January 18, 2007

Building and Improving the Continuum of Services for Ontario Children and Youth with Autism

The range of services in the Ministry of Children and Youth Services’ Autism Intervention Program includes:

• Intensive Behavioural Intervention (IBI), which is a structured approach to breaking down the barriers that isolate children with autism from the world around them.  IBI professionals work with children with autism – either one-on-one or in small groups. They use systematic methods derived from principles of Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA), an approach to understanding and changing behaviour and to teaching skills.  ABA includes a variety of methods for assessing children's behaviours and learning needs, and for intervening using techniques to teach alternative skills and behaviours to promote positive development.
  
• Transition services and supports are provided to facilitate the integration of children into new environments. Transition planning begins early and is part of each child’s Individual Program Plan (IPP).   Each child will have a transition plan that reflects individual strengths and needs.  The plan is integrated with other service providers involved with the family and existing community transition processes to promote smooth transitions, including the entry to school planning provided by the Ministry of Education.
  
• Child and Family Supports are available to families including:  information about autism; referrals to other community supports and services, and; training specifically to help prepare children for IBI, to promote skill development and to foster integration into smaller groups.

The ministry also funds:

• The School Support Program (SSP) through which more than 185 Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) consultants have been hired to help teachers and educators better understand how children and youth with autism learn. Since the program was established in 2004, the ASD consultants have had thousands of contacts with teachers and other educators across the province.  As of September 2006, more than 117,000 contacts have occurred with teachers and educational assistants, as well as other regular and special education staff.

Children with autism may also benefit from a range of other services available in communities across the province, such as:

• Special Needs Resourcing in local preschool or child care centres, which is designed to promote the full integration of infants and children with special needs.
• The Infant Development Program is part of a continuum of early intervention services for children who have, or are at risk of, developmental delays.  The program provides home and in-centre support for sensory stimulation, motor development, communication skills, social interaction, emotional development, self-help skills, as well as assistance to help parents recognize, understand and adjust to their child's special needs.
• The Special Services at Home (SSAH) Program helps children with developmental and/or physical disabilities and adults with developmental disabilities.  Support may be provided to help a person live at home as long as they are not receiving residential support from elsewhere in the community.
  
• Out-of-Home Respite Services for children with multiple special needs who require the greatest amount of support.  Families of children with multiple special needs can receive up to seven days of respite per year in a location other than their own home.
  
• Enhanced Respite Funding is provided to families caring for a medically fragile and/or technologically dependent child living at home, whose care requires ongoing, frequent and time-consuming intervention on a 24-hour basis.
  
• Local behaviour management programs provide various services such as assessment and/or treatment of behaviour issues for children with special needs through community hospitals and local community support agencies.
  
• The Assistance for Children with Severe Disabilities (ACSD) Program assists parents with some of the extra costs of caring for a child who has a disability. The purpose of the benefit is to help children who have disabilities live as normal a life as possible at home and in the community. 
  
•  Mental health services are delivered to children and youth by numerous community agencies located throughout the province.

BUILDING CAPACITY

Since taking office, the McGuinty government has:

• In partnership with the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, increased the pool of qualified autism professionals through the creation of the Ontario College Graduate Certificate Program in Autism and Behavioural Science at six colleges or college consortia across the province.  More than 100 students graduated in 2006 and by 2008-2009 the target enrolment will be at least 200.
  
• Provided $2 million in each of the next three years to the Geneva Centre for Autism to provide training related to the unique needs of children with ASD, for up to 1,600 resource teachers and home visitors who work in the child care sector
  
• Through the Ministry of Education, provided $5 million over two years to the Geneva Centre for Autism to provide training for teachers’ assistants who work or may work with students with ASD and better support these students in the classroom.  In 2004-05, school boards across the province identified approximately 7,000 students with ASD
  
• Provided $1 million to help Autism Ontario give more supports to families of children and youth with ASD, including parent support networks, training, resource materials, access to consultation with ASD specialists, and online information and resources at www.abacuslist.ca to assist families in finding and hiring Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) providers to work with their children with autism

OTHER INITIATIVES
The ministry has also:

• Engaged parents, researchers and autism service providers through a provincial advisory group on ways to serve children and youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and their families
  
• Invested $10 million more annually in Ontario’s children’s treatment centres to provide services to more than 4,800 more children and youth with complex special needs, including autism
  
• In partnership with the Ministry of Education, established a reference group to provide advice on effective, evidence-based educational practices to meet the wide range of needs of students with ASD
  
• Together with the Ministry of Education, reviewed the first year implementation of the School Support Program: Autism Spectrum Disorder to learn from the experiences of service providers and school boards.

The Ministry of Education has introduced reforms that will help support better outcomes for children with special needs including, but not limited to, the following:

• School boards’ special education plans will be transformed so they focus on target setting and improvement planning that is related to student achievement and program effectiveness
  
• The ministry is encouraging boards to streamline the identification, placement and review committee process to reduce barriers or delays to accessing special education programs and services
  
• The ministry will be working with school boards to reinforce the connection between a student’s Individual Education Plan, the Ontario curriculum and the provincial report card
  
• A resource guide on effective educational practices for students with autism will be distributed to school boards
  
• The Ontario Psychological Association is working with school boards to reduce current wait times for students who require assessments and to enhance the capacity of teachers to provide effective programs for students with special education needs based on assessment information
  
• A resource guide on informal dispute resolution processes to support parents and educators to collaboratively resolve issues regarding special education programs and services
  
• A provincial policy on mediation processes for special education programs and services will be developed in consultation with stakeholders, including a process for recognizing the credentials of mediators
  
• $25 million for Council of Ontario Directors of Education to support school board projects that improve instructional practices, enhance system capacity and support better achievement for students with special education needs.
  
• Conducting a special education program and financial pilot review to collect information about the decision making process of selected school boards related to the delivery of special education programs and services.

Additional Information :

News Release

Fact Sheet