Budget Roundup: Fighting Planned Cuts

The message is coming from so many states that we decided to compile a roundup. First piece addresses New Jersey cut and is by Tom Toronto, president of United Way of Bergen County

We are deeply concerned about the position the state of New Jersey has recently taken with respect to housing opportunities for those with disabilities and special needs.

The state is contemplating a rule change that will limit housing choices for people with developmental disabilities to either four-bedroom group homes or set-aside units that are 25 percent or less of a large multifamily development. Bergen County's United Way believes that people with developmental disabilities have the right to choose from a full array of housing, lifestyle and support-service options.

Charlene Smith-Scott, an employee with The Arc Baltimore, responds to Maryland cuts.

Before Gov. Martin O'Malley left office, he cut funding that my colleagues and I were counting on to stay ahead of minimum wage. Now, Gov. Larry Hogan is doing the same thing with the new budget. People in my profession are not state employees, but we are doing work that is the responsibility of the state. Maryland doesn't seem to take that seriously because we are paid as the lowest of the low among our comparable peers in health care, elder care and the like.

NEWARK, Del. — The conflict among caretakers and community advocates for Delawareans with intellectual and development disabilities came out in full force during a public hearing Monday discussing how taxpayer-funded community housing and work placement funded is offered in the state.The hearing, held at Delaware State Police Troop 2 headquarters in Newark, provided a forum for the community to evaluate Delaware's preliminary transition plan to adapt a new federal rule that changes how subsidized home- and community-based services are funded.

Desperation Grows Amid Maryland Cuts

Community service providers to the developmentally disabled are “honestly at a desperate point” in continuing to operate, Laura Howell of the Maryland Association of Community Services told the Senate Budget Committee Thursday.

Self-advocates spoke to O’Malley
 Chief of Staff John Griffin. 

The state’s reimbursement for direct support staff “is the lowest that it has ever been,” Howell said. Gov. Martin O’Malley cut their reimbursement in this year’s budget in January, and that level was continued in Gov. Larry Hogan’s budget.

DSPs Expected to Feel Md. Budget Cuts

Washington County providers of services for the developmentally disabled would feel the pinch of a 2 percent across-the-board budget reduction to Maryland state agencies that a state board approved this week.

The reduction is part of a plan to cover a $410 million budget shortfall. It would cut in half a 4 percent increase in funds for developmental disability community services  for this fiscal year that the Maryland General Assembly passed last year.

Federal Insurance Providers Not Required to Cover ABA Therapy for Families with Autistic Children

BALTIMORE -- Autistic children of federal workers in 22 states begin receiving insurance coverage this month for a key behavioral treatment, under a decision by the Office of Personnel Management.
Maryland, home to the third-largest population of federal workers in the nation, is not one of them.
"These families desperately need the best coverage for their kids," said Stuart Spielman, senior policy adviser and counsel for Autism Speaks. He said the advocacy group would petition the OPM to expand its coverage as quickly as possible.

Opinion: Maryland Again Fails Autism Community

Commentary from The Baltimore Sun by Ian Paregol, the executive director of Community Services for Autistic Adults and Children (www.csaac.org), a Montgomery County-based nonprofit that operates an Intensive Early Intervention program for ages 18 months to 7 years, two non-public schools, 52 community residences for children and adults and a supported employment program for adults.

BALTIMORE -- This week, Michigan became the 30th state to require insurance coverage for autism therapies. Meanwhile, here in Maryland, the General Assembly has for the fourth consecutive year failed families of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders — one of our most significant national health emergencies.
Autism is a complex neurological disorder that typically impacts an individual throughout his or her lifetime. It is found in all ethnic, racial and social groups, affecting a person's ability to communicate and relate to others. Perhaps most disconcerting, the prevalence of autism is growing, up 78 percent over the last decade

Group Home Raises Concerns

This home on Salisbury Street
will be razed.

This story is just a sad reflection that the public's view of individuals with disabilities really hasn't changed at all. Read the comments when you link to the story. It's time people start seeing beyond disability and embrace diversity.

