Auburn Drive High School Principal Karen Hudson has changed the way that students at her school are placed on individual program plans (IPPs) to remove barriers for Indigenous and Black students at the school. IPPs are intended to be only used as a “last resort” and can reportedly limit a student’s higher education opportunities and carry stigma. Black and Indigenous students are disproportionately put on IPPs, with many students placed on IPPs when other options are more appropriate. While all administrators in Hudson’s school board have been encouraged to “disrupt” the IPP process, Hudson has built on this by taking more factors into consideration and consulting with family before placing a student on an IPP. The high school now reportedly has one of the lowest numbers of students on IPPs of all high schools in the Halifax Regional Centre for Education. “We have to understand what we did wrong and correct that wrong,” explained Hudson, who encourages administrators to get to know the individuals in their school to change inequities within the education system.
