TORONTO — Ontario is spending at least an extra $120 million over the next three years to fund autism treatments and increase the number of therapists, but the move Friday was criticized as falling short of meeting the needs of kids with the learning disability.

Last year, the province spent about $41 million on autism, including funding special intensive behavioural intervention treatments for kids under six. After that age, the government no longer provides funding for the intensive one-on-one treatments for autistic kids.

The funding will increase by $40 million or more in each of the next three years.

"Our government is committed to helping children and youth with autism and their families," Children's Minister Marie Bountrogianni told a news conference.

"They deserve opportunities for future success."

But as part of the plan announced Friday, the government stopped short of offering to fund the special treatments, which cost about $50,000 a year per child, to kids who are older than six.

The province is currently battling a lawsuit by parents who say the cutoff age is arbitrary and discriminatory. Other parents have filed complaints about the restriction with the Ontario Human Rights Commission. Many parents say they just can't afford the treatment their children need without government support.

"The experts are telling us that for children six and up what we need to do is help those children in the school with other children, with other people because that is what they need to do in real life," Bountrogianni explained.

Funds from the government's plan will also help train educators on how to make it easier for autistic kids getting one-on-one treatment to integrate into a classroom setting, she said.

But Erla Juravsky, whose son Daniel has autism, said the new funds just aren't enough, and criticized the government for not lifting the age-six funding restriction.

Juravsky, executive director of the Beecroft Learning Centre, which offers treatment for school-aged autistic children, said the intensive treatment works for kids six and over like her son.

"Learning doesn't stop at six," she said. The treatment "has given my little boy a chance for a successful and independent future."

New Democrat Shelley Martel said the Liberals have broken their promise to extend funding for older kids.

This "will force these parents to pay thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars to get the treatment they know is working for their kids. It's just completely unacceptable."

In addition, the government's plan targets $10 million for early treatment and to ensure more preschool children are assessed for eligibility for the intervention treatments.

That will "substantially improve access to the program," said John Flannery, executive director of Surrey Place Centre, which offers autism treatments to children.

It will also get more kids into the program early, when it's most effective, he added.

With about 1,000 children on a waiting list for provincially funded treatment, Juravsky said it will be difficult to ensure that kids get treatment before they get too old.

Laura McIntosh, whose four-year-old son Clifford has autism, said he's been on the waiting list for provincially funded treatment for about 15 months and he won't likely ever get it.

McIntosh and her husband have been paying for their son's treatment themselves, but they say they'll soon run out of money and can only continue if they sell their house.

"He's going to sit on that wait list for three years and never get to the top of it," McIntosh said, adding that nothing in the government's plan will address that.

The extra government funding will also go to college programs to train 200 more behavioural-intervention treatment therapists a year, starting this September.

Added supports will also be available to parents, and more money will be spent on autism research through the creation of an academic chair, Bountrogianni said.

However, the new program isn't likely to have any effect on Ontario's court battle with parents who have autistic children six and over, said Sheila Laredo, one of the parents involved in the lawsuit.

"We continue to fight," she said.