Mar 11, 2019, Hamilton Spectator: New autism supports for Ontario schools to come due to therapy funding changes https://www.thespec.com/news-story/9217253-new-autism-supports-for-ontario-schools-to-come-due-to-therapy-funding-changes/ School boards will get additional money to support students with autism, Ontario's education minister announced Monday, as hundreds of kids may soon enter school because they will get less funding for therapy. Autism and education advocates said the announcement does little to address a problem of the government's own making and attempts to turn teachers into therapists. Families say that recently announced changes to the Ontario Autism Program that will kick in April 1 mean many of those children currently in government-funded, full-time therapy will have to instead transition into school. The government says there are 1,105 children with autism who are not in school. Education Minister Lisa Thompson said school boards will get an average of $12,300 for each new student with autism entering the school system in the remaining months of this school year. "This funding will allow school boards to make sure there are proper supports available during the transition from therapy to school," she announced in Ottawa. The government is aiming to clear a wait list of 23,000 kids by spreading an existing pot of money to all children diagnosed with autism, instead of fully funding the treatment. Families will get up to $20,000 per year for treatment for children under six and $5,000 a year for children six to 18 — with the maximum amounts available to families with incomes under $55,000 — but intensive therapy can cost up to $80,000 a year. Many families say they will be unable to cover the difference to keep their kids in full-time therapy. Thompson also announced that the government will fully subsidize an ASD-specific additional qualification course for teachers, and an after-school skills development pilot project for students with autism will be expanded to all 72 school boards…. "They created a crisis with their changes to the autism funding and (applied behaviour analysis) therapy and now it seems like they're simply downloading their obligations ... to support these kids to school boards." … The after-school program expansion will cost $6.1 million for the 2019-20 school year, and the subsidized course will cost $1 million per year, Thompson's office said. It would not provide an estimate for how much additional per student funding will be provided because it is waiting to see how many of those students register for school. Funding to the Geneva Centre for Autism to provide online training opportunities for educators is also being doubled, to $2 million.
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Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.
Loss of Brain Trust features over 9,000 news stories published worldwide since January, 2017
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
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What will happen in another 4 years? How can we go on like this? This is a national (and international) problem of monumental proportions. We have an entire new class of children who cannot be accommodated by the system: many are manifestly neurologically impaired. Meanwhile, the government and the medical profession sleep on regardless.
John Stone,
UK media editor, Age of Autism
The generation of American children born after 1990 are arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It seemed to me that with rising autism prevalence, you’d also see rising autism costs to society, and it turns out, the costs are catastrophic.
They calculated that in 2015 autism cost the United States $268 billion and they projected that if autism continues at its current rate, we’re looking at one trillion dollars a year in autism costs by 2025, so within five years.
Toby Rogers, PhD, Political economist
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