Cornwall mom wants answers on special needs programming

Cornwall mom wants answers on special needs programming
Dominique Chabot-Payment with her husband Cory and children Kalem and Sammy.

CORNWALL, Ontario – The Cornwall mother of a pair of autistic children wants to know why outlying rural communities are hosting in-school programming to help kids on the spectrum, but little is done within city limits.

Dominique Chabot-Payment, whose son Kalem used to attend programming well outside the municipal boundaries, wants answers from the provincial government and the French Catholic school board about why programming has been set up in far off places like Alexandria, Moose Creek and even St. Isidore.

“Why do these little villages have these great programs and a city of 46,000 doesn’t?” she said.

Kalem currently attends Marie Tanguay in Cornwall with the help of a full-time education assistant.

While Chabot-Payment concedes the school is “wonderful” her son requires specialized instruction that focuses more on life skills than ABCs.

He had been attending a full-time autism program in Moose Creek until 2013 when the province cut the initiative. Then he had to be bused all the way to St. Isidore for a similar program.

But because of his condition, Kalem could no longer handle the hour-long drive (one way) to school.

So his parents made the decision to integrate him into a school closer to home.

It’s unlikely that Kalem will be an IT guru or get to post-secondary,” said Chabot-Payment. “But he does need to learn life skills.”

Typical life-skill programs teach students about hygiene, managing money and cooking.

Marie Tanguay is developing a full-time program for Kalem, for which Chabot-Payment is grateful, but it’s the first of its kind and she expects there to be growing pains.

“He’ll be the guinea pig,” she said.

Chabot-Payment and her husband are in a difficult situation. Their youngest boy Sammy is 2.5 years old, and has been diagnosed with autism as well.

Where Kalem is vocal, Sammy is non-verbal. The couple’s sanity, budget and ability to plan for the future are often stretched to the limit.

Chabot-Payment has reached out to the Child and Youth Services Ministry, including minister Tracy MacCharles, to find out what more can be done for families like her’s.

“I cannot work a regular nine to five job because I have to be available for appointments for my children,” she said. She recently lost a night-shift position when Eleven Points Logistics announced its closure.

Her husband, Cory, works at Cornwall home improvement store.

“There’s little respite. And a lot of the (supplemental care) we have to get comes out of pocket,” she said. “Thankfully we work very well together. (Cory) is great. He’s Superman.”

The minister’s office indicated their case, specifically the lack of autism programming in Cornwall within her school board, is under review.

Other school boards, including English public, offer full-time autism programming in Cornwall.

A representative of the Conseil scolaire de district catholique de l’Est ontarien could not be immediately reached.

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