Special Needs Issues

On November 20, the Canadian Council for Social Development (CCSD) released an informative report entitled Children and Youth with Special Needs. The report highlights the difficulties and barriers facing children with special needs, problems that most people feel should be diminishing, but which in fact remain daunting.

It was about one year ago that the Ontarians with Disabilities Act was a hot topic in this column and just about anywhere else in Ontario where disability issues were of concern. It would seem that many key issues remain unresolved.

A new program known as Students Leading Students will help secondary school students "to learn about disability, about how students (with intellectual disabilities) can be educated in regular classes, and how it's a better way to educate them.

Community and Social Services Minister John Baird formally announced on September 11 that agencies serving people with developmental disabilities throughout Ontario will be eligible for increased funding immediately.

A new program designed to give high school students with disabilities an opportunity to experience their first job was officially launched on July 23, 2001, by Tim Sale, minister responsible for persons with disabilities in the province of Manitoba.

Four Ottawa non-profit organizations will have a chance to improve accessibility for persons with disabilities as a result of government funding announced by Cam Jackson, Ontario Minister of Citizenship with responsibility for disability issues.

Responding to the concerns of individuals and groups serving people with developmental disabilities, Community and Social Services Minister John Baird will introduce legislation on June 5 that, if passed, will repeal the Homes for Retarded Persons Act.

FAS is the most preventable cause of cognitive disability. In fact, it could be eradicated through abstention from alcohol during pregnancy.

The March 22, 2001, release by the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) of its Policy and Guidelines on Disability and the Duty to Accommodate has been strongly commended by Ontario Citizenship Minister Cam Jackson.

New funding will help children's aid societies respond to increased service demands resulting from greater public awareness of child abuse and neglect, and the strengthening of the Child and Family Services Act.