TORONTO — Chris Walters' four-year-old daughter escaped from her Hamilton school last month and made it three blocks away before she was found by a member of the public in the middle of a road with traffic going around her.
Walters said his daughter is autistic and non-verbal — one of several such children in her kindergarten classroom — and while she has had an educational assistant in class, recently it has been sporadic.
He and other parents, the Ontario Autism Coalition and the province's three opposition parties are jointly calling for more supports to ensure kids' safety.
"The fact that she may not have come home that day is horrific," Walters said at a press conference on Tuesday, his voice wavering.
"I can't stress enough that I don't think the government is doing enough, and I know I'm not alone...We need to get stories like ours and stories like you'll hear in a moment out there, that it is not OK to not support some of our most vulnerable children."
Kate Dudley-Logue, with the Ontario Autism Coalition, said a lack of adequate special needs supports is not unique to Hamilton. Some boards across the province are cutting educational assistant positions, Dudley-Logue said, and more funding and support needs to come from the province.
It has been close to a year since a 16-year-old boy with a form of epilepsy died in school after his mother says he was alone in a sensory room, Dudley-Logue noted. Special education has not improved since then, she said.
"What we are receiving is a very clear message of how unimportant students with disabilities are to this government," she said.
"We are continuing down a road that only leads to yet another tragedy. It is only a matter of time before we lose another life, and this government cannot claim that they were not told. Advocacy groups, education unions, families and now opposition parties are all coming together now to sound the alarm on a system that is fundamentally broken."
A recent report by the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario said that English public school boards in the province have on average one educational assistant for every 10 children with special education needs.
Parents like Melissa Stevens, who is an educational assistant herself, say their children need one-on-one support.
Her seven-year-old daughter Peyton has special needs and first went missing from school when she was in senior kindergarten. Between then and the end of Grade 1, it happened 14 more times.
Just this week, Peyton ran away so much one day that she was barely in class, and the principal ended up spending the day with her so she would be safe, which is not the principal's job, Stevens said.
There are educational assistants at the school, but they are already assigned to multiple children and adding Peyton to their caseload is unreasonable, she said.
"I've explained it to the board and to the school, and I guess now I need to explain to the government — with kids like her, she needs the support," Stevens said.
"She needs EA support, and without that support, something bad is going to happen, and it's only a matter of time. It's not a matter of if it'll happen, it's a matter of when."
Stevens worries that her daughter could be kidnapped, severely injured or killed by a car during one of her escapes.
"I just, I need help," she said, near tears.
A spokesperson for Education Minister Paul Calandra said in a statement that the ministry will continue to work with parents and educators on the issue, "but it is absolutely critical that all schools have a plan in place to ensure the safety of their students."
Premier Doug Ford's government has increased funding for special education supports "every single year," Justine Teplycky wrote, adding that the province is investing almost $4 billion annually into special education.
"We have also added 4,000 education assistants to support teachers, parents, and students with special education needs," Teplycky wrote.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 1, 2025.
Allison Jones, The Canadian Press
