(Jamaica) Mother struggles with autistic son denied services, education
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Feb 15, 2026, Jamaica Observer: Mother laments gaps in special education system as she struggles with autistic son
THIRTY-FOUR-YEAR-OLD Chantal Wynter is at the end of her tether.
Well over a year after she first highlighted the difficulties she is having getting a job to help care for her autistic son, she is now lamenting what she describes as significant gaps in the special education system — particularly for students in rural areas — as well as a lack of support from government agencies for struggling parents of autistic children.
Wynter told the Jamaica Observer that despite numerous attempts to enrol her now 15-year-old son, Zevoni Redway, in a special education school in rural Jamaica, including Edge Hill School of Special Education in St Ann’s Bay where they now live, she has repeatedly been met with a brick wall after being told she would be placed on a waiting list that has now stretched into years.
“My son doesn’t go to school; he is 15, but [his absence from school is] not for lack of trying but for lack of availability,” Wynter explained, adding that he has been out of school since he was six years old.
“You go to a school and you’re told you’re gonna be on a list, and that list is for years. I will try to get a tutor through the CPFSA [Child Protection and Family Services Agency], and they did not care because I got the tutor, and all the tutor needed was to be paid and start to tutor my son, and that was like two or three years ago and nothing has come out of that,” Wynter told the Sunday Observer.
The mother said she sought financial assistance from the Jamaica Council for Persons with Disabilities (JCPD) in the form of a grant to assist her son, but she again encountered delays. . . .
The mother said parents of autistic children often experience high levels of stress and even post-traumatic stress disorder, yet there is little to no support for their mental and emotional well-being.
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