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Assistance for Children with Severe Disabilities (ACSD) is an Ontario program run by the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services. It pays between $25 and $678 a month to help with extra costs caused by a child’s disability — travel to appointments, special shoes and clothing, and parental relief such as respite. It is a provincial program and is separate from the federal Child Disability Benefit. Families can receive both.
Figures above: Ontario
Guide values reviewed . Program amounts and eligibility can change; confirm them with the administering agency.
Ontario Assistance for Children with Severe Disabilities program page ›Monthly range, household income limit, and July adjustment checked August 8, 2026.
Your child must be under 18, live at home with you, and have a severe disability. Your total household income must be $77,640 or less. Meeting the income test on its own is not enough — the ministry also looks at your child’s situation.
ACSD is not limited to autism. It covers children with severe disabilities of any kind, so families are assessed against a much wider group of applicants than they often expect.
You can apply online and save a part-finished application for up to 90 days, or send a paper application to your local ministry regional office.
Ontario does not pay every approved family the same amount. The ministry sets your monthly payment using three things: the size of your family, how severe your child’s disability is, and the extraordinary costs you face because of that disability.
This is why two families with the same diagnosis can receive very different amounts. The $678 figure is a ceiling, not a standard payment. Many families are assessed well below it.
Keep records of disability-related spending — appointment travel, respite, clothing and footwear that wears out faster. Those extraordinary costs are one of the three factors the ministry weighs.
The ACSD maximum is tied to inflation and adjusted every July. In July 2026 the maximum rose by 1.9%.
That increase applies to the maximum. It is not an across-the-board raise for everyone on the program. Because your amount is set by your family size, your child’s severity and your assessed costs, a higher ceiling does not automatically lift a payment that sits below it.
If you expected a larger increase and did not get one, that is the most common explanation. If your child’s needs or your disability-related costs have gone up, contact your local ministry regional office about a reassessment rather than waiting for the next July adjustment.
ACSD does not replace the Ontario Autism Program. Families waiting for OAP core clinical services can apply for ACSD in the meantime, and many do.
Children approved for ACSD may also get help with an assessment for an assistive device, and with the consumer contribution for a device supplied through the Assistive Devices Program.
The federal Child Disability Benefit is a different program with a different application. Getting one does not disqualify you from the other.
Government of Ontario
Assistance for Children with Severe Disabilities program eligibility and payment rules
Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services
ACSD application routes and regional office intake
The annual July increase applies to the program maximum, not to every payment. Your amount is set from your family size, the severity of your child’s disability, and your extraordinary disability-related costs. If your payment sits below the maximum, raising the ceiling does not automatically raise it.
No. ACSD is an Ontario program run by the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services. The Child Disability Benefit is federal and is paid by the Canada Revenue Agency through the Disability Tax Credit. They have separate applications, and you can receive both.
Yes. ACSD is a separate program with its own application, and being on the OAP waitlist does not affect it. Many families apply for both.
No. ACSD is for children with severe disabilities of any kind. The ministry assesses the severity of the disability and the extraordinary costs it creates, not the specific diagnosis.
Ontario does not publish a processing-time standard for ACSD, and families report very different waits by region. Because there is no defensible figure to publish, this page does not give one. End The Wait Ontario has prepared a freedom-of-information request for regional ACSD application and wait data.
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Families navigating autism services in Ontario face a documented multi-year wait. Here is the Ontario data — and a two-minute way to push back, when you are ready.
What official government data tracks the Ontario autism waitlist?
VerifiedThe current province-wide waitlist record is the MCCSS FOI data published through the Ontario Autism Coalition data hub. As of May 2026, it shows 91,974 registered children and 22.5% with active funding agreements. Historical FAO, Auditor General, OHRC, and AccessOAP records provide separate context and should be cited for their own claims.
Source: MCCSS FOI via OAC May 2026 · Open source record
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