Private Montreal preschool that helps autistic children at risk of closing for operating without permit
Posted March 24, 2025 2:43 pm.
Last Updated March 24, 2025 5:41 pm.
The Little Red Playhouse, a program in Montreal-West that has helped autistic children between the ages of two to five, may be forced to close due to permit issues.
An anonymous tip led to an inspection from the Quebec Family Ministry last week.
The program, which has been around for 17 years, currently helps 22 children – 18 of whom are diagnosed with autism. The staff consists of 14 university-trained full-time staff members and five part-time specialists.
Founder Sharon McCarry says current daycare regulations in Quebec do not recognize the school’s inclusive model, which integrates neurotypical and autistic children.
The Little Red Playhouse operates under an exception to the childcare act, but McCarry says government inspectors recommended it should be operating as a daycare. However, the current regulation says daycares can’t enroll more than 20 per cent of children with special needs.
“We don’t have 20 per cent children with special needs, we actually have 65 per cent children here and so we can’t operate as a daycare.”
In a statement to CityNews, Quebec Minister of Families Suzanne Roy said: “A permit is required to provide educational childcare services. This requirement is intended to ensure the health, safety and well-being of all children.”
Nadine Van Elsande, the grandparent of Jacob, who was diagnosed with level three non-speaking autism before the age of three, drives between 40 minutes to two hours daily to the Little Red Playhouse.
According to her, it’s worth it, because Jacob receives occupational therapy, physiotherapy, music therapy and speech therapy.
“It’s being able to put all of the services that he needs in one place,” Van Elsande told CityNews.
“Today he has a voice, Jacob. It’s inside of… he’s there. He’s there. He understands language, he understands math, he understands patterns, he understands social. He can look at you. … Do you know what that is, when an autistic child looks at you and they see you, that is just, that’s everything that you want.”
Van Elsande says losing access to the Little Red Playhouse would be “catastrophic” for Jacob.
After McCarry’s youngest child was diagnosed with autism in 2007, she quit her marketing career and she spent over a quarter million dollars on his care.
“We’re constantly fighting for anything like a scrap of anything,” she said. “So yeah if you’re not going to provide it for us then don’t knock those of us who have tried to figure out how it is that we’re doing what you should be doing.”
Liberal MNA Elisabeth Prass has been helping McCarry and says that 20,000 Quebec children with special needs are on waiting lists for care. Prass, the MNA for D’Arcy-McGee and the Opposition spokesperson on mental health, plans to meet with Minister of Social Services Lionel Carmant soon.
