Sam Kuhn and Lynn Buchanan are no strangers to battling with bureaucracy.
For years they have been trying to get help for one of their daughters who has autism, and have filed complaints with multiple groups, and protested outside of the officers of the Youth Protection Minister in a bid for better care.
But now their older daughter is having problems, and they're facing another fight.
This time, their beef is with the English Montreal School Board and the delay they face in having their daughter Simone assessed.
Kuhn and Buchanan believe their daughter has dyslexia, but have been unable to have the school board perform an assessment to determine if that is the case.
As a result they moved their daughter to the Annexe Charlevoix, part of the Commission Scolaire de Montreal, which has promised to give Simone an assessment for learning disabilities very soon.
It is not, however, a perfect solution.
"She's been torn apart from her friends at Roslyn school. And Simone is incredibly social, and she's brilliant with art, and so she doesn't have the arts program that they have at the French system. She's now experiencing bullying at the new school because people are calling her stupid and she's not, she's very, very smart. And she's now having to go back to the grade where her younger sister goes, so it's clearly obvious to Simone that something's going on," said Kuhn.
According to Kuhn, officials with the EMSB pushed him to have Simone assessed privately, but he said he cannot afford the $3,000 bill for that service since he is on social assistance.
The EMSB told CTV News that it would only comment on general practices and would not comment on this specific case.
Kuhn said he would prefer to have his daughter attend the EMSB, and so his next step is to file a complaint with the Quebec Human Rights commission.
