Settlement Relieves Maine Familes

For Cathy Dion of Greene, last week’s class-action lawsuit settlement with state health officials means her autistic son, Ben, will finally come off a waiting list for day treatment.

“He’s been on it since September 2012,” said Dion. Ben, now 20 years old, had received services through the public school system until June, but since then the Dions have been paying out of pocket for care.

Autism's Challenges After Graduation

SCARBOROUGH, Maine -- David Bouchard is, without a doubt, looking forward to graduating from high school next month.
He says so with wide eyes and a big smile even before he types Y-E-S on his DynaVox, a hand-held communication device tethered to his belt.
Debbie Bouchard, on the other hand, is starting to dread the end of her son's public school career. After years of special education programs to prepare the Arundel man for work and life in the community, David Bouchard -- and other young adults with autism across the state -- may have nowhere to go but home.
The generation of children who experienced the first wave of an ongoing autism epidemic is now reaching adulthood. Public support programs that used to provide continuing education and care for virtually all adults with development disabilities now have hundreds of Mainers are on waiting lists that are expected to keep growing.