Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement
The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA) is an agreement between the Government of Canada and approximately 86,000 Native Canadians who at some point were enrolled as children in the Canadian Indian residential school system, a system which was in place between 1879 and 1996. The IRSSA recognized the damage inflicted by the residential schools and established a $2 billion compensation package for all former IRS students and, in particular, those who had been abused or otherwise harmed. The agreement, announced in 2006, was the largest class action settlement in Canadian history. As of December 2012 a total of $1.62 billion has been paid to 78,750 former students.
Residential care
A residential school is a school in which children generally stay 24 hours per day, 7 days per week (often called a boarding school). There is divided opinion about whether this type of schooling is beneficial for children. A case for residential special schooling has been advanced in the article: Residential special schooling: the inclusive option! in the "Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care", Volume 3(2), 17-32, 2004 by Robin Jackson.