Power to the people!
Ontario government to reverse direction on autism program and provide families with needs-based support
Todd Smith, Minister of Children, Community and Social Services, is expected to announce on Monday that the government will move to design a funding program based on the needs of individual children. The new program will work within a $600-million budget, according to an e-mail about the plan sent by Mr. Smith’s chief of staff, Sarah Letersky, to the government’s autism advisory panel and obtained by The Globe and Mail.
That program, announced earlier this year, was met with outrage from families whose funding for autism services for children with complex needs would be significantly cut. Some said they faced the prospect of their children returning to school full-time in the fall and regressing because their government funding had been cut by tens of thousands of dollars.
It is yet to be determined if the new plan will bring back full funding for these families, but autism advocates are hopeful children will receive the therapy they need. The minister is to announce that the government is working toward a “sustainable” needs-based program that “serves as many children and youth as possible,” Ms. Letersky’s e-mail said