About Kids Can't Wait AB
WHO WE ARE
We are a growing collective of Albertan families who are unwilling to accept years-long delays for supports that our children need now from the Family Supports for Children with Disabilities (FSCD) program. Children are left without the supports they need most during their critical years of development.
We are parents of children with disabilities. Some of us are still waiting with no support. Others have experienced the difference FSCD can make when supports arrive on time—our children participate in community life, and our families have the stability to care for them at home.
This work is being led by parents from across the province—including parents like Sital in southern Alberta, Keltie in Edmonton region, Orvella in the Calgary area, Megan in central Alberta, and Anne in Edmonton region—alongside many others. While our experiences differ, our message is the same: the current delays are unacceptable and we refuse to wait quietly while our children and families go without the supports they need to grow, participate in their communities, and thrive together.
We are relatives, neighbours and people who care about children with disabilities.
Together, we are calling for a system that does what it was designed to do: provide timely, reliable support so children with disabilities and their families can thrive, and engage in our communities like all Albertans.
We are stronger together—and together, we are making sure our children are not left behind.
OUR VISION
All children with disabilities and their families get the support they need, when they need it, so they can thrive in their communities.
OUR MISSION
To ensure children with disabilities and their families are seen, heard, and supported through government decisions that deliver timely, adequate funding and services—so no child is left waiting during the years that matter most.
To ensure children with disabilities and their families are seen, heard, and supported through government decisions that deliver timely, adequate funding and services—so no child is left waiting during the years that matter most.
The Problem: FSCD Delays and Denials
Child development moves fast. Disability support in Alberta lags years behind.
Families of children with disabilities across Alberta are being left behind by a system that was intended to support them.
In 2019, when a family needed to access the Family Support for Children with Disabilities (FSCD) program, they only had to wait months. Today, many wait over three years. Funding hasn’t kept up with Alberta’s grow population and costs. The result is predictable: growing waitlists, shrinking access, and families left in limbo. Since 2022, government has stopped publicly disclosing the wait list for FSCD, leaving families without information about when support might arrive.
Every delay means is a child is missing critical developmental opportunities. FSCD was created for early intervention—helping children build communication skills, regulate behaviour, and participate in community life. It is also meant to give families the support they need to raise their children at home. But early intervention requires timeliness. Instead, children face years of delays, missing critical windows when support has the greatest impact. These are not small inconveniences—they are lost developmental windows that can never be recovered.
When support is delayed, needs intensify. Families manage increasingly complex challenges alone. More than half surveyed in Too Little, Too Late: Experiences with Family Support for Children with Disabilities (FSCD) report serious impacts, including job loss, mental health strain, and an inability to meet their child’s needs. Parents reduce work or leave jobs because they cannot access basic supports like respite or specialized care. This pushes families into financial hardship, undermining their capacity to provide the stability and support their children need. Many describe burnout, isolation, and the stress of navigating a system offering no timelines and little communication.
These delays ripple across all of our systems. When children miss early intervention, challenges grow until they require far more intensive, costly responses. Alberta’s Child and Youth Advocate documented that children with disabilities too often end up in child intervention or youth justice systems when earlier supports could have prevented it. Schools must absorb these unmet needs, pressuring an already stretched education system.
This is what underfunding looks like: needs growing, pressure shifting, and crises emerging in systems that are more costly and less effective than early support. FSCD investment lags behind population growth and inflation. The number of families served declined by 7.5% in 2024–25, meaning more children miss support during crucial years. The system is failing, and families pay the price.
Families do everything they can—investing time, income, and energy, making sacrifices, and navigating complex systems. They are holding things together, but they need the government to do its part: cut red tape and provide transparent, timely access to the supports already set out in legislation.
No family should wait years for help while their child’s development is held back.
Learn more by reading the reports:
Inclusion Alberta’s 2025 survey report indicates families are waiting up to three years before accessing the full range of FSCD services and highlights the common challenges families are facing when trying to access FSCD. Over 700 families completed the survey.
The Office of the Child and Youth Advocate’s 2024 report confirms the consequences of delayed disability supports: when children do not receive timely help through FSCD, their needs escalate into crisis.
The 2025 Aggression and Complexity in Schools Action Team report confirms what families are experiencing: when supports like FSCD are delayed, the impact shows up in classrooms.