Ford government to boost school funding to deal with influx of students with autism

Thestar.com
March 12, 2019
Kristin Rushowy

Boards will be getting additional funding to help with hundreds of new students with autism expected to arrive in classrooms next month, as critics accused the province of downloading kids’ behavioural therapy needs onto Ontario schools.

The Ford government was warned by boards about the impact of the new autism program that reduces funding for thousands of families who are now expected to turn to their local schools looking for services -- starting in two weeks’ time.

Lisa Thompson, Ontario's Minister of Education, scrums with reporters in Toronto in an Aug. 9, 2018, file photo.

In anticipation of the imminent influx of students with autism, Education Minister Lisa Thompson announced that the government would provide schools about $12,300 per new student. Schools receive that amount for every kid enrolled; however, under previous rules they could be eligible for the funds only up to March 31. But school boards had been writing to Thompson, as well as Community and Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod, with their concerns about how the controversial autism overhaul could create an unsustainable burden on schools as of April 1, when the new program takes effect.

A large protest last week drew hundreds of families to Queen’s Park.

“These supports will start, absolutely, immediately,” Thompson said Monday in Ottawa. “We are making changes to school board funding so supports will be in place for this school year…This funding will allow school boards to make sure there are proper supports available during the transition from therapy to school.”

Typically, any new student doesn’t generate additional funding after March 31 of any school year, so the government’s announcement essentially extends that deadline.
Students with autism already in the school system part-time would have been funded at the $12,300 amount so no additional monies will be provided.

A Monday memo to boards from the deputy education minister, obtained by the Star, also gave them the go-ahead to bring in extra staff to support these students, despite advising them late last month to hold-off on any hiring.

Cathy Abraham, president of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association, cautioned that the services students receive in schools “is not going to be the same as what they have -- it’s not the same as intensive, one-on-one behavioural training.”

Educators, said autism advocate Laura Kirby-McIntosh -- herself a teacher -- are “already stretched to the max. If this government thinks they can blow up the Ontario Autism Program and say ‘oh, it’s OK, teachers will do it’ -- no.”

Thompson also said the province will boost training for teachers -- both online and as “additional qualification” courses -- and also give boards money to expand after-school programs for students with autism.

In total, it has pledged $6.1 million for after-school activities, $1 million a year for three years to pay for the “additional qualification” for teachers, and $2 million to the Geneva Centre for Autism to run online training for school staff.

The government has come under considerable criticism from parents and school boards for the changes, which will see limited lifetime budgets for children with autism. It will expand funding to more families, but many families will receive less.

MacLeod has said the government’s priority is to eliminate a 23,000-long wait list in the next 18 months under a new system that provides up to $20,000 a year for children under 6 -- with a lifetime maximum of $140,000. Children older than that can access up to $5,000 a year up to age 18, with a maximum of $55,000.

However, kids with severe needs can require up to $80,000 a year in therapy.

MacLeod’s ministry has allocated $321 million in overall funding for autism services.
Toronto’s Catholic board and Chair Maria Rizzo called Monday’s announcement “a small gesture that signals that this government has picked up on the pleas about children with autism and their families.

“Although there is some movement on behalf of this government to address how to support students with autism, it is simply not enough and there are still too many unanswered questions.”

Harvey Bischof, head of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, said the government did not consult with unions ahead of the funding announcement, and the amount “tells me they had not at all considered the unintended consequences of kids in therapy coming into classrooms.”

“They hadn’t thought it through.”

University of Toronto Professor Charles Pascal said his concern “is not with the potential of new resources and the framework, it is with the hastiness to solve a complex problem.

“When it comes to effective implementation, speed kills,” said Pascal of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, and a former deputy education minister.