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

Published Apr 1, 2025 at 7:05pm

The Canadian Press
By
The Canadian Press
Ontario parents, advocates call for more supports for special needs students

Peyton , 7, poses in this undated handout photo. Melissa Stevens' daughter, Peyton has special needs and has escaped from school several times, but her mom says her pleas for an educational assistant for her daughter have gone unmet. Parents, the Ontario Autism Coalition and the province's three opposition parties are jointly calling for more supports to ensure the safety in school of children with disabilities. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO - Melissa Stevens *MANDATORY HANDOUT*

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.

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