Sept. 5, 2001
BY BOB KLAGER ~ Telegraph-Journal

Woodstock parents frustrated by gap in support for special-needs children

We're definitely not the only ones needing help. I mean there's a lot of kids around with special needs. [Provincial support programs] look after them up to a certain age and then when they're in school it's up to the parents. ~ Jeff Way

WOODSTOCK - When four-year-old Dylan Way heads off to kindergarten this morning, frustration and anxiety will overshadow the excitement of new beginnings for his parents Karen and Jeff.

The Woodstock couple says a gap in support for children with special needs in New Brunswick is forcing tough decisions about after-school care for Dylan, who lives with Down's syndrome.

Their youngest boy's coming of age marks more than his first day of school: It means the last of provincial funding to provide him with the developmental support at day care he's received since he was nine months old.

"We're definitely not the only ones needing help," Mr. Way said Tuesday. "I mean there's a lot of kids around with special needs. [Provincial support programs] look after them up to a certain age and then when they're in school it's up to the parents."

Under the province's Early Childhood Initiative, government support for special-needs children in day care is not extended to those beyond kindergarten age. Children like Dylan receive provincially funded developmental support in the classroom, but his family has discovered it will now cost them more than $700 each month to access one-on-one support for the half days he's not in school. Even on a dual income - Mr. Way owns a collision repair shop and his wife works as a legal secretary - the costs seem prohibitive.

"Nowadays, it takes two people to have a home and support a family," Mr. Way said. "It makes it hard. There are a lot of children around who don't have that help and it should be there."

"We asked Dylan's social worker what other parents do and she said most times one quits work," Mrs. Way added. "We can't afford to do that."

Beginning Thursday, however, Mr. Way will be leaving work each day at 1:30pm to be with Dylan.

"If his business naturally suffers, we'll end up having to sell," Mrs. Way added. "We need two incomes."

The day-care issue for children with special needs is complex for many reasons, says Krista Carr, executive director of New Brunswick Association for Community Living. Parents often have trouble even finding care for a child with a disability because many day-care centres in the province don't feel they have the necessary skills to handle such cases. But when funding support such as Dylan received suddenly disappears, she said, it creates a whole set of new set of challenges for parents.

"There's definitely a need to have a look at it," Ms. Carr said, adding the association is currently working with the federal and provincial governments to ensure training to provide inclusive day-care centres across the province. "It's a need for families -families who need support."

After extensive correspondence with local social-services and child-care officials, as well as Family and Community Services Minister Percy Mockler, the Ways are hopeful the provincial government might still reconsider how it allocates special-needs funding to children in the province.

Mary McIntosh, spokeswoman for Mr. Mockler, said Tuesday the department is "certainly working with the family" to find some kind of resolution.

"We don't comment on specific cases... but the minister is aware of this case and he's directed his staff to review all of the facts in this matter to see if the family is eligible for any other programs offered by Family and Community Services," Ms. McIntosh said.

Opposition MLA Shawn Graham, the Liberals' Family and Community Services critic, said the Ways' situation exposes a system flaw about which he's heard similar concerns in New Brunswick. With the dawn of another school year drawing new attention to support services, Mr. Graham said he wants to work proactively with the government to find concrete solutions.

"It's my understanding that the minister is reviewing the special circumstances as they arise," he said. "Parents who are both working, but don't have the resources to financially afford to deal with their special needs children - he is going to have to take that into account.

"It's a loophole he's going to have to develop some sort of policy around to help parents that fall through the cracks in the system," Mr. Graham added.