Susan Moore’s faith in humanity has been restored this week.
Moore’s story was one of many shared with Village Media last week by parents outraged about their children’s special needs transportation through the Simcoe County District School Board being recently cancelled. According to the board, the changes are due to an annual review of special education student transportation and walk-zone compliance, which occurred this fall.
Moore’s son, Tim, who is on the autism spectrum and lives with a developmental delay, had his special-needs transportation cancelled abruptly by the board as of the end of January. The Innisdale Secondary School student has attended the south-end Barrie school for five-and-a-half years and is five months away from graduation.
On Friday, after the story was published, City of Barrie officials asked to be put in contact with Moore to see if the municipality could assist in getting Tim to school.
And assist they did.
“When somebody reaches out to help, it took my breath away for a few minutes. It renews your faith in humanity,” Moore told BarrieToday. “Somebody read the story and cared enough to reach out. It’s a wonderful feeling.”
Service Barrie put Moore in contact with Barrie Transit staff, who worked out an arrangement to grant Tim’s application for specialized transit immediately on a temporary basis until March 31 on compassionate grounds, so he can be taking specialized city transit starting right away while Moore can be completing the full application process with Tim’s doctor at the same time.
“This was important for us to expedite this approval process as we wanted to ensure there was no disruption in getting her son to and from school, while allowing additional time for Susan to complete the full specialized client application process (that includes a health-care professionals review/approval and can take up to 14 days),” said Jason Zimmerman, the city's supervisor of transit operations and infrastructure.
Specialized Transit is a door-to-door shared ride accessible public transit service intended for people unable to use Barrie Transit’s conventional accessible fixed-route service due to a disability. Registered clients can use the service for medical appointments, school, shopping, visiting friends of family and social outings within the city limits. For more information on the service, click here.
While there is a cost for the service in line with the costs to use conventional city transit, Moore says it will make such a huge difference in Tim’s life.
“It is tailored to his abilities. He won’t have to worry about having to navigate bus routes. It will pick him up right at our front door, and take him right to school,” said Moore. “Also, when Tim is done school and is getting into more day programs, this is a service he will be able to continue using throughout his adult life.
“I had never even considered this for Tim. I had thought it was more of a senior citizen service,” she added.
Moore says her situation speaks to the sense of community she’s experienced since first speaking up about the matter on social media.
“It takes a village. When you have people coming together to talk about these issues, it’s very helpful. It doesn’t solve the problem but it gives you a little bit of strength to keep fighting,” she said. “It’s great that there’s a feel-good moment in here, but there’s still more to do.”
