Ontario launching autism program in March with initial enrolment of 600 children

 

Ontario will launch its new autism services program in March, starting with 600 children.

The program will provide children with needs-based supports including applied behaviour analysis, speech language pathology, and occupational therapy.

Social Services Minister Todd Smith says the program will expand throughout the year to include 8,000 more children by the end of 2021.

For children not included in the new program, the government will expand interim funding made available in 2019 to pay for eligible services.

The new autism services program was supposed to launch in April 2020 but Smith announced in late 2019 that it would instead be phased in over two years.

Smith says the pandemic slowed plans for the phased-in implementation and added that the government will be able to refine the program once it starts next month.