Monday, August 07, 2006

Poverty, thy name is autism

They finally finished processing Jimmy's paperwork at Childtime. He's legal, so to speak. We will have to pay a higher part time rate as long as they have to accomodate the toileting issue when he goes back to school. It's about $20 more a week than Kindercare. Between Jacob and Jimmy's respective rate increased, this switch is costing us about $180 more a month right now than what we were paying. But I am not worry about them flaking on me at any moment and Jim is going to the toilet every hour. It's more than I had at Kindercare. But I feel pretty poor at the moment.

In related poor-ness, I called about the DD waivers list. Even though I had been told that he could be processed onto the list at 5 years, 4 months, they told me today that they can't begin the paper until age 6 and I have to get a psychological eval and IQ test. Somehow I don't think that will be free either. Yes, poverty, thy name is autism. Oh, and I was told that we might not get off the list until adulthood. And that is because we are classified urgent.

I am seriously toying with the idea of starting a charity/non-profit to meet some of the needs of parents of children with disabilities in Manassas Park and possibly extending it to Manassas. Approach businesses and benefactors, do some grant writing to get funds for parents for children with autism and other disabilities that aren't covered by medical insurance for needed things like respite, adaptive equipment and technology, and the like. Insurance companies don't help, politicians are full of hot air, and state agencies aren't funded adequately to meet our needs. What the hell are we paying taxes for again?

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