The change is one of a number of tweaks to the government's controversial revamp of the Ontario Autism Program, which was announced last month. "Parents were right when they said that autism is a spectrum and that there are different needs for children on the spectrum," she said. MacLeod had previously said that in order to clear a waiting list of 23,000 children, kids with autism would receive direct funding to pay for treatment, rather than a needs-based funding model. Families with children under six years old would be eligible for $20,000 per year, to a lifetime maximum amount of $140,000. Further, MacLeod said that children currently receiving publicly-funded autism therapy will continue to have access to that service for as long as their current treatment plan dictates.

Source: CBC News March 21, 2019 13:01 UTC