Policy simulator
The crisis behind this story
Every policy scenario in this simulator starts from the same baseline: a province that has already committed to fund services for every eligible child, and hasn't.
Registered
89,799Children registered
Total in the Ontario Autism Program queue
MCCSS FOI · Mar 2026
Funded
20,633Have active funding
Only 23% of registered children
MCCSS FOI · Mar 2026
Waiting
69,166Still waiting
Registered. Diagnosed. Un-funded.
MCCSS FOI · Mar 2026
Verified , MCCSS FOI · Mar 2026
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Children registered | 89,799 |
| Have active funding | 20,633 |
| Still waiting | 69,166 |
| Scenario | Annual Cost | Wait Time Impact | Timeline to Clear |
|---|---|---|---|
| Status Quo | $965M | No change, 5-7 year waits persist | Never |
| Double Enrollment | ~$1.56B | Cut wait times by 50% | 8-10 years |
| Triple Enrollment | ~$2.34B | Cut wait times by 67% | 5-6 years |
| Full Funding (evidence-based) | ~$4.5B | Eliminate waitlist | 3-4 years |
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.
89,799
children are registered in the Ontario Autism Program
23%
Only 20,633 children have active funding agreements — less than one in four
WHO recommends accessible, community-based early interventions for children with autism — timely evidence-based psychosocial interventions improve communication and social engagement