How to Get an Educational Assistant in New Brunswick Schools

Parents across New Brunswick are having the same conversation with their child's school. The teacher agrees support is needed. The ESS team acknowledges the challenges. Then someone says the words: there's no EA available.

This is not a rare edge case. It is the structural reality of New Brunswick's inclusive education model in 2026. The province mandates inclusion for all students, and EAs are the operational backbone of that inclusion — but EA funding is allocated based on the previous year's district data, not current student needs. New students, newly diagnosed students, and students whose needs have escalated mid-year routinely find themselves in a queue with no clear end date.

Knowing how to formally request an EA, what documentation strengthens your case, and what your rights are when the school pushes back is not optional advocacy knowledge. It's survival information.

How EA Allocation Works in New Brunswick

Educational Assistants in New Brunswick are funded and allocated at the district level. The superintendent's office determines how many EAs a school receives, and the school's administration distributes those hours among students with PLPs.

The critical flaw: provincial EA funding is calculated based on the previous academic year's allocation data, not the current year's actual student needs. This creates a structural gap. A student who enters the system in October, or whose needs escalate in November, may have no dedicated EA budget available until the following September — because no one planned for that student when the budget was set.

This problem was explicitly named in the EECD's 2021 Moving Forward review of Policy 322 as a major implementation barrier. It remains unresolved.

EAs are not attached to a child's PLP by right. They are a resource that the school's Education Support Services (ESS) team recommends, and the district allocates. The PLP might indicate that EA support is required, but the school's ability to deliver that support depends on the district's available staffing pool.

Step 1: Get the Request in Writing

Verbal conversations don't create records. Email does.

Send a written request to the school principal and copy the Education Support Teacher–Resource (EST-Resource). State clearly that you are requesting Educational Assistant support for your child, explain the specific functional areas where support is needed (behavioral regulation, personal care, academic task completion, transitions — be concrete), and ask the ESS team to assess the request and respond in writing.

The date this email is sent becomes part of your child's administrative record. If the district later claims they weren't aware of the need, you have proof of when you raised it.

Keep all responses. If the school responds verbally at a meeting, follow up by email: "This confirms our conversation on [date] in which you indicated..."

Step 2: Request a Formal PLP Review Meeting

If your child doesn't have a PLP, the first step to securing EA support is getting a PLP developed. Submit a written request for an ESS team assessment. The team — which should include the principal, classroom teacher, EST-Resource, and relevant specialists — will evaluate whether a PLP is required under Section 12 of the New Brunswick Education Act.

If your child already has a PLP that doesn't include adequate EA support, request a formal review meeting. The PLP is a living document — you don't have to wait for the annual review cycle to request changes when circumstances warrant it.

At the meeting, be specific about what EA hours look like. Ask the ESS team to document on the PLP what EA support is being provided, when, and for what purpose. A PLP that says "EA support as needed" is not an enforceable commitment. A PLP that says "EA support for 2 hours daily during Math and Literacy block" is a documented obligation.

Step 3: Get a Private Assessment If the Public Queue Is Too Long

The Anglophone school system has approximately six school psychologists for 70,000 students — against a government-estimated need of 40. Wait times for public psychoeducational assessments routinely run 18 to 24 months. Without an assessment documenting your child's specific cognitive, behavioral, or medical needs, the ESS team has limited clinical grounds to advocate for EA hours at the district level.

A private psychoeducational assessment in New Brunswick costs approximately $2,700–$3,200 (based on the College of Psychologists of New Brunswick's recommended fee of approximately $225/hour for 12–15 hours of clinical time). It's an expensive upfront cost, but it creates a formal diagnostic baseline that the school is legally required to discuss and consider in PLP planning.

Once you have a private report, submit it to the school in writing. Under ASD-W Policy 350-6, the school is required to fully analyze and incorporate private assessment findings before making program or placement decisions. Present this report at the ESS meeting and ask the team explicitly: "Given these findings, what specific EA support does the team recommend?"

Step 4: Understand What the School Must Do (and Can't Do)

There are a few things the school cannot do legally:

They cannot refuse to discuss EA support because of budget constraints without exploring alternatives. The duty to accommodate under the New Brunswick Human Rights Act requires the school to make genuine, documented efforts to provide supports before claiming "undue hardship." "We don't have budget" is not the same as "we've exhausted all reasonable options."

They cannot reallocate your child's EA indefinitely without a PLP review. If your child has documented EA hours in their PLP and those hours are being consistently pulled to manage another student's crisis, that is a PLP compliance failure. Request a formal review and document each instance the support isn't provided.

They cannot use a partial day schedule as a long-term substitute for EA support. Policy 323 limits partial day arrangements to a maximum of 90 days as a last resort, not as a budget workaround. The provincial Child, Youth and Senior Advocate has publicly stated that using partial days to manage students whose needs the school cannot meet is an illegal exclusion under Policy 322 and the Education Act.

What to Do When the District Says There Are No EAs Available

This is the conversation most NB parents eventually have. Here's how to respond strategically.

Request documentation in writing. Ask the district to provide a written explanation of why EA support cannot be provided, what criteria were used to make that determination, and what the timeline is for reassessment. A written denial creates a paper trail that supports an appeal.

File a formal complaint with the superintendent. If the ESS team's recommendation for EA support is not being resourced, escalate to the district superintendent. Under Section 11 and 12 of the Education Act, you have the right to appeal placement and program decisions. EA hours documented in a PLP are part of the educational program — denying documented support is an appealable decision.

Contact the Office of the Child, Youth and Senior Advocate. The Advocate's office accepts complaints from families who believe a child is being denied access to public education services. EA shortage resulting in a child being unable to attend school effectively is directly within their mandate. Their investigations have led to public reports that apply meaningful pressure on the EECD and district administrations.

Consider a Human Rights complaint. If you believe the school is failing to accommodate your child's disability to the point of causing material harm, a complaint to the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission is an option. The Commission evaluates whether the school has genuinely met the duty to accommodate — not just whether it has made budget arguments.

The Shortage Is Real, But It Doesn't End the Conversation

The EA shortage in New Brunswick is documented, systemic, and not going away quickly. The province grew from 10 PBIS Incubator Schools in 2021 to 92 by the 2025-2026 school year, which helps with classroom management broadly but does not create EA positions.

Acknowledging the shortage matters because it changes how you advocate. The goal isn't to blame individual principals or teachers — the systemic failure is above their pay grade. The goal is to create documented evidence that your child's specific needs were identified, that the school failed to meet them, and that you pursued every formal channel available to you. That documentation protects your right to escalate, and it protects your child's placement and rights if the situation becomes a formal dispute.

The New Brunswick IEP & Support Plan Blueprint includes template communications for requesting EA support, documenting incidents of unreceived support, and escalating to the district superintendent — written specifically for the NB PLP framework and the Education Act, not generic IEP templates that won't reference the right policies.

One More Thing to Know About EA Assignments

EAs in New Brunswick are assigned to support students, but they are technically employed by the school district — not assigned exclusively to one child. Schools have legal discretion to reassign an EA to manage an acute crisis in another classroom. If this becomes a pattern, it needs to go on record. Document every day your child's scheduled EA support is not provided, and when you have a pattern, bring it to the ESS meeting with the documentation.

An EA who is pulled routinely is not meaningfully providing the support documented in the PLP. That's a PLP implementation failure, and you have the right to address it through the formal process.

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