Bowmanville father Chris Butterfield works seven days a week to cover monthly therapy bills for his four-year-old son Jackson, who was diagnosed with autism two years ago.And yet a three-year-old in the neighbourhood who was diagnosed five months after Jackson is already receiving autism program funding from the provincial government.“When I called the ministry to find out why we weren’t getting our funding, they couldn’t tell me,” said Butterfield in an interview Tuesday. His family spends $2,000 a month on therapy for Jackson.“My wife is no longer able to work because our son’s school won’t allow therapy to occur in school, so our back is against the wall financially,” he said. “There is no transparency or fairness.”The Butterfields are not the only family asking questions.Parents have been comparing diagnosis dates on the Ontario Autism Coalition Facebook page, and it appears similar anomalies are happening across the province, said Laura Kirby-McIntosh, president of the parent advocacy coalition. “There is a lot of uncertainty and mistrust,” she said. “Families need to know what is happening.”A spokeswoman for Todd Smith, Ontario’s minister of children, community and social services, said the province is allocating autism program funding “based on a combination of the time they have been waiting and their age.”“There are special considerations for children aged five, and youth aged 17 to help maximize funding for them,” said Christine Wood in an email. “Our government understands the urgency of this file as we work towards a new needs based, sustainable Ontario Autism Program.”The government is reviewing last month’s recommendations from a provincially appointed autism advisory panel that called for a return to needs-based funding introduced under the previous Liberal government. It plans to introduce the new system in April 202 ...
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