The Ontario government is refusing to publicly divulge its progress in enrolling children in core autism therapies, after the last update showed it was far off its own target.
Merrilee Fullerton, the minister of children, community and social services, has said the government would get 8,000 kids into core clinical services by the end of the fall, but as of last month that number was only about 888.
“Given that thousands of invitations are out the door to families, and at different stages, providing these numbers no longer reflects the rollout of the Ontario Autism Program like it once did,” spokesperson Patrick Bissett said in a statement. Her family has managed to cobble together some treatment, paying out of pocket for part-time therapy, but nowhere near the annual $93,000 she has been clinically prescribed.
Fewer than 1,700 families had responded to the letter and registered with the new system as of mid-August, officials said. The next step in the new process is for invitations to be issued to families to participate in an interview to determine their child's level of need, and almost 300 of those had gone out.
This is the Progressive Conservative government's second attempt at a new autism program. They scrapped their initial 2019 plan to give every family on the wait list either $20,000 or $5,000 depending on the age of their child after swift and sustained protests. Outraged families said funding shouldn't be decided by age and that the amounts were far too low for children needing moderate to intensive therapy.
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Ontario government won’t divulge progress in autism program rollout | Globalnews.caThe government said it would get 8,000 kids into core clinical services by the end of the fall, but as of last month that number was only about 888.
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Ontario government won’t divulge progress in autism program rolloutThe province said it will get 8,000 kids into core clinical autism services by the end of fall, but last month, that number was only 888.
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Ontario government won’t divulge progress in autism program rolloutThe province said it will get 8,000 kids into core clinical autism services by the end of fall, but last month, that number was only 888.
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