Who We Are

Children’s Integration Support Services (CISS) is a bilingual program which provides support services to licensed nursery schools, day care centres, school age and home child care programs that integrate children who have special needs between the ages of six weeks and ten years of age in the City of Ottawa.

As defined in the Ontario Day Nurseries Act, a child with special needs is a child with a physical, mental or developmental impairment that is likely to continue for a prolonged period of time as verified by objective psychological or medical findings.

What We Do

CISS provides a range of support services to assist in the integration of children with special needs including but not limited to the following:

• Integration Advisors facilitate the development of functional Team Service Plans using a case conference approach and offer ongoing consultative and training support to child care programs.
• Enhanced Staff Support funding is provided to child care programs for the hiring of program assistants. This support is based on the specific needs of the child and the child care program.
• CISS offers training opportunities for parents and individuals involved with children who have special needs and the community.
• Access Integration, an informative newsletter published three times a year.
• CISS lends a variety of resources including: equipment, materials, books, videos, disability awareness kits, and toys to child care programs and parents.
• Behaviour Management Consultant support in collaboration with the Integration Advisor is provided to staff in child care programs to assist in the development of skills to meet the challenging behavioural needs of children.

Our Team

The Children’s Integration Support Services team includes Integration Advisors, Behaviour Management Consultants and administrative staff. The CISS team supports programs, families and children by coordinating resources through effective partnerships to ensure a positive, inclusive child care experience.

Contact Information

How to Contact Us

700 Industrial Avenue, Suite 600
Ottawa, Ontario
K1G 0Y9

Fax number: 613-736-8378

E-mail: ciss@afchildcare.on.ca

General Information:
Moira D'Aoust
613-736-1913 ext. 229
mdaoust@afchildcare.on.ca

Referral Info/Resource Library:
Susan Spence
613-736-1913 ext. 231
sspence@afchildcare.on.ca

Training: 
Sylvie Tourigny
613-736-1913 ext. 224
stourigny@afchildcare.on.ca

Newsletter Membership:
Christine Stevens 
613-736-1913 ext. 244
ciss@afchildcare.on.ca