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For families of children with disabilities in Ontario, getting the right support can be a long and difficult process. A new report from the Ontario Autism Coalition (OAC) is highlighting just how significant those challenges have become within the province’s public education system.
The OAC’s second annual special education survey gathered responses from 657 families across 64 school boards. The findings point to continued concerns around staffing, accommodations, access to education, and the resources available to support students with disabilities.
The message from families is clear: children need support, and the current system is struggling to provide it.
When Support Gaps Affect a Child’s School Day
One of the report’s most concerning findings is the increase in students attending school on modified schedules.
More than one-quarter of students represented in the survey were reported to be on modified schedules, meaning they are not attending school for a full day. This represents an increase from the previous year.
For families, a shortened school day can have consequences beyond simply missing classroom time. It can affect learning, routines, social opportunities, and a child’s ability to participate fully in school life.
The report also found that approximately one-third of students with disabilities experienced some form of exclusion from school activities, while more than 21,000 children were reported to be completely excluded from school.
These numbers raise an important question: What happens when a child’s needs exceed the supports available to their school?
The Impact on Families
When schools do not have enough staff or specialized resources, families can end up filling the gaps.
Sometimes this can look like repeated calls asking a parent or caregiver to pick up their child early. Other times, families may be navigating shortened school days or trying to determine how their child’s needs can be accommodated within existing resources.
These experiences can place significant pressure on families who are already trying to coordinate therapy, school supports, appointments, and other services.
The issue is not simply whether a child has an Individual Education Plan (IEP). It is whether the supports outlined in that plan can actually be provided.
According to the OAC survey, 42 per cent of respondents said their child’s IEP was followed inconsistently or not at all. Another 66 per cent reported receiving little or no follow-up regarding their child’s IEP. An IEP can identify the accommodations and supports a student requires, but those recommendations only make a difference when they can be implemented consistently.
The Autism Service Gap Extends Beyond the Classroom
The challenges facing families do not stop at the school doors.
Ontario families waiting for autism services are also facing significant delays through the Ontario Autism Program (OAP). Data obtained by the OAC through a Freedom of Information request shows that, as of May 2026, 91,974 children were registered with the program, with 71,263 not holding an active Core Funding Agreement.
That means the majority of children registered with the OAP were still waiting for funded core services. The OAC estimates that the average wait for OAP core clinical services has now exceeded five years. For a young child, that represents a substantial portion of their early childhood. A child who enters the OAP system at age three, for example, could potentially reach school age and beyond before receiving provincial funding for core clinical services.
Why Early Support Matters
Early childhood is an important period for communication, learning, social development, and independence. Delays in accessing appropriate services can leave families trying to find alternatives while they wait.
For some families, that may mean paying privately for speech-language therapy, occupational therapy, behavioural services, or other supports. For others, private services may simply be financially out of reach. This creates another layer of inequality: the ability to access support can depend heavily on a family’s financial circumstances while they wait for publicly funded services. At the same time, schools are expected to support children based on their educational needs, regardless of whether they have received OAP funding.
This creates a complicated gap between the services a child may need, the services a family can access, and the resources available within the school system.
What Families Are Asking For
The Ontario Autism Coalition is calling for changes across the education system, including increased funding, minimum staffing standards, better tracking of school exclusions, stronger accountability around IEP implementation, and the adoption of accessibility standards for K–12 education.
These recommendations point toward a larger issue: improving access is not only about creating programs. It is also about ensuring that the people, funding, training, and infrastructure needed to deliver those programs are actually available.
For families, the goal is straightforward.
Children with disabilities should be able to attend school, participate in their education, and receive the accommodations they need. Families should not have to repeatedly advocate for supports that have already been identified as necessary.
Moving Forward
The challenges identified by the OAC are part of a much larger conversation about how Ontario supports children with disabilities.
While systemic change will take time, families still need access to information, advocacy, community resources, and practical support today.
Organizations, schools, clinicians, and community groups all have a role to play in helping families navigate the gaps that currently exist.
Every child deserves the opportunity to learn, communicate, participate, and feel supported. Families should not have to navigate the system alone.