TORONTO - Ontario has enrolled 888 children with autism in core therapies – adding just 30 to the government’s revamped program since April – but insi...
TORONTO - Ontario has enrolled 888 children with autism in core therapies – adding just 30 to the government’s revamped program since April – but insists it will meet its goal of enrolling 8,000 kids by the end of the fall.
Angela Brandt, president of the Ontario Autism Coalition, said the government need only look to its history with the autism program to explain the lower-than-expected uptake. But parents were furious and held waves of protests, since intensive therapy can cost upwards of $90,000 a year. The government funding was too small to amount to anything meaningful for higher-need children and services to help teach basic skills should be determined by need, not age, they said.
“I strongly encourage families to respond to their invitations and enrol,” she wrote in a statement. “We have a large, dedicated team to support families through this process, and are all working to ensure continued progress.” About 600 families were enrolled in a pilot phase of the new core clinical services program starting in March 2021, and by the end of April 2022, the number grew to 858. There are also children receiving therapy who were grandfathered in from the previous Liberal program.
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