February 3, 2021 Media Release: Pilot Program Means More Waiting
October 29, 2020 Media Release: Another Year of Waiting
COVID-19 Autism Support and Resources
OAC Education Resource Guide (2020)
Todd Smith promised a needs-based autism program by April, 2021.
Time Remaining:
Ontario launching autism program in March with initial enrolment of 600 children
The president of the Ontario Autism Coalition said families are not happy with the long wait or the new plan itself. “It’s been 462 days … and it’s taken …
Headline: Needs-based funding for children with autism starts next month: MPP Smith
Quinte families with children on the autism spectrum can expect to receive core clinical services for children in the needs-based Ontario Autism Program beginning in March, the provincial government said Wednesday. Services to be offered for an initial 600 families will include individual-based funding to cover applied behaviour analysis, speech language pathology, occupational therapy and […]
Ontario launching autism program in March
The president of the Ontario Autism Coalition said families are not happy with the long wait or the new plan itself. “It’s been 462 days … and it’s taken …
600 children to start in new, needs-based Ontario Autism Program next month
Though well past the initial April 2020 start date because of COVID, the core of the new plan will see families accessing behavioural, speech and occupational therapy
Doug Ford’s New Autism Program May Take Key Decisions Out of the Hands of Medical Experts …
Ontario Autism Coalition president Laura Kirby-McIntosh, who was a member of the government’s 2019 advisory panel, told PressProgress the Ford …
Ontario parents continue to wait for concrete autism program
… boys need,” said Ontario Autism Coalition member Tony Stravato, whose seven-year-old twin boys Rocco and Roman are living with severe autism.
Ontario parents continue to wait for concrete autism program
It’s been months since the province started a new round of changes to the Ontario Autism Program.
Ontario parents continue to wait for concrete autism program
It’s been months since the province started a new round of changes to the Ontario Autism Program. Now, the government is looking for an independent organization to bring kids into a new needs based plan. But as Aaron Streck reports, parents say t…
Ontario Grants $7.5M For Teacher Training To Support Students With Autism
Ontario is providing $7.5 million to train teachers to support students with autism spectrum disorder better, the province announced this weekend.
The funding will go to an online training program for Ontario’s 72 publicly funded school boards, delivered by Sonderly, the training division of the Geneva Centre for Autism in Toronto.
The additional funding comes after $6 million last year and will go toward an enhanced online training program for teachers with a live follow-up session, Andrew Davis, Sonderly’s director, told HuffPost Canada.
Davis said there’s “no doubt” online learning — now extended until at least Jan. 25 for most Ontario students — is a challenge for students who have autism.
“Our students are used to certain cues, or certain directions, from their environment that they’re familiar with,” he said. “And when you suddenly change that, it can be difficult for those kids with autism to use the skills that they already have, because they’re now being asked to use them in a different way, under different conditions, and that certainly is a challenge.”
Some students with disabilities may be able to return to in-person learning earlier if their school board allows for the accommodation.
The announcement comes after Doug Ford’s government faced backlash for changing the funding requirements available through the Ontario Autism Program in 2019. Minister of Children, Community and Social Services Todd Smith later announced the government would go back to a needs-based program and double its budget.
The first phase of the new program started in August, and Smith has said the new program will be available by April 2021.
Children are waiting while key developmental windows slip away.Monique Taylor, NDP Children and Youth Critic
In October 2020, advocacy group Ontario Autism Coalition said families have been left “in crisis” waiting for needs-based funding that was not yet in place.
While the new funding may help educators support children with autism, more adults and support from educational assistants are needed to ensure classrooms are inclusive, Monique Taylor, the Ontario NDP’s critic for Children and Youth Services said in a statement to HuffPost.
“Further, this funding for teachers is a far cry from the core services that families need and have been asking for,” Taylor said, adding it’s been a year since Smith announced the needs-based program.
“Children are waiting while key developmental windows slip away. When I speak with families, that’s the real issue affecting their kids.”
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services said the ministry and its implementation working group are “continuing to make progress on the implementation of all aspects of the new needs-based Ontario Autism Program.”
That includes a call for applications last month for organizations and service providers interested in delivering programs or services, they said.
More than 32,000 children are receiving support through the program, the spokesperson said, adding the ministry will continue to provide updates as the new program rolls out.
Stephen Lecce, Ontario’s education minister, said in a statement the province recognizes the pandemic’s challenges for parents. This funding will “foster a culture of respect, inclusion and opportunity” in schools, he said.
Ontario is also providing more than $30 million in funding for school boards to hire experts in Applied Behavioural Analysis and offer more training to boards.
More than 24,700 students identified as being on the autism spectrum are enrolled in Ontario’s publicly funded school system, according to school board data from 2018-19.
“[Students with autism are] definitely there and they definitely have unique learning needs and support challenges and educators are not provided this information in Teachers College, and aren’t given the tools specific to supporting kids with autism in their general training,” Davis said. “So it’s really important that we can put this information into their hands.”
Earlier on HuffPost: Ontario lockdown may not lift in January, Ford says
Media Releases
- OAC Releases Education Recommendations for School Re-opening
- The Ford Government Short Changes Autism Families…Again
- Families to Protest Delays to Autism Program (EN)
- Families to Protest Delays to Autism Program (FR)
- Letter to Minister Smith Jan 2019
- Families Still Waiting for Details on New Autism Program
- Recommendations Release
- OAP Enhancement Doesn’t Address the Big Issues (Mar. 2019)
- Minister of Education’s “Autism Announcement” Is Too Little, Too Late (Mar. 2019)
- Ford Government’s One-Size-Fits-All Approach Fails All Children with Autism (Feb. 2019)
- Disability Advocates Call for Action Limiting When Principals Can Exclude Students from School (Jan. 2019)
- OAC demands that the Ford Government end the conflict of interest with the Regional Autism Programs (Nov. 2018)
- Parents Worried That Increased Special Education Funding Will Not Be Spent On What’s Needed (Mar. 2018)
- OAC Will Protest the Lack of Appropriate Supports in Schools for Students with Autism and Other Special Education Needs (Oct. 2017)
- OAC Calls On Ministry of Education to Issue Consistent Policy Allowing Autism Service Dogs In Ontario Schools (Sep. 2017)
- The Autism Community Will Remind The Wynne Government That The New Autism Program Must Serve All Children And Youth With Autism (Apr. 2017)
- Education System Must Change to Meet the Needs of Students with Autism (Apr. 2017)
Briefing Notes to Government
- Presentation To Finance Committee
- Recommendations for Special Education in Ontario’s Public Schools: Exclusions, Suspensions and Expulsions (Oct. 2018)
- Recommendations for changes to the Ontario Autism Program (Aug. 2018)
- Rethinking the Ontario Autism Program – Direct Funding as a Way Forward (May 2016)
Important Letters
- Letter To Minister Smith (Jan 2019)
- Letter to Minister Hon. Lisa MacLeod – Bill 64, Noah and Gregory’s Law (Dec. 2018)
- Letter to Minister Hon. Lisa M. Thompson – Ontario Schools that Exclude or Refuse to Admit Students with Disabilities (Dec. 2018)
- The Health Professions Appeal and Review Board (Aug. 2018)
- Letter to Minister Hon. Mitzie Hunter (July 2017)
- Letter to the Minister Hon. Michael Coteau (Sept 2016)