Link to brief no longer available
Excerpts from the brief: We call upon the federal government to ensure that Budget 2007 includes a broad comprehensive disability strategy that moves past tax measures and concentrates on programme expenditures. Beyond the focus on the universal child care benefit and the undefined nature of the space creation initiative, the needs of children with disabilities may once again be overlooked without very specific direction to community groups and governments. We believe that we must prioritize investments in building an inclusive children's public policy agenda in order to meet the social development needs and aspirations of children with disabilities and their families. We want to see the impact of your policy decisions tracked as well, particularly on these indicators: - The number of children with special needs in child care programs - Evidence of children with a range of needs and levels included - Number of centres accepting children - Reduced incidence of children with Special Needs being turned down - Higher retention … No Expulsion - Inclusive quality indicators and quality improvement over time, as a condition of funding for spaces and operations SpeciaLink recommends the federal government develop: - Policies that affect availability & access for children & parents - Policies that ensure all programs are physically accessible with design features appropriate for care