youth « Social Policy in Ontario

Posts Tagged ‘youth’

Ontario government announces new supports for schools ahead of change to autism program

Tuesday, March 12th, 2019

… the government will subsidize an additional qualification course for teachers on supporting students with autism, but that won’t happen until the fall. Additionally, Ms. Thompson said she is asking school boards to dedicate a professional activity day for teachers on how to support children with autism… Many of these children currently attend school on a modified schedule, and parents have said cuts in funding will leave them with little choice but to send their children to school more frequently, even full-time… “All that this [announcement] does is it dumps the responsibility for autism therapy onto the schools. Teachers are not therapists.”

Tags: budget, disabilities, featured, ideology, mental Health, participation, youth
Posted in Education Delivery System | No Comments »

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

Tuesday, March 12th, 2019

… 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… “This funding will allow school boards to make sure there are proper supports available during the transition from therapy to school.”

Tags: budget, disabilities, featured, Health, ideology, mental Health, participation, youth
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »

Ford government to boost school funding by $12,300 for every child with autism who enters the system

Monday, March 11th, 2019

“These supports will start, absolutely, immediately… We are making changes to school board funding so supports will be in place for this school year.” 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, which has led boards to anticipate an influx of students into the system when they lose their current level of therapy… Thompson said by 2021 all teachers in the public system will have training in autism spectrum disorder.

Tags: budget, child care, disabilities, featured, ideology, mental Health, participation, youth
Posted in Education Policy Context | No Comments »

Parents rally against Ford government’s autism changes

Friday, March 8th, 2019

the government is boosting spending to clear a wait list of 23,000 children and giving families limited budgets to choose the services they want. Depending on their income, parents will be eligible for 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, to a lifetime maximum of $55,000. Critics have said those amounts fall far short, as children with severe needs can require up to $80,000 a year in therapy.

Tags: budget, ideology, mental Health, standard of living, youth
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »

Children’s agency slams Ford government’s autism funding changes

Wednesday, March 6th, 2019

Kinark is the only regional service provider — so far — to publicly oppose the changes announced by Lisa MacLeod, minister of children, community and social services last month… Under the overhaul, provincial funding will no longer be administered by nine regional service providers and instead flow directly to families who will use the money to buy therapy from private therapists or publicly funded agencies… A new independent agency to be established in the next year will administer “childhood budgets” to families based on household income and a child’s age.

Tags: budget, disabilities, mental Health, participation, standard of living, youth
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »

Editors Canada releases new guidelines for the ethical editing of students’ work

Wednesday, March 6th, 2019

In January, Editors Canada released its updated guidelines for the ethical editing of student work, which address editing written work at all levels of higher education. The guidelines are available as a free download on the Editors Canada website… students want to find legitimate resources to help them improve. “Most of them turn to illegitimate sources of support because they have no other option”

Tags: standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Policy Context | No Comments »

‘Yada yada yada’ isn’t the problem. It’s Ford’s autism policy

Sunday, February 24th, 2019

MacLeod can call this a “fair, equitable and sustainable” system all she wants, but that doesn’t make it a good one. Or a system that provides kids with autism, especially those on the high needs end of the spectrum, access and funding to services they desperately need. But in the face of mounting evidence that this policy is deeply misguided and won’t achieve its stated outcomes, the Ford government has reacted the way it usually does — claiming victory anyway.

Tags: budget, disabilities, Health, ideology, mental Health, participation, standard of living, youth
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »

Ontario government quietly ordered autism therapy providers to stop admitting kids from wait-list last September

Sunday, February 24th, 2019

The provincial government quietly ordered autism service providers last September to stop admitting new children for therapy and to keep parents in the dark about the move… Internal documents — from the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services and senior administrators of nine regional service providers — state that the 23,000-child wait-list for autism therapy was closed because of “financial pressures.”

Tags: budget, disabilities, Health, ideology, mental Health, participation, standard of living, youth
Posted in Governance Delivery System | No Comments »

Questions swirl around therapy at centre of Ontario’s autism changes

Saturday, February 23rd, 2019

About one in 66 children in Canada is diagnosed with autism. More than 100,000 Ontarians, including about 40,000 kids, have the disorder… The lack of consultation with adults living with autism has been a longtime concern for Dr. Kevin Stoddart, director of the Toronto-based Redpath Centre, Ontario’s largest mental health treatment centre for adults and youth on the autism spectrum… the mental health of people with autism requires “more focused investigation.”

Tags: budget, child care, disabilities, ideology, mental Health, participation, standard of living, youth
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »

MacLeod needs to build on past successes

Wednesday, February 20th, 2019

… the needs of children with autism… and the needs of their families are complex, treatments are evolving and no one has yet gotten it perfect… It may feel good in the moment to suggest that everything past was wrong but that kind of thinking does children a disservice and that is what should matter to us all… If we don’t even try to build on what has been successful in the past, if we don’t even try to listen to each other and the people on the front line, in this case the parents, then we are bound to fail spectacularly.