Her recommendations complement statements from parents and CPEs calling for the Legault government to make major changes as a matter of urgency.
These reports, presented after two years of work, denounce the entire system that funds the integration of tens of thousands of children. They conclude that they face daycare denials or service disruptions because of the difficulty in obtaining additional financial assistance.
Their conclusions point in particular to the allocation intended for more severe cases. It’s called MES, the extraordinary funding measure.
Under the current system, childcare income is calculated based on the number of children, regardless of whether some need more support than others.
It is estimated that between 15% and 20% of young children have special support needs. To help them, the Ministry of Family Affairs offers an allowance (called AIEH) aimed at facilitating their integration so that they develop at the same pace as the others.
However, about 5% of children need much more support, e.g. B. One-to-one, that is, an adult to supervise them at all times. This is the case when a young child has a severe physical or mental disability or behavior that is dangerous to themselves or others.
In 2022, daycare centers requested 1.6 million hours of assistance (MES) for severe cases. They only got half.
Reports from the three national joint advisory committees, obtained by Radio-Canada, unanimously conclude that there is a risk that children with special needs will be rejected or face cuts in benefits if nothing changes. (file photo)
Photo: Shutterstock
Evans advances thanks to a CPE at Gatineau
In September 2019, Lysandy gave birth to Chhay Evan at Ottawa Hospital. He was immediately transferred to the neonatal intensive care unit at Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO).
It is the couple’s first baby.
“We knew during pregnancy that there was a risk, but we couldn’t imagine what would happen,” explains Evan’s mother, Lysandy Chhay, who lives with her husband in suburban Gatineau.
Evan was born with a brain malformation (hemimegalencephaly) that caused him to have epileptic seizures. He makes 80 seizures in 12 minutes. Doctors suggest a hemispherectomy or brain surgery. The surgery is positive for epilepsy, but leaves Evan partially paralyzed in his right arm and leg.
This boy is a warrior. His mother says he went through a lot in a very short time.
Evan also suffers from Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). He’s non-verbal, he doesn’t respond to his name or any word. Ms. Chhay explains that he doesn’t understand the instructions.
In the hope of getting back to work, the parents turn to dozens of day-care centers.
After months of waiting, the CPE Le Baluchon in Gatineau opens its doors to you. The parents could not have hoped for better. The day care center is experienced in accommodating young children with special needs.
It had an immediate positive impact on the socio-emotional level, explains Lysandy.
Curiosity! adds Daniel, the father. By the time he went to kindergarten, Evan began exploring, walking, playing with toys, he says, while he was flat (amorphous) since his surgery.
It’s a blessing to have these children, says CPE Director Lynda Castonguay, who believes diversity is essential in a daycare.
Unfortunately, before the holidays, the manager received bad news. The Ministry of Family Affairs only grants him four hours of MES support for Evan.
The rest of the time he is treated like the other children.
Lynda Castonguay is outraged.
It’s a safety issue for him, she said.
For Evans’ parents, the Family Department’s ruling makes no sense.
Evan is unaware of the dangers to himself. However, since he poses no danger to others or requires force-feeding, he scores fewer points, his mother claims.
These points form the basis of an analysis grid. Independent from the ministry, regional advisory committees review requests from individual childcare services across Quebec based on this scoreboard. They then recommend to the Ministry the number of hours of care for each child.
It’s absurd. We have professionals, psychologists, physiotherapists who sign our requests. And there is a committee outside the department that meets every now and then that decides how many hours we have? the manager protests.
In their grid of points, force-feeding is worth more than behaviors that resemble autism. But force-feeding is not complicated if the educator is trained to do it. After that, it requires simple monitoring, she explains.
Lynda Castonguay is short of $40,000 to offer Evan full-time. She found a way to offer parents an extra two hours from her budget, but she can’t do more without impacting services to the other children.
It is sad to see how the Ministère de la Famille is behaving. We are a CPE that has always welcomed children with multiple disabilities ranging from paraplegia to autism to trisomy including force feeding. When we ask for full-time support, it’s because we need it, she emphasizes.
While waiting for more childcare hours, Evan’s father, a construction worker, stays at home to take care of him. His wife is on maternity leave: she gave birth to Lyra, a little girl, six months ago.
In 2022, daycare centers requested 1.6 million hours of assistance (MES) for severe cases. They only got half. (file photo)
Photo: Shutterstock / Igorstevanovic / Igor Stevanovic
Waiting for the MES for Léo* in Montreal
Following our report on future admissions policies aimed at promoting the inclusion of children with disabilities in daycare from 2024, Radio-Canada received numerous testimonials, including Lynda Castonguay’s.
These managers and these parents are begging the Legault government to solve the current problems before imposing centralization on the network.
200 kilometers from Gatineau, in Pointe-Saint-Charles, in Montreal, Emmanuelle Speer, director of CPELes enfants de l’avenir, is also struggling to have a baby. We call him Leo.
Leo was not even two years old when he started kindergarten. This child had no known diagnosis. The CPE team had no idea what problems would arise.
However, Leo turned out to be a difficult case. He does not express himself verbally. He is unable to follow instructions, eat or sleep at the same pace as other children. And above all, he often has seizures.
Sometimes he hurts himself, explains Emmanuelle Speer.
The manager asked for the MES before the holidays. She is waiting. She does not know.
Do I have an hour, two hours, three hours?
I have the best educators in the world, but one educator for him and seven other children is not possible. And it’s a love, this child. I can cry because I find it super difficult…
For Emmanuelle Speer it is not a question of a lack of staff, but of money.
For months she has been studying all the columns of her budget in front of her computer to find a solution. But it’s having a particularly difficult fiscal year. She received an eviction notice after skyrocketing rent increases, as did many community organizations and CPEs living in surplus buildings in Montreal.
However, the Ministère de la Famille does not cover the removal costs.
The principal worries that he will have to make a heartbreaking decision: suspend Leo’s preschool or cut benefits for the other children.
Five percent of toddlers need “one for one”, meaning constant adult supervision. (file photo)
Photo: Shutterstock/Roman Yanushevsky
Go into deficit to keep Vincent*
Christine Durocher has been working with children with special needs for almost 30 years.
She is Director of the Saint-Laurent Center for Social Pediatrics At the Heart of Childhood.
Half of the customers are migrants. Among them are many children who have a difficult migration path. Many of them also come from vulnerable families in the neighborhood. The Youth Welfare Office (DPJ) often entrusts children to him.
Christine Durocher prepares applications for financial support such as the MES every year.
I have never received full hours of support for the MES. Never. The effects? Well, let’s say to ourselves: do I cancel the housekeeper’s job and therefore the governess does the washing again?
In the early childhood network, Christine Durocher is known for being tough and doing whatever it takes to keep the kids. Everything, including accepting a deficit if necessary.
“It is the mission of our association to integrate children with special challenges. It’s part of our DNA. »
— A quote from Christine Durocher
This happened to a kid we’ll call Vincent* last year.
Not only did Vincent have the highest stage of autism spectrum disorder, but he was aggressive and bit other children.
Christine Durocher claimed eight hours MES.
The first year the department gave him an hour. In the second year she was given two hours. Then the third year: three hours.
A child who is two years old and pushes a little, that’s fine. But the older he gets, the more he can throw the teacher to the ground, explains Bernard Cormier, head of the daycare center at the children’s center.
It’s an open secret, his boss Christine Durocher is his wife. The couple share a passion for helping young children who have not had a rosy life.
Christine Durocher, Director of the Saint-Laurent Center for Social Pediatrics “In the Heart of Childhood”, and her daycare director, Bernard Cormier.
Photo: Radio Canada / Julie Marceau
Last year, Christine met with her board of directors to let them know she would run a $35,000 deficit. She got her team’s endorsement. The parents never knew anything.
You don’t want to tell a parent that their child is exhausted and that we are at the end of our resources for them. They also don’t tell the parents how much other parents complain. Even when it’s difficult and we’re exhausted, we have to protect the children and not blame the parents for our problems, she explains.
Christine Durocher did not lack staff, but money.
The educator Noémie Bonnin shows us a book with pictograms. This tool will help a child with a severe speech delay to manage their emotions. It was tailor-made for the children of the “Au coeur de l’enfance” center for social pediatrics.
Photo: Radio Canada / Julie Marceau
Reports denouncing the MES are piling up
The reports received by Radio-Canada from the three national joint advisory committees reflect the position of the day care managers and staff represented by the CSQ, FTQ and CSN.
Their work unanimously concludes that if nothing changes, children with special needs risk being rejected or suffering service disruptions.
These reports, presented to Minister Suzanne Roy in January, complement the report of the Table de Concertation pour l’entrée en services de garde des enfants avec les handicaps de la region de Montréal (TISGM).
Back in November 2021, this important group of CPEs and organizations concluded that financial support for children with special needs is inadequate, restrictive and too complicated to obtain.
In April 2021, six months before the Table’s report, an evaluation commissioned by the Ministère de la Famille of the company Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton recommended improving the MES and making it more accessible.
This Montreal firm’s report cost the Ministère de la Famille $85,000.
Family Minister Suzanne Roy. (file photo)
Photo: The Canadian Press / Jacques Boissinot
Revisions underway, the ministry assures
The Ministry of Family Affairs assures that revisions are underway. The works […] go ahead, spokesman Bryan St-Louis said.
The Minister’s office is aware of the recommendations of the three national joint advisory committees, he said, without commenting on the other reports.
The department also argues that envelopes reserved for children with special needs have been greatly improved under the CAQ government.
Meanwhile, Evan’s parents have filed a complaint with the Ministère de la Famille and the Quebec Ombudsman.
The Quebec Ombudsman is investigating. He points out that everything is in accordance with the ministerial rules.
Lynda Castonguay and her board are calling for a revision of these rules. They sent a letter to Minister Roy asking her to act quickly.
Her heart cry concerns two of the CPE’s children, including Evan.
The board of the CPE Le Baluchon and myself are stunned by the recent decisions of the advisory committee for the exceptional level of support, they write.
They conclude that the ministry is jeopardizing the integration and safety of two children and affecting their parents’ ability to work and contribute to Quebec society.
That letter, sent in January, went unanswered.