In Alberta, ‘we don’t have to fight schools. We’re partners’

‘I feel hopeful they are reaching their potential,’ say parents who left Ontario

Hope lured Tim and Rebecca Ingram to Alberta two years ago. Fear for their children’s futures was the reason they left Ontario.

Alanna, then 5, was about to be discharged from Ontario’s autism intervention program. It was therapy her parents believed in so strongly that they spent $10,000 to $15,000 a year for extra hours on top of those covered by the province.

But they worried about the gap in supports once she made the transition to public school in London.

Three-year-old Tyler wasn’t eligible for Ontario’s program because his autism wasn’t severe enough.

Alberta offered opportunities the Ingrams could only have dreamed of here.

The direct funding system provides funds for kids with developmental disabilities, based on each child’s needs, to pay for whatever services suit them best. Options include special needs schools, a range of behavioural, speech and occupational therapies, respite care, camps, and personal support workers to accompany children to recreational activities.

Children are assessed through the Family Support for Children with Disabilities program, which determines the amount. Wait times are minimal.

Parents have choices, unlike in Ontario, where intensive behavioural intervention (IBI) is the only sustained treatment covered by the province.

The Ingrams were lucky. Moving was an option, because Tim’s job in information technology was portable. In Calgary, the children are making huge strides.

Tyler, 5, is in half-day kindergarten at a privately run special needs school funded by the Alberta government, so it doesn’t cost his parents a cent. His class of 10 children has an occupational therapist and a teacher’s aide.

He has a home program for the rest of the day that includes therapy and an aide who works one-on-one with him — all fully covered.

Alanna, 7, has eight children in her class at Janus Academy, a school for children with autism that costs parents less than a quarter of what they would pay in Ontario.

The Ingrams pay $12,000 a year for a program that costs about $40,000 per child to operate. The Alberta gov- ernment underwrites most of the difference, and the school also fundraises.

“We don’t have to fight the schools (for what the children need), they’re partners with us. And I know they are learning,” says Tim.

Alberta’s approach is refreshing because it focuses on providing options that help the whole family function, says Tim.

The downside is parents must be astute consumers, or enlist agencies to help them find services. The quality and effectiveness can vary, so can cost.

It’s not a panacea, he adds. And why should any parent have to move across the country to get their children what they need?

But they are glad they did. And they can’t help think about the many parents of kids languishing on wait lists who wish they had the option.