Schools to get aid for autism needs, March 12

Visiting the first maple-sugar tapping of the season in our riding of Nipissing, Finance Minister Vic Fedeli told reporters that the new Ontario autism funding arrangement will cost taxpayers between $256 million and $321 million more than the old one.

The new funding package, which will leave some families paying up to $60,000 per year out of pocket, has been denounced by the Ontario Association for Behaviour Analysis, the professional body that represents Autism therapists, as “harmful.” This, even after the minister threatened those therapists with “four long years” if they spoke out against the government plan.

Ontarians will be paying millions more for the privilege of watching children be denied medical care. This is a travesty.

Catherine Murton Stoehr, North Bay, Ont.

There are too many children waiting for this precious service and, as a society, they should all be able to receive therapy to bring them to their best potential.

I believe the money that will be distributed to families for therapy should be given to the school boards to hire qualified therapists who could seamlessly incorporate therapy sessions throughout their school day. These newly hired therapists could spend up to four to six hours with these children and could also train other educational assistants, so children with autism have full consistency.

The carrying cost of rents or mortgages that these services now have would be eliminated by putting all the needs of these children under one roof. Services could be carried out in the many empty schools that all boards have.

The only cost to the government would be paying the salaries of these therapists and obtaining proper materials to implement these sessions. This is very possible, as too many therapists make as much (or less) than educational assistants.

Spend the money through our public institutions so all families can have assess to services.

Melanie Kohek, Whitby

Whichever way you cut it, the funding that is actually there is too little to offer students — new or existing — the supports they need in schools. For example, the Geneva Centre for Autism currently provides training for 2,200 educators. Doubling that — as the minster of education proudly declared it will — only provides opportunities for 4,400 educators, or roughly 18 per cent of all full-time EAs in the province.

The government also said it would give school boards $12,300 for each new student with autism who enrolled. But this is merely the funding provided to all students enrolled in public education — meaning these students will be funded exactly on the same basis as all other students in Ontario. This is not new money to provide supports to students with autism.

Most of the announcement doesn’t even consist of “new” money — it’s just a re-packaging of what was already there, and there’s nothing extra to account for inflation.

Students with autism and their families are still waiting for real help from the Ford government.

Laura Walton, president, Ontario School Board Council of Unions, Markham

Let’s look at some numbers. If a school welcomes three students with autism (who have been involved in intensive therapy because of high needs), the school will be able to provide the support of one educational assistant for the three students, because they earn somewhere between $36,000 to $40,000.

Education Minister Lisa Thomson and Premier Doug Ford obviously have no idea what it takes to support students with high needs in a school, let alone try to provide a meaningful day for the students.

Matthew Marosszeky, Aurora

Read more about: