Radio-Canada has revealed that CPE managers, parents and early childhood education network staff are calling for major changes in support services aimed at helping children with special needs, such as children with disabilities. B. to integrate those with an autism spectrum (ASD).
Suzanne Roy said Thursday on the sidelines of a CAQ caucus that the funds provided are sufficient to integrate children with special needs into the childcare network and that dissatisfaction is related to delays in funding.
We are looking at how we can move faster, the minister said.
In 2022, child day care received only half of the requested hours of extraordinary support measures. This financial support makes it possible to offer a child one-to-one, i.e. a proven educator. This is necessary when, for example, a child exhibits behavior that is dangerous to himself or others.
Both the administrative burden and the lack of funds are highlighted in three reports recently sent to the Department of Family Affairs, copies of which Radio-Canada has received.
These come on top of other reports going in the same direction, including that of the firm Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton in 2021, commissioned by the Legault government.
Neither in the budget presented on Tuesday nor in an ongoing departmental reform is there currently a measure to respond to inquiries from daycare centers.
When the minister says the money is there, she’s completely out of touch, Liberal MP Jennifer Maccarone said. The mother of two autistic children has been trying to improve access to daycare for children with special needs since 2018 because she herself suffers from rejection.
Liberal MP Jennifer Maccarone is the mother of two autistic children.
Photo: Radio Canada
“It’s an obstacle course. If daycare families refuse, we impoverish their mental health, their finances, that’s very difficult. »
– A quote from Jennifer Maccarone, MP for Westmount-Saint-Louis and mother of two autistic children
There is a lack of money to take care of these children and I find that unacceptable, affirmed Sol Zanetti, spokesman for Quebec solidaire for the family.
The finance minister said this week that the essential functions of the state have been secured. We see that this is not true! protested the elected representative of the Quebec region.
Sol Zanetti, spokesman for the second opposition family group
Photo: Radio Canada
The Parti Québécois considers it imperative that the ministry improve financial support for day care centers and ensure that it is representative of health professionals’ diagnoses.
As Radio-Canada reports, day care centers make their requests based on recommendations from professionals such as psychologists or physical therapists.
However, independent advisory bodies examine these applications and decide on the amount of funding per childcare service based on a points system that is currently controversial in the field of early childhood care.
The family’s PQ spokesman, Joël Arseneau, clearly denounced inadequate help to children in dire need.
The Parti Québécois also calls on the government to stop sinking towards a centralization of waiting lists with a view to the future admissions policy planned for 2024.
Méganne Perry Mélançon, national spokeswoman for the Parti Québécois, with MPs Pascal Bérubé (left) and Joël Arseneau (right)
Photo: Radio Canada
For her part, Valérie Grenon, President of the Quebec Federation of Early Childhood Educators (FIPEQ-CSQ), underlined that we are obviously disappointed that we have not seen any new amounts to support children with special needs in the recent budget.
FIPEQ describes the statements made to Radio-Canada as worrying and requests an increase in current support.
The financial and human resources must be sufficient to support all these children, and this without sacrificing the health of the early childhood education network staff, who are already experiencing overwork, she stresses.