Leadership 
Leadership: Leadership
is a weekly newsletter for ND families. Leadership is prepared by staff from the ND
Center for Persons with Disabilities at
Leadership Teams: Leadership teams in each region are responsible for sharing information
on accessing systems and system change with other families. The due date for teams
to provide follow-up training for families on modules in the Leadership in
Accessing Systems and System Change curriculum is
°
Have active plans under way.
I will be calling each of the teams within the next two weeks and hope to hear
exciting news in future letters.
Legislative News: To
keep up on information about legislative bills you may want to check out this
ND website designed for the DD Council by the ND Center for Persons with
Disabilities and updated by Tom Wallner.
To access the site, go to this address: http://www.ndcd.org/ndcpd/legislation/
The Department of Human
Services (DHS) submitted a budget to the Governor’s Office at 95 % capacity as
required. The Governor then announced
his budget in mid-December. You may be wondering what was in the Governor’s
budget and how that would impact families of children with special needs. The
table below shows the totals appropriated during the last legislative session
and the amount in the governor’s proposed budget for three critical programs.
|
|
01-03 Appropriation |
03-05 Governor's Recommended Budget |
|
Family Subsidy |
$1,881,548 (Total) $ 200,000 (Part C) $1,681,548 (State) |
$1,792,256 (Total) $ 200,000 (Part C) $1,592,256 (State) |
|
Family Support Services |
$5,481,694 (Total) $3,298,913 (Fed) $2,182,781 (State) |
$7,483,516 (Total) $5,086,116 (Fed) $2,397,400 (State) |
|
Infant Development |
$3,555,872 (Total) $1,236,208 (Fed) 2,319,664 (State) |
$ 3,926,612 (Total) $ 520,513 (Part C) $ 1,874,746 (Fed) 1,531,210 (State) |
Totals $10,919,114 |$13,202,384
This information was
provided by the finance office through the DHS.
What does this mean for families?
1.
The Governor’s
budget shows an increase in spending on
three critical programs over the amount budgeted during the last biennium.
2.
Keep in mind
that the DHS had a shortfall (not enough money) during this biennium mostly due
to changes in the Medicaid formula.
3.
The Governor recommended that the asset disregard under
the Home and Community Based Waiver in Medicaid continue. Within Senate Bill 2074 there is language that
states "The Department of Human Services shall provide Medical Assistance
benefits to children and family coverage groups and pregnant women without
consideration of assets." This means assets would not be considered when
determining medical assistance eligibility for the Extended Services, Supported
Living, Day Supports and Family Support Services/In-Home Support)
4.
The DHS was
forced to eliminate Family Subsidy dollars to reach the 95% budget requirements. They asked for those funds to be added back
into the budget in an Optional Adjustment Request (OAR). The OAR
for Family Subsidy was accepted and
the funds for Family Subsidy were included in the Governor’s budget.
5.
If approved by
the legislature (no funding for the proposed budget is cut) families who use
family subsidy dollars to pay for excess child care costs will continue to be
able to do so. Incidentally only 2 of the 48 OARs that were sent to Governor Hoeven
were included in his budget. The other OAR approved included funds to pay for
extended employment.
6.
At this time it
appears that the spending levels necessary to meet minimum spending
requirements and qualify the state to continue to receive Part C funds
(federal) under IDEA were maintained in Governor Hoeven’s budget. Part C funds
pay for much of the early intervention services in the state of ND.
More
Information about the Governor’s Budget: The DHS asked that a $1.50 an hour wage increase for DD provider staff
($23,238,354 Total federal and state) be added to the budget and it was NOT added. The budget calls for only a
2.3% inflationary increase for DD providers each year of the biennium
$5,796,549 (total federal and state). This means that it will remain very
difficult for providers to hire and retain qualified staff. The
availability of qualified staff on a continuous basis may impact the services
and quality of life that young people with DD who need lifelong support
experience.
The
Governor's budget recommends that a qualified
individual provider option in addition to DD licensed providers be added to
provide Family Support Services and ISLA. That means than an individual (family member or private citizen) who
meets DHS requirements as a “qualified individual provider” can be paid by the
DHS to provide Family Support or Independent Supported Living Services (ISLA)
to a person who is eligible for DD services. The Department of Human Services
cannot force any consumer to use a qualified individual provider and it will be
entirely up to the consumer or their family whether this option will work for
them. Although this will be a new provider option for DD consumers receiving
Family Support Services, this option has been offered for some time to consumer