WORCESTER, Mass. --  A Brockton-based human services agency intends to operate a residential program for people with developmental disabilities at a Salisbury Street property where the existing home will be razed and replaced with a new building.

Autism, Parents and Teachers: Bridging the Communication Gap

SFGate.com autism advocate blogger Laura Shumaker touches another critical issue.

I was talking to a group of teachers last week, something I do frequently, about my experience raising a child with autism. My favorite part of these talks is the Q and A. “You can ask me anything,” I say, “and I will answer to the best of my ability.”
I get a lot of juicy questions, but there is one that I am asked most frequently:

I could do a better job if I could communicate more with parents. How can I get them to talk to me?

I flash back to the year that I was that parent, and how his teacher bridged the communication gap.

Maryland to Get $28 Million Bonus for Children's Medicaid Enrollment

Maryland will receive a $28 million performance bonus from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for fiscal year 2011 for its consistent efforts to identify and enroll eligible children in Medicaid and CHIP coverage.
"Since 2007, we have expanded coverage to more than 300,000 Marylanders, almost half of them children, and this bonus is a great recognition of those efforts," Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown said in a written statement.
The bonus came as good news to a department that has had a series of negative audits in the past year identifying lack of control over Medicaid payments, benefits paid on behalf of dead people and $8 million in federal dollars that went unspent on those with developmental disabilities.

A Call for Cracking Down on Bullying

BALTIMORE -- Special-education advocates are calling for the state to do more to address the bullying of disabled students, saying that a recent lawsuit against the city school system highlights the long-lasting harm that harassment can do to such children.
Experts want officials to strengthen Maryland's anti-bullying laws to provide more detailed rules for educators to follow in reporting incidents and more scrutiny in situations that involve sometimes-fragile students.

Maryland Developmental Disabilities Administration Probes Unspent Funds

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Officials at the Developmental Disabilities Administration have launched an investigation into why $25 million was left unspent by the agency, and the new executive director says he expects answers by the end of the year.
The agency serves 20,000 but has a waiting list of 5,000, and some could have benefited from the money, said Frank Kirkland, who took over the post in August, about the time when fiscal year-end auditing found that accounting errors had cost funding.

Maryland Service System At Breaking Point

An incredibly thoughtful piece on a bleak situation in Maryland for people with developmental disabilities.

Because of chronic under-funding, thousands of families in Maryland are on waiting lists for services for their child with a developmental disabilities, and even those deemed to be in a state of crisis can be forced to wait years for services. Those who are in need of small breaks, like respite care to allow them to take a few hours off to attend to their own needs, can wind up waiting forever. Family members who care for relatives with developmental disabilities find themselves unable to work because they can't leave their charges alone. Others suffer physical consequences themselves from having to cope with homes that are not handicapped accessible. Some of the develomentally disabled regress - losing skills like walking and speech - because their families cannot afford therapy.
Despite major unmet needs, the state has been forced to cut funding for community support services for the developmentally disabled in the last year.
Maryland, despite its wealth, has lagged for years in services for its most vulnerable residents and those who give over their lives to care for them. The system is fast approaching a breaking point, but the state, caregivers and advocates should use that crisis as an opportunity to make sure Maryland lives up to the promise that all its citizens can live a life of freedom and dignity.

Cuts Stun Maryland Disability Community

Dr. Bob Ireland didn't think the state could cut his resources any more.
The executive director of Bello Machre, a Glen Burnie nonprofit organization that provides services to Marylanders with developmental disabilities, has gotten used to working with a tight budget. Even in a thriving economy, his clients' needs grew as state funding shrank.
When the state Board of Public Works decided Wednesday to slash the budget for community service providers by 2 percent - saving the state an estimated $21.7 million - Ireland cringed.
That reduction in funding was on top of the $1 million cut from the Developmental Disabilities Administration's Rolling Access program, which gives grants to families who need immediate services, and cuts to state adult respite care and service coordination programs.