Ontario parents, advocates call for more supports for special needs students

TORONTO — Parents of children with special needs who have run away from school, the Ontario Autism Coalition and the province’s three opposition parties are jointly calling for more supports to ensure kids’ safety.

Chris Walters says his four-year-old daughter escaped from her Hamilton school last month and made it three blocks away before she was found by a member of the public in the middle of a road with traffic going around her.

His daughter is autistic and non-verbal — one of three such children in her kindergarten classroom — and Walters says she has had an educational assistant in class, but more recently it has been sporadic.

Melissa Stevens’ daughter first went missing from school when she was in senior kindergarten and between then and the end of Grade 1, it happened 14 more times.

Stevens, who is an educational assistant herself, says her daughter has several special needs and should be getting one-on-one support, but does not have it.

Kate Dudley-Logue, with the Ontario Autism Coalition, says the special education system is fundamentally broken and that sends a message that students with disabilities are not important.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 1, 2025.

Allison Jones, The Canadian Press