Private ABA therapy: $60-$125/hour. Speech therapy: $150-$200/hour. OT: $120-$175/hour.
Intensive ABA (20-40 hrs/week): $50,000-$80,000/year. OAP funding covers only a portion of therapy costs, leaving families to pay the gap.
| Service | Hourly Rate | Annual Cost |
|---|---|---|
| ABA Therapy (20-40 hrs/week) | $60 - $125 | $50,000 - $80,000 |
| Speech Therapy | $150 - $200 | $15,000 - $40,000 |
| Occupational Therapy | $120 - $175 | $12,000 - $35,000 |
| Comprehensive Care | $77,000 - $155,000 |
Every question on this page traces back to one of these three numbers.
Registered
91,974Children registered
Total in the Ontario Autism Program queue
MCCSS FOI via OAC · May 2026
Funded
20,711Have active funding
Only 22.5% of registered children
MCCSS FOI via OAC · May 2026
Waiting
71,263Still waiting
Registered. Diagnosed. Un-funded.
MCCSS FOI via OAC · May 2026
Verified , MCCSS FOI via OAC · May 2026
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Children registered | 91,974 |
| Have active funding | 20,711 |
| Still waiting | 71,263 |
With 77.5% of Ontario children (71,263) facing multi-year waits for OAP core services, most families face a stark choice: pay for private therapy during the critical 0-6 developmental window, or wait and miss it entirely. Research consistently shows that early intervention produces the best outcomes, making the financial burden not just an affordability issue, but a health equity crisis.
OAP Core Clinical Services funding, when families eventually receive it, covers only a portion of evidence-based therapy costs. Against private ABA costs of $50,000-$80,000/year, the gap is substantial — costs that fall entirely on families.
Many autistic children qualify for the DTC, which allows families to claim therapy costs as medical expenses on federal and provincial tax returns, reducing net costs by $1,500-$3,000/year.
DTC-eligible families can open a Registered Disability Savings Plan with up to $90,000 in government matching grants and bonds over the child's lifetime.
Some extended health plans cover speech therapy ($500-$2,500/year) and occupational therapy. Review your plan's health spending account provisions and coordination of benefits options carefully.
While waiting for core services, families may access foundational family services through Access OAP, including caregiver training and group programs that don't require an invitation.
APA Style:
End The Wait Ontario. (2026). Cost of Private Autism Therapy in Ontario. Retrieved February 3, 2026, from https://www.endthewaitontario.com/answers/private-autism-therapy-costs-ontarioIs private autism assessment faster in Ontario?
Private autism assessments cost $2,500–$4,000 but reduce wait times from years to weeks. Many families face the choice of paying out-of-pocket to access the OAP sooner or waiting while their child misses the critical early intervention window.
Source: Ontario Autism Program [OAP] · Verify Link
Can autistic students get an educational assistant (EA)?
Schools may assign EAs based on IEP needs, but 47% of families report insufficient supports. EA availability varies by board and often fails to match clinical needs, leaving many autistic students without necessary classroom support.
Source: Ontario Education Act & OAC · Verify Link
Written by Spencer Carroll
Founder & Autism Advocate
Evidence on this page
Key claims are paired with their source, evidence tier, and verification date so readers can inspect the public record directly.
Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) delivered to children aged 18–30 months produced significant gains in IQ, adaptive behaviour, and autism severity — some children no longer met diagnostic criteria at follow-up
Cochrane systematic review finds evidence that early intensive behavioural intervention (EIBI) may produce positive effects on adaptive behaviour and communication for young children with ASD (low certainty of evidence)
WHO recommends accessible, community-based early interventions for children with autism. Timely evidence-based psychosocial interventions improve communication and social engagement
91,974
children are registered in the Ontario Autism Program
22.5%
Only 20,711 children have active funding agreements (22.5%), less than one in four