‘Heartbreaking’: Sask. mom says daughter barred from school over diabetes accommodations

Many kids around Saskatchewan are eagerly awaiting the end of the school year and summer holidays, but Kinsley Simmons only wants to be back in the classroom.

The seven-year-old student joined her mother, Jennifer, at the legislative building in Regina last month. Jennifer said she’s been frustrated with the lack of care her daughter was able to receive at a southern Saskatchewan school for her newly diagnosed type-1 diabetes.

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Jennifer said she tried to put Kinsley back in school after her diagnosis, but there were incidents with the girl’s health and the school declined her offer to provide information and training. Kinsley was given an “exclusion,” Jennifer said, meaning she wasn’t being allowed back at school.

Jennifer said she recently got an email back from the school indicating that the exclusion could be permanent.

“Given the distrust which your clients evidently hold for the school division,” Jennifer quoted from the email, “which is clearly evidenced in this CJME article released on May 1 2026, the school division does not believe they can safely accommodate Kinsley in the school environment.”

Jennifer said she was shocked by the decision.

“It’s heartbreaking,” she said. “The whole situation has been heartbreaking.”

She said Kinsley loves school, and even when she was sick, she was the kind of kid who would push to still go to school.

Because of her young age, Jennifer said her daughter can’t do the calculations around meals, insulin and glucose that are required and, while she’s getting good at testing herself and paying attention to how she feels, she may need help checking her blood-glucose levels and administering insulin as required.

Kinsley Simmons and her mom, Jennifer Simmons, brought their concerns to lawmakers at the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly in April. (Lisa Schick/980 CJME)

With kids that young, Jennifer said a school will usually bring in a full-time educational assistant who will decide when to administer insulin. There had been three at the school who rotated through Kinsley’s care, Jennifer said, but said she was told this spring that they didn’t want to continue.

In her school, Kinsley was in French immersion, and Jennifer said she’s not quite up to grade level in English, which would make it more complicated to switch schools. But Jennifer also said she doesn’t think they should have to find a new school, a new community and new friends for Kinsley.

“For her to go through a diagnosis like this, you’re already changing so many things in your life, and to be able to have your friends – her friends when she fell, when she would have skinned her knee, when she would have been playing on the playground and you get knocked down – having your best friends there through something like this, it’s pretty important,” explained Jennifer.

Jennifer said she’s still hoping to be able to work out a solution with the school and the division, so she declined to name them publicly. Instead, she said she’s pushing for the provincial government to implement a standard of care that would apply to every division and school in the province.

“This, of course, is Kinsley’s story, but I don’t think that this story is much different from what other type-1 children are unfortunately experiencing in this province,” Jennifer said.

Right to an education

Diabetes Canada has developed a standard of care designed for provinces to use as a template.

Joan King, the organization’s director of government affairs and advocacy, said the standard includes developing an individual care plan for each student with diabetes, and “all staff being trained to recognize a potential low, or how to respond to a child’s blood glucose going low, or how to respond to blood glucose getting high.”

She said changes in blood glucose can have a big impact on a student.

“High glucose means that a child’s probably not going to be able to pay attention in class, is probably going to be maybe disruptive because they won’t feel well,” she explained. “They’ll have to go to the bathroom more often, and they just won’t be able to participate.”

She said most children with diabetes don’t need full-time supervision, and said an education assistant could still work with other children, so extra staffing might not be required.

Having the resources in place can be a concern for schools, but King said in those cases, the thinking needs to switch from what a school can provide to what the child requires.

Having a standard across the whole province is important, King added, because the current situation can be a patchwork. She said it can be different from division to division, and sometimes even between schools in a single division.

“It depends on who the staff is, and who the administrator is, the kind of reception you get – how much care and how much knowledge they have about diabetes, and what they’re willing to provide that particular student,” said King.

She said some parents have to really beg for appropriate care for their kids, and because there’s currently no standard, there’s nothing to guide or help divisions.

In Kinsley’s case, King said her not being allowed back at school because of her diabetes is a human rights issue. However, she said the process of filing a human rights complaint can take so long a child could be old enough to manage their condition by the time the case finds a conclusion.

King pointed there’s a requirement to accommodate a student’s medical needs and that it’s up to the government to remedy the problem.

From the government

Everett Hindley, Saskatchewan’s education minister, met with Jennifer and Kinsley during their visit to the legislative building. Jennifer said it was a good meeting, and she felt Hindley understood and heard her out, though she said she hasn’t heard back from him yet.

Hindley said he and his team have been looking into the current policies in Saskatchewan and what other provinces are doing.

“We’ll be consulting and talking to school divisions and see if there’s a way to try and chart a path forward on this,” said Hindley.

According to Diabetes Canada, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and B.C. have all implemented provincial standards that are aligned with the organization’s outlines.

Hindley said he recognizes there’s a bit of a patchwork across Saskatchewan’s school divisions, but said the question is how to provide the resources to students who need them when resources are often quite limited.

Saskatchewan Education Minister Everett Hindley. (980 CJME file photo)

He said the ministry currently has a policy statement for supporting students with potentially life-threatening medical conditions.

“School divisions need to create and follow clear procedures to help these students remain safe at school,” said Hindley.

The Student Bill of Rights in Saskatchewan includes the right to reasonable accommodation for disability.

The minister wouldn’t say how long the consultations might take, or when some sort of policy or regulation could be created or implemented, or what it might end up looking like, but said he wants to arrive at a solution sooner rather than later.

“I’m not going to put a timeline on it, or a deadline, or a set of dates on when we would have something different here in Saskatchewan, whether that would be this coming school year or not,” said Hindley.

In the meantime, Kinsley is learning at home with her mother. They’re working on getting her up to grade level in reading in English – she’s working on Dr. Seuss right now – and on not mixing up her numbers.

Jennifer said developmentally, a child might be able to manage their testing and care by 10 years old, which is still three years away for Kinsley. But she said it depends on the child, pointing out there are many teenagers who still rely on help from their parents to perform the necessary calculations.

She said she’s hoping and praying the division will change its mind, or the minister will implement that standard of care soon, so her daughter can get back to class.