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Parent. Advocacy. Tribunal. Help (PATH) with Kim Block

Kim is a parent with many years of school advocacy experience on behalf of her neurodiverse children. She has a certificate in legal studies from Simon Fraser University and completed her degrees in Criminology. While she does not offer legal advice, she does blog about decisions made in the Human Rights Tribunal (HRT), Teacher's Regulation Branch (TRB) and the BC Ombudsperson.

BCEdAccess Society

A grassroots, non-profit society with the mandate of ensuring all disabled children can access education.

Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP)

The Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) is a long-term savings plan to help people save for a child's education after high school, including trade schools, CEGEPs, colleges, universities, and apprenticeship programs.

Canada Student Grant for Part-Time Students

A grant available for low-to-middle income students, providing up to $3,500 for those enrolled part-time at eligible institutions in Canada.

Canada Student Grant for Students with Disabilities

A grant for up to $2,800 per year for eligible students with disabilities enrolled at an eligible institution in B.C.

B.C. Supplemental Bursary for Students with Disabilities

The B.C. Supplemental Bursary for Students with Disabilities (SBSD) provides $400 to $800 to help students with permanent, persistent, or prolonged disabilities cover educational costs when taking a reduced course load at B.C. public post-secondary institutions

Canada Student Grant for Services and Equipment - Students with Disabilities

Up to $20,000 per year to offset the costs of extra equipment or services to access education, such as assistive equipment or services, specialized transportation and assessments.

B.C. Assistance Program for Students with Disabilities  

The B.C. Assistance Program for Students with Disabilities (APSD) provides non-repayable grants to help eligible post-secondary students pay for exceptional education-related services and adaptive equipment. Applicants can receive up to $10,000 per program year, or up to $12,000 if a personal attendant is required at school.

Learning Disability Assessment Bursary (BC)  

The Learning Disability Assessment Bursary is a B.C. government program that helps eligible post-secondary students cover the upfront, out-of-pocket costs of psych-educational assessments. The bursary provides up to $3,500 to cover or reimburse the evaluation.

Disability Tax Credit

The disability tax credit (DTC) is a non-refundable tax credit that helps people with disabilities, or their supporting family member, reduce the amount of income tax they may have to pay. If you have a severe and prolonged impairment, you may apply for the credit. If you are approved, you may claim the credit at tax time. Because Autism is neuro-developmental disability, many parents have this form backdated to birth.

• Note: The Disability Tax Credit (DTC) includes a tax-free monthly supplement to your Child Benefit for loved ones under 18
• This is a requirement to open a Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP) on behalf of your loved one

Representation & Committeeship Agreements

A Representation Agreement is a proactive, voluntary legal document created by an adult with mental capacity, allowing them to choose a trusted person to make health and personal care decisions on their behalf if they become incapable. In contrast, Guardianship (also called Committeeship) is a much more restrictive court process for adults who do not have legal capacity. Committeeship is costly to set up and extremely difficult to reverse, but may be necessary for some families.  

Child Care Expenses

Child care payments up to $11,000 (if the child qualifies for the Disability Tax Certificate) may be claimed by the lower-income spouse, if you paid to have someone look after your child so that you or the other person could:

• Earn Income
• Attend School
• Or conduct research

Some examples of eligible child care expenses include day-care centres and day nursery schools, some individuals providing child care services, day camps and day sports schools, educational institutions such as private schools (the portion of tuition costs relating to child care services), boarding schools, and overnight sports schools and camps.

Your out of pocket expenses for your BCBA/BI Team can be claimed a child care expense; make sure these are separately labeled from your other medical expenses. Ensure that your invoices and receipts specify “Child Care” as the description of service and not ABA therapy or tutoring - more on that below.

Medical Expenses

Once the DTC is in place, and all child care expenses are accounted for, consider claiming your BCBA/BI Team as a medical expense. Medical expenses will granted by the government as a non-refundable tax credit. In other words, you will receive back about 20% of your costs.

The government seems to prefer the term “tutoring” as opposed to “therapy”. Here is the CRA definition of tutoring: "Tutoring services used by, and which are supplementary to the primary education of, a person with a learning disability or impairment in mental functions, and paid to someone in the business of providing such services who is not related to the person being tutored. A medical practitioner must certify in writing that these services are necessary."

Do not put anything under Description of Services other than what is required. It should read “Tutoring” or “ABA Tutoring” or “Attendant Care”. Extra items like Team Meeting, overlaps, training etc. will confuse the issue and cause the medical expense to be denied.

Personalized Therapy Plans & Attendant Care

A medical expense category created in 2014 is the “Personalized Therapy Plan”. In a nutshell, this is what you can use to claim expenses paid to your Board-Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA).

The therapy has to be prescribed and supervised by one of the following practitioners:
a psychologist, a medical doctor, or a nurse practitioner (for expenses incurred after September 7, 2017) for a mental impairment
an occupational therapist, a medical doctor, or a nurse practitioner (for expenses incurred after September 7, 2017) for a physical impairment

The plan has to meet one of the following conditions:
be needed to get public funding for specialized therapy
be prescribed by a psychologist, a medical doctor, or a nurse practitioner (for expenses incurred after September 7, 2017) for a mental impairment
be prescribed by an occupational therapist medical doctor, or a nurse practitioner (for expenses incurred after September 7, 2017) for a physical impairment

You may also claim for attendant care if you have hired someone (i.e. a domestic helper) to care for your child. You can claim up to $10,000 (if the child qualifies for the DTC) and still claim the disability amount. Please note that this limit applies to each paying individual. Therefore each spouse can claim $10,000 if this arrangement is supported by receipts. Attendant care is lumped in with medical expenses as a tax credit, so don’t bother trying to claim ABA expenses as attendant care. This would, however, apply to babysitting or respite expenses. Make sure that the service rendered is “Attendant Care” on your invoices.

Travel, Meals and Accommodation

If you have to travel more than 40km to access medical care, you may be able to claim travel expenses. If you travel over 80km, you may be able to claim meals and accommodation.

Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP)

A registered disability savings plan (RDSP) is a savings plan intended to help an individual who is approved to receive the disability tax credit (DTC) to save for their long-term financial security. There are a lot of government matching and investing programs to help plan ahead for their old age.

Home Buyers' Amount

The home buyers' amount is a non-refundable tax credit that helps first-time home buyers with some of the costs of purchasing a qualifying home.

You must intend that you, or a related person with a disability, will occupy the home as a principal place of residence no later than one year after it is acquired.

Home Accessibility Expenses

The Home Accessibility Tax Credit (HATC) is a non-refundable tax credit designed to help homeowners cover the costs of renovations that make their home more accessible and safer.

Examples of work relevant to a dependent with autism: A fence to contain a child with elopement issues, Modifications to the structure to contain a violent or aggressive individual, or floors that may lessen the risk of injury

Home Renovation Tax Credit

The BC Home Renovation Tax Credit originally was for seniors, but was extended to families with a member who qualifies for the Disability Tax Credit. The credit is worth 10% of the renovation cost to a maximum value of $1,000 for $10,000 worth of renovation costs.

You can claim the same receipts for both home renovation and accessibility expenses referenced above!

Multi-Generational Home Renovation Tax Credit

The Multigenerational home renovation tax credit (MHRTC) is a refundable tax credit that can be claimed on your income tax and benefit return. If you are eligible, you can claim this credit for certain renovation expenses to create a self-contained secondary unit. The secondary unit must allow a senior or an adult who is eligible for the disability tax credit to live with a qualifying relative.

You can claim up to $50,000 in qualifying expenditures for each qualifying renovation that is completed. The tax credit is 14.5% of your costs, up to a maximum of $7,250, for each claim you are eligible to make.