standard differentiated instruction can provide, the resource teacher is the next step.

In some divisions, these titles are used interchangeably. What matters is the function: the person assigned to coordinate your child's in-school support and be the point of contact for day-to-day SSP implementation.

The case manager — mandated by the AEP Regulation. Every student with an active SSP must be assigned a designated case manager by the principal. The case manager is responsible for coordinating the collaborative team's work and monitoring whether the SSP is actually being implemented. This role is often filled by the resource teacher, but not always. If you don't know who your child's case manager is, ask — in writing.

The Principal's Role in Special Education

The principal holds legal obligations under Appropriate Educational Programming Regulation 155/2005 that go beyond general school administration:

• They must ensure that a student is assessed "as soon as reasonably practicable" when that student is struggling to meet expected learning outcomes
• They must assign a case manager to every student with an SSP
• They must ensure that private assessment recommendations are reviewed and integrated into the SSP (if the assessor is registered with the Manitoba Psychological Society)
• If a student transfers in from another division, the principal must ensure appropriate programming is in place within 14 days

When in-school team discussions aren't producing results, the principal is the next formal escalation point. Requests to the principal should be in writing — email is fine — and should reference the specific regulation being invoked where possible. Verbal conversations leave no trail.

The Student Services Administrator: The Lever Parents Most Often Miss

Above the school level sits the Student Services Administrator (SSA), a divisional role that most parents don't engage until they're frustrated enough to start escalating. This is a mistake. The SSA is one of the most important people in your advocacy, and understanding their authority can shorten the path to results significantly.

The SSA holds divisional-level authority that the principal doesn't have. Specifically:

Resource allocation — the SSA can authorize the deployment of divisional resources that a principal cannot access independently. EA hours, clinical staff time, and specialized programming placements are often at the SSA's discretion. When a principal says "we don't have the resources," that's often a school-level constraint that the SSA could address if they chose to.

Out-of-catchment placements — if your child's needs cannot be met at their home school, the SSA has authority to authorize placement in a different school within the division with more appropriate supports in place.

Formal applications — the SSA is typically responsible for submitting Level 3 EBD or URIS Group A funding applications to the provincial Funding Review Team. If you believe your child qualifies for one of these exceptions to the block-grant model, your request to initiate the application goes to the SSA.

When you escalate past the principal, you go to the SSA. Do it in writing. Summarize the issue, what has been tried, what the principal's response was, and what specific resolution you are requesting. This creates a formal record at the divisional level.

The Superintendent and Board of Trustees

If the SSA doesn't resolve the issue, the next escalation is to the Superintendent, and then to the elected Board of Trustees.

The Board of Trustees represents the final step in the informal, local dispute resolution process. Parents have the right to formally appeal the Superintendent's decision to the Board, and may bring a support person or professional advocate to the hearing. The Board is legally required to review the appeal and provide its decision in writing.

From the Board's written decision, you have exactly 30 days to file a formal complaint with Manitoba Education's Review Coordinator, if you wish to pursue the provincial formal dispute resolution process.

Using the Hierarchy Strategically

The escalation pathway exists for a reason: each level has authority the previous one doesn't. The practical implication is that reaching the SSA faster — with documented evidence that the school-level response has been inadequate — gives you access to divisional resources and authority much earlier than most parents realize.

Most disputes that end in formal complaints could have been resolved at the SSA level if parents had engaged that person directly, in writing, with documented evidence of what the school has and hasn't done. The school-level team often has genuine resource constraints. The SSA often has discretion to address those constraints. The gap between those two facts is where many parents get stuck.

Document everything. Know who has what authority. Engage each level in writing before moving to the next. And when you reach the formal provincial level — the Review Coordinator or the Manitoba Human Rights Commission — you'll have the paper trail that makes formal complaints functional rather than theoretical.

The Manitoba Special Ed Advocacy Playbook maps this full escalation sequence — from the in-school team through the Board of Trustees and beyond — with templates for written requests at each level. Knowing who to talk to and in what order is what separates a months-long runaround from a resolved dispute.

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