How OAP funding moves from registration to an agreement.

OAP Core Funding amounts range from $6,600 to $65,000 per year in Ontario's published matrix. The child's age and assessed support needs, set during the Determination of Needs process, determine the applicable allocation. As of May 2026, 20,711 of 91,974 registered children hold an active Core Funding Agreement.

The 2026-27 OAP budget is $965M. In 2020, the Financial Accountability Office estimated the program needed $1.35 billion a year at 2018–19 service levels, for only ~40,700 children. With 91,974 children now registered, the actual need exceeds the current budget by approximately $385M compared to the FAO 2020 estimate. The structural shortfall means 71,263 children (77.5%) remain without an active funding agreement.

Families can use OAP Core Funding for evidence-based clinical services such as Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA), speech-language pathology, occupational therapy, and other autism-specific clinical supports. Families buy these services from registered OAP providers. The funding does not cover general childcare, respite, or recreational programs; separate SSAH funding may cover some of those instead.

Financial Accountability Office analysis found that only 44.5% of OAP spending reached Core Clinical Services, the direct therapeutic support for children. Program administration, overhead, and non-clinical streams absorbed the rest. The 2026-27 budget of $965M improves on the prior year ($779M), but still falls $385M short of the FAO's 2020 estimate for a fraction of today's caseload.

Families who disagree with an OAP eligibility or funding decision can request an internal review through AccessOAP. If the outcome still falls short, they can escalate to the Licence Appeal Tribunal (LAT) or contact the Ontario Ombudsman. Families in active service disputes can also seek advocacy support from the Ontario Autism Coalition or a community legal clinic.