1/Children in Ontario have the right to an education. That should be the case whether they have a disability or not. Educational Assistants are ACCESSIBILITY PERSONIFIED for children with disabilities.
They enable access. They allow my child & others to enter a school. Without
2/EAs the doors to education are closed to my child every day of the year.
I am nothing less than disturbed that the government elected by 40% of our population fails not only to value, but to recognize the value of these individuals who care for the province’s most
3/vulnerable children when their mothers and fathers and caregivers cannot.
Let me be perfectly clear. @Sflecce stands before the cameras and makes feeble attempts to turn parents like me against the people we have hoped for. And begged for. And put ALL of our trust in as
4/they care for our children and act as the gateway to their education.
How foolish can you be.
Undervaluing the commitment, dedication and expertise of those choosing to come to work each day for the little people they care so much for—despite lack of
5/Both respect & compensation— does nothing but prove how severely removed from reality you are, Minister Lecce.
You may repeatedly claim to “want to keep children in class”—perhaps to somehow redeem @fordnation’s poor performance over the past four years. But to me, a special
6/needs parent, you communicate nothing but your total and complete lack of concern for my children’s education, safety, need for community, peers, belonging & well being. You affirm nothing but your lack of commitment to disabled Ontarians.
There is a name for that.
7/I will stand with @CUPEOntario and support their right to fair bargaining as they fight for their worth, their families, and mine. I can assure you, Mr. Lecce, you wouldn’t do half of what these folks do for $39k a year. And my guess is that you couldn’t do it either.
My son is severely autistic with an intellectual delay. He is 9 & can use limited words to ask me for juice, to go outside or demand his weekly Timbits ration. Beyond that, we cannot converse. I don’t know how he’s feeling, if he’s nervous, unsettled or scared.
2/ I have only the cues and clues we are able to gather from tears & giggles, and the signs of eagerness or apprehension.
I dreaded the day he started school. The thought of handing him off to a stranger in the care of 30 other 4 yos was not something my mind could compute.
3/ Further to that, it just wasn’t an option. I wouldn’t do it. I struggled with the daily challenges of supporting his needs with a 2 year old in tow, in my own home where I could lock the doors and cupboards and use every childproofing device I could find. My son is curious and
1/ I have a child with an autism diagnosis and intellectual delay. He is 9. He spends his mornings included in a Grade 4 classroom.
2/ He is not doing what his classmates do. He works at his own pace, with his own (extremely) modified curriculum while he practices sitting at a desk for longer than 20 minutes.
3/ He has the kind of needs that dictate he be supervised at all times. ALL. TIMES. If you have children, consider that feeling when you watch them climb onto the yellow bus and then wave from their window—or when your teenager flies through the kitchen, grabs their lunch and
🧵🪡
Dear @Sflecce:
I wish you could understand how unsettling, nerve-wracking, *insert uneasy synonym here* it is to approach a new school year as a parent of a special needs child. But you won’t. You may have read a handful of briefings or listened to colleagues tell you
how your government is doing a “stand up” job at special education—but until you’ve fathered children of your own who may need a little more in Ontario, you won’t know.
I wish you could know how maddening it is to hear you talk about how “wonderfully” your govt is
doing at supporting special education when REAL, ONTARIAN FAMILIES have children who cannot attend school, or who are sent home because of inadequate resources, or who are unsafe or who “don’t present with enough challenges to deserve support”.
I’ll continue to say this as it hurts too much not to. @fordnation is either lying, or is so misguided that he believes the lies he’s being fed.
Both should prevent him from sitting as Premier.
@fordnation has the *GALL* to *CAMPAIGN* on an *UTTER POLICY DISASTER* that is
*CURRENTLY* hurting families and will *CONTINUE* to do so for years because of stupidity and inaction.
The Ontario Autism Program is NOT fixed. It is NOT Needs Based. If does NOT have clinical direction and it is NOT “designed by the community for the community” because
it goes against the most crucial recommendations given by the OAP Advisory Panel.
These policies not only hurt families, but devastate families. They have deprived children of care. They spit in the faces of advocates who have dedicated countless hours trying to
Daily Reminder that @fordnation HAS NOT fixed the Ontario Autism Program:
What would constitute ‘fixed’?
1️⃣ Adequate funding, with the $600M promise being spent.
❌ Ford did not spend the promised funding and continuously fell short. #50KIsNotOk#onpoli
2️⃣ A program that recognizes that AGE has no bearing on a child’s needs.
❌ Ford’s program penalizes children by clawing back funding as they celebrate birthdays. #50KIsNotOk#onpoli
3️⃣ A program that delivers based on recommendations from a clinician who has evaluated the child.
❌ @fordnation has removed clinical input. Funding is determined by an algorithm after a 2 hr phone call between a parent & a non-clinician who has never met the child. #50KIsNotOk
@MacLeodLisa is my MPP in #Nepean. How unbelievably sad that over the years we’ve become completely desensitized to her antics; this type of story is almost expected. I have autistic children. We have been deeply, deeply hurt by MacLeod’s policies. But we’ve also had enough face
time (or attempted face time) with the Minister to know that #Nepean deserves so much better. Our community has been publicly accused of trying to run her out of office. I think her record might do the job on its own.
We had been invited to an Autism Roundtable in January 2019.
@MacLeodLisa abruptly walked out of the meeting when the questions got tough.
I was invited into the Minister’s office during the first Ottawa protest after she made the Autism announcement that would send the program and families into a downward spiral for 3 years & counting.