Mar. 21 – Where we are now with the new OAP. 10 Thoughts.

At 10am Lisa MacLeod announced some “enhancements” to the new Ontario Autism Program. I recommend reading the full press release. While the release is short, there is a lot to unpack here. Here’s the long and short of it:

Short version

• The government is explicitly saying this isn’t a pause, but it’s a six month pause.
• On every single item, the government has either climbed down or expressed a willingness to climb down.
• The government is likely hoping the pressure is off now. Parents must ensure this doesn’t happen – we must continue to turn up the heat to get the best plan possible.
• Kids currently receiving treatment will receive six more months, which is a big victory (and takes pressure off the school system).
• We somehow have more unanswered questions than we did before. Most immediate concern: will the waiting list continue to be frozen, or will kids on the top of the list start to receive therapy?

Long version – Ten Thoughts

1. The autism tax is dead. The government has eliminated the income test, which was full of all kinds of unintended consequences.
2. Eliminating the income test makes this program more expensive. Under the previous proposal, I couldn’t see any possible way the government was going to spend all of their 321M a year target. Now they might.
3. The 20K/5K model remains. Or maybe it doesn’t. The size of the Childhood Budget is still apparently determined by the age of diagnosis of the child, with ages 2–5 having 20K/yr flow into the budget and ages 6–17 having 5K/yr flow into the budget.
4. We still don’t know how much a family can spend in any particular year. One of the most misunderstood aspects of the Ford/MacLeod proposal was the Childhood Budget. The 20/5 rule was only for determining how many dollars enter the Childhood Budget, not how much of that budget families could spend in a particular year. We still don’t know what the spending rules are, only that there will be “flexibility”.
5. But the Childhood Budget could end up being based on “need” and not age-at-diagnosis after all. There is this cryptic part of today’s press release: “… [the government will] assess how we better support those with more complex needs and provide additional sources of support to them.” If the government is providing “additional sources of support”, then the 20/5 rule would clearly have exceptions for high need kids. This would be a good thing, and should be the #1 point of negotiations over the summer.
6. Considering need could eliminate the problem of girls getting less support than boys. This should be another point for negotiation, to make sure girls are treated fairly.
7. The government has increased the range of available services, but we still don’t know the full list. “Through Childhood Budgets, families will have access to a broader range of eligible services, such as speech language pathology, physiotherapy, and occupational therapy. Full details on eligible services will be posted on the ministry’s website in early April.”
8. There is still no plan to ensure services are available in rural, remote and francophone communities.
9. Kids currently receiving support will continue to receive support for six months. What this ultimately means is we have a pause in the new plan for six months, which gives us time to negotiate. “All children who currently have an Ontario Autism Program Behaviour Plan will continue to receive the services outlined in that plan until its end date. Families will then be able to renew it for six months at its current level of intensity.”
10. We don’t know much about what happens to the current “wait list” kids, and if the freeze is now lifted. This is all we got: “Children will be brought off the waitlist based on a combination of the time they have been waiting for service, and with a continued focus on early intervention. Considerations will be made for children five years of age and youth 17 years of age to ensure they receive the maximum remaining funding… The government will explore options to provide children who are currently on the waitlist with Childhood Budgets on a quicker timeline, especially younger children.”

That’s it for now. Will post a longer update on the weekend.