Autism policy changes should not worry parents, Blais says

The minister of Education and Early Childhood Development says pre-school children with autism will not have their intervention services cut for missing appointments, as long as they have a good reason for missing them.

Marie-Claude Blais was responding to concerns raised by parents about the provincial government's new policy, which sets a mandatory 95 per cent attendance rate.

Under the policy, slated to take effect on July 1, if a child misses more than three days of intervention services during a three-month period, the agency supplying the service will lose funding.

Some parents have argued against the policy, saying children sometimes have to miss appointments due to illness and other family commitments.

But Blais says parents should not be worried.

"We've been very clear that there's different reasons children miss appointments. If it's for medical reasons, you can certainly be sure that the children will not lose any intervention hours," she told CBC's Information Morning Saint John on Friday.

"What is important is that our partners … the agencies, the stakeholders we work with, deliver services directly to the children. We want children to receive more intervention hours, not less."

Children receiving 

autism services are currently entitled to 20 hours of direct intervention per week.

Liberal education critic Chris Collins has called for an immediate halt to the pending changes to services, saying t

here has been inadequate consultation with the affected families.

The new standards were announced on May 26, less than one week before the initial implementation date of June 1, he said.

And although the implementation date has since been 

bumped back to July 1, the government still has not provided adequate consultation, said Collins, calling it "unacceptable."

Collins says

he has received calls from concerned parents.

“Autism support agencies already experience high staff turnover rates. This new policy’s impact on agency funding will certainly make staff retention more difficult,” Collins said in a statement. “While this impacts the autism support agencies, it also certainly impacts the children," he said.

“Routine, consistency, and familiarity are all extremely important for a child with autism. These changes are causing an undue amount of uncertainty and stress for both these children and their parents," he said.

"At the end of the day, parents must be involved in the decisions that will impact their child.”

Blais dismissed Collins's complaint about a lack of consultation.

The provincial government budgets $13.6 million annually for autism services, she said.