It was on the heels of a NEWSTALK 1010 investigation that unionized teachers in Ontario sounded alarms over "a critical lack of support" within the education system for children with behavioural issues.
Officials said that the need for special education at public schools is growing.
That's certainly true in Durham Region, where an estimated 1 in 4 students has some kind of special need or requirement for accommodation.
Those could be due to any number issues, such as learning disabilities or medical conditions.
John Legere, superintendent for special education at the Durham District School Board, says there are a wide range of accommodations made for a wide range of needs.
Not all of the solutions require extra time or extra staff.
Legere says when it comes to explaining what is driving the demand for special education it gets "complicated" because there are so many factors at play.
For one, diagnoses of spectrum disorders like autism are getting more common, thanks to breakthroughs in our understanding of how they work.
According to the Education Ministry, the number of students in Ontario with autism almost quadrupled between 2002 and 2014.
Those 19,000 students account for only part of the greater population that is considered to have special needs.
Legere concedes that parents can sometimes put pressure on administrators and educators to give their children special consideration.
However, he insists that the checks and balances to "assess" students at the Board level make sure that everyone is treated fairly and that other students are not negatively affected.
Education advocate Annie Kidder of People For Education says the situation in Durham Region's public schools is similar to what school boards across the Toronto region and Ontario deal with.
However, she adds that even education experts cannot always agree on why special-needs accommodations are in higher demand.
She rejects the notion that schools are going too far in accommodating students.
"We don't operate a 'sink or swim' system and the belief is strong that all kids have a right and capacity to learn and we need to support them in whatever way we can," Kidder says.
She wonders whether it might be that the phenomenon of "helicopter parenting" is at play in a society where consumers are always 'super-served.'
"There's a ton of information out there ... you might be diagnosing your child with everything in the whole wide world, and that's certainly a danger," Kidder says.