91,974
children are registered in the Ontario Autism Program
Source record
91,974 children registered for the Ontario Autism Program.
This is the single figure every other number on the site is measured against.
Record card
Primary source- Figure
- 91,974
- As of
- May 13, 2026
- Publisher
- MCCSS Ontario Autism Program figures, May 13, 2026, obtained by the Ontario Autism Coalition under Freedom of Information
Reviewed August 2026 · next review 2026-11-05
What the figure counts.
Every child with a confirmed autism diagnosis whose family has completed registration with the Ontario Autism Program and who has not been removed from the register. It counts children, not families, and not applications.
It includes children at every stage of the program: waiting for an invitation, enrolled and having needs determined, and holding an active Core Funding Agreement. That is why the waiting figure is a subtraction rather than a separately published total.
What it is not
It is not a count of autistic children in Ontario, and it is not a waiting list in the ordinary sense. Children who never register are not counted, and a registration number does not imply a position in a moving queue.
Derivation
Every derived figure, shown as the arithmetic.
Children waiting for funding
91,974 − 20,711 = 71,263
Registered, less children holding an active Core Funding Agreement.
Share of the register receiving funding
20,711 ÷ 91,974 = 22.5%
Rounded to one decimal place.
Change since the prior published column
91,974 − 89,799 = +2,175
Two published MCCSS totals: March 4, 2026 and May 13, 2026.
Growth since the 2019 redesign
91,974 ÷ ~23,000 ≈ 4× =
The 2019 baseline is approximate; the government did not publish a real-time count.
Cite it.
Journalists and researchers are welcome to use this directly. The wording below is the form we would defend.
Citation
91,974 children were registered for the Ontario Autism Program as of May 13, 2026, of whom 20,711 held an active Core Funding Agreement. MCCSS Ontario Autism Program figures, May 13, 2026, obtained by the Ontario Autism Coalition under Freedom of Information.
This figure appears on
Evidence for this record
MCCSS bi-weekly OAP Core Clinical Services progress reports (FOI release CSS2026-0749)
Primary source for registration, enrollment, and funding agreement counts; corroborated by CBC News.
CBC News freedom-of-information investigation into Ontario Autism Program bi-weekly progress reports
Bi-weekly OAP progress reports covering late June 2024 through early January 2026, obtained through freedom of information. CBC published the January 7, 2026 column; the current canonical figures come from the later May 13, 2026 column released to the Ontario Autism Coalition, so this entry is the historical column, not the source of the current counts.
Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services: Spending Plan Review (2024)
Authoritative government analysis of MCCSS spending including OAP allocations.
Sources on this page
The source chain stays visible.
Key claims are paired with their source, evidence tier, and verification date so readers can inspect the public record directly.
Facts2
Sources2
22.5%
Only 20,711 children have active funding agreements (22.5%), less than one in four
Last system verification: 2026-08-10. Next scheduled update: 2026-11-05.
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