The government should conduct a review of its inclusive education policy, but it should also be prepared to allocate more funding to schools, says the president of the New Brunswick Teachers' Association.

"A policy review is going to identify gaps. We look forward to that. But we need to make sure that the policy is properly resourced," said Rick Cuming on Tuesday.

"If this government wants a world class inclusive education system and if that's indeed a priority, then the funding and the personnel to address this inclusion policy are going to be made available now and not later."

Earlier this week Education Minister Dominic Cardy called for a review of New Brunswick's inclusive education policy.

Cardy said the goals of the policy are worthwhile, but there's too much misunderstanding of how it should be applied at the classroom level.

"The teachers are concerned that they're going to violate the inclusion policy if they discipline a child for acting out," Cardy said.

Some students and teachers have to leave the classroom several times a day or multiple times a week because of a misbehaving student.

"We also have instances of violence against teachers [such as] biting, kicking, punching, spitting, teachers being urinated on."

Education Minister Dominic Cardy said the province's inclusive classroom policy isn't helping students with developmental disorders, and misunderstandings of how teachers should implement the policy is also hindering the ability of other students in the classroom to learn. (Maria Jose Burgos)

Cuming said the application of the policy varies across the province. In some districts, teachers are intervening to help calm a disruptive student.

"In other regions of our province, the teachers and the school teams are being told that no student should ever be removed from a classroom," he said.

"We need to see a uniformity of practice across all the regions."

March budget should include more funding

Cuming said the school system needs more resources and personnel, including teachers, educational assistants, psychologists and other mental health supports.

"We would say in a lot of the areas and a lot of the schools that there's lack of staffing to actually adequately meet the needs as teachers would like to have them met."

Most schools require at least one or two extra staff, Cuming said.

"Teachers are making inclusion work now," Cuming said, adding teachers are strained with filling in existing gaps in the system and need more assistance in the classroom to deal with disruptive behaviour.

"The more resources that we're putting in, the more effectively our school teams are going to be able to address those needs."

Although the review of the policy hasn't even begun, Cuming said he'd like to see more money allocated to providing those resources in the government's upcoming budget.

The budget will be presented in the legislature in March.

"I don't think the government needs to wait to resource this inclusion policy," he said.

"It has been long identified over decades… that the New Brunswick education system needs to be properly resourced and that's through multiple reviews."