What is the Ministry of Education's Plan for children with ASD?
Recent annoucements about funding for the Ontario Autism Program have brought a lot of concern, fear and anger about how kids who need extra support and care as they enter our education system are being treated.
Ensuring that these kids can be successful requires educators who understand their needs, are highly skilled and have extra support available in the school when it's needed. At the TDSB, children with ASD is the fastest growing group of students over the past five years (within Special Education student populations). As the numbers grow, so should the resource base to support their education.
On March 11th, the Government sent out the Memorandum below outlining measures they will take to support students at the TDSB and all school boards across Ontario. TDSB senior staff have provided a quick anaylsis of how the annoucements / changes will affect our school board - and your kids.
I've added those comments in purple below each section. This is a preliminary analysis - more information is needed for the board to better understand how this is all going to work. It's hard to know when information slowly trickles in, leaving many people wondering if this is an ad hoc approach to government (reactionary) or if there is a real plan that makes sense to supports kids.
I have some concerns that I will share with you in the future if they turn out to be valid. During the Budget process your voice on certain issues will help me and other trustees decide what course of action to take. Please read what I've provided below and if you have questions - let me know anytime...and as soon as possible.
READ Recent Government Annoucement Changes to Ontario Autism Program (OAP) READ Ontario autism program changes raise concerns about effects on schools
NOTE:
The dollar amounts in the Memorandum below are for ALL school boards across the province - not just for the TDSB.
Memorandum From the Ministry of Education
DATE: March 11, 2019
SUBJECT: Supporting Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Ministry of Education Annoucement
_____________________________________________________________________________
The Ministry of Education recognizes that as a result of the recently announced changes to the Ontario Autism Program (OAP), children and youth with ASD will be entering school and/or transitioning from part time to full time school, beginning in April 2019 and into the 2019-20 school year.
To support school boards in responding to the needs of these students, the ministry intends to provide additional funding for the remaining months of the 2018-19 school year. The ministry will also provide a range of new and ongoing supports for the 2019-20 school year.
Please note that hiring of staff with expertise to support newly enrolled students with ASD, or students with ASD transitioning from part time to full time school, should proceed in order to support these students. TDSB: TDSB is expecting approximately 180 new students and based on this projection expect approximately $2.2M of funding. Additional funding appears to be in the form of new students who register between now and June 30th. These students for whom the Board would normally receive partial or no funding at this time of year will receive the full Grant for Student Need (GSN) funding. This is for new registrations only. There is no additional funding for students who are currently registered (approximately 130-140 students) with us and transitioning from part-time to full time status as a result of this announcement. This is one-time funding for students registering this spring and does not represent any further or additional funding into the 2019/20 academic year. Please note, our initial projection of 250 students was based on both new and current transitioning students. We have now worked with Surrey Place to clarify which are new (180) and which are current (130-140). In the weeks ahead these number may slightly change as actual students start to enrol.
2018-19 School Year
To address school boards’ in-year needs, the ministry intends to provide for an extended count date for those students who have been receiving OAP services and are newly enrolling in the April to June 2019 school months. School boards will report enrolment as of March 31 as usual. However, an extended count date will allow school boards to receive full school year funding for eligible, newly enrolled students for the remaining months of the 2018-19 school year. This mechanism will provide an average of $12,300 per pupil to allow boards to plan supports for the remainder of the current school year.
The ministry will propose a change to the 2018-19 GSN regulation to support this funding and will further advise school boards about the proposed regulation change.
2019-20 School Year
For the 2019-20 school year, the ministry intends to provide additional funding, and continued funding, to support school boards and students with ASD. The supporting initiatives are outlined below.
The ministry will propose a 2019-20 GSN regulation to support this funding and will further advise school boards about this proposed regulation.
TDSB: Additional funding will be focused on such things as professional development and after school skills development. Continued funding means that come next school year, all students will receive the same per pupil funding allocation As far as we know there is no additional funding allocation for students with ASD to further support transitions.
Promoting Professional Learning
The ministry is committed to supporting school boards, school leaders, teachers and educational assistants (EAs) to be well prepared to support students with ASD.
Currently, over 70,000 of Ontario’s teachers have additional qualifications in special education. Over 1,000 have additional qualifications for Teaching Students with Communication Needs (Autism Spectrum Disorder). The ministry will provide $1 million in annual funding to fully subsidize teachers who wish to acquire the Teaching Students with Communication Needs (Autism Spectrum Disorder) additional qualification. The ministry anticipates that this support would allow up to 4,000 teachers to acquire this qualification over the next three years.
The ministry will also increase training opportunities available to school boards by doubling annual funding for the Geneva Centre for Autism to $2 million to provide training opportunities for educators, including teachers and EAs. Training will include access to the Registered Behaviour Technician (RBT) course. The ministry anticipates that up to 4,400 educators could be trained annually through this new investment.
In 2019-20, the ministry will request that school boards focus the special education topic on the list of Professional Activity Day permitted topics on supporting students with ASD. Policy/Program Memorandum 151 will be amended to include this direction.
In 2020-21, the ministry will mandate that school boards support learning opportunities for all educators in supporting students with ASD, within a professional activity day.
The ministry will support new teachers by revising the New Teacher Induction Program (NTIP) Induction Elements Manual to include increased ABA-based training opportunities.
TDSB: The TDSB continues to be committed to providing quality professional development (PD) focused on supporting students with Autism through behavioural supports and PD focused on Educational Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA). We offer courses through Key to Learn, and have long partnered with the Geneva Centre to provide courses to support staff capacity from basic to advanced understandings of Autism, ABA, and behavioural strategies. Our goal is to meet staff where they are at to increase their capacity to serve locally. Any additional funding to support this work is appreciated.
We will continue to partner with the Geneva Centre to provide such PD opportunities. In the TDSB, we provide PD to support ABA and behavioural strategies for central, school staff, and leaders through workshops as well as in schools as central staff work collaboratively with staff locally. Financial support for teachers to take Additional Qualification Courses focused on Autism is welcome. The additional financial support for teachers to take Additional Qualification Courses focused on Autism is indeed new money as a result of this announcement and is welcome funding to support teacher PD. Such PD is teacher-initiated, rather than offered through TDSB professional development.
Funding for Student Supports
The ministry will continue all aspects of Grants for Student Needs (GSN) special education funding in 2019-20, including key allocations that are intended for students who require significant supports. Special education funding is projected to be $3.01 billion in 2018-19, which will continue in 2019-20.
A number of components of special education funding are claims based and responsive to changes in enrolment of students with high needs. School boards are encouraged to access these allocations and to engage the ministry if additional flexibility is required to ensure this funding is fully available for students with ASD.
In particular, school boards are reminded of existing components of special education funding, which may be particularly relevant in supporting newly enrolled students with ASD:
The Behaviour Expertise Amount Allocation (BEA) provides funding for school boards to hire board-level ABA expertise professionals. These professionals support principals, teachers, educators and other school staff by providing and coordinating ABA coaching, training and resources. They are also intended to support transitions, collaboration and information sharing between community-based autism service providers, school staff and families. This funding also provides for training opportunities to build school board capacity in ABA. The BEA allocation will be $15.2 million in 2018-19 and will be continued in 2019-20.
The Special Incidence Portion (SIP) provides up to $27,405 for students who require more than two full-time staff to address the health and safety needs of both the high-need student and others at their school. School boards may submit SIP claims to the Ministry of Education regional offices for approval. The SIP allocation is projected to be $105.3 million in 2018-19 and will be continued in 2019-20. Administrative dates for SIP claims will be extended in 2018-19 for eligible students.
The Special Equipment Amount (SEA) provides enrolment-based and claims-based funding for school boards to support high need students. This funding can be used for computers and communication technology, and non-computer based equipment including sensory equipment. The SEA allocation is projected to be $106.6 million in 2018-19 and will be continued in 2019-20. Administrative dates for SEA claims will be extended in 2018-19 for eligible students.
Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) funding was introduced in 2018-19 to support high need students, including students with ASD. School boards are continuing to recruit staff with appropriate credentials to fully benefit from this funding. The ministry will work with MCCSS and school boards to facilitate the recruitment of staff with appropriate expertise. The MDT funding allocation will be $50.8 million in 2018-19 and will be continued in 2019-20.
TDSB: This information references existing funding such as Special Equipment Amount (SEA), Special Incidence Portion (SIP) as part of Special Education funding and do not represent new or additional money for school boards
Expanding After School Skills Development Programs
The ministry has been supporting a pilot program in many boards to allow the provision of the After School Skills Development Program. The ministry will make an investment of $6.1 million to allow this successful pilot to be extended to all school boards across the province in the 2019-20 school year.
TDSB: We have completed two After-School pilot programs in this 2018/19 academic year for students with Autism focusing on social skills and self-regulation strategies. Each session has served between 50-60 students. Additional funding to support this program will allow TDSB to explore expanding this program to more locations throughout TDSB
Supporting Transitions
The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services will continue supporting transitions of children with ASD to school through the Connections for Students model, during the transition to the redesigned OAP.
The ministry will also host a series of virtual sessions about exclusions and modified days to engage parents, educators, administrators and others in a dialogue about these complex issues. The details will be communicated at a later date.
The ministry will survey school boards regularly to assess the impact of increased school enrolment and attendance by children and youth with ASD as they transition into the school system. The ministry will also ask boards to provide information on their websites for families seeking to enrol their children and youth.
TDSB: Information about how to register and initiate any transitions process from therapy to full time school has been posted on our website with links to the Centrally Assigned Principal in each Learning Centre who can assist families accordingly. The Connections for Students model is a transition program that connects TDSB staff from the Autism team with clinical staff and families to discuss how to best support a successful transition. While no additional funding has been announced to support it, this process will continue. Each student registration and transition will be considered on a case-by-case basis to support individual student needs for the transition and beyond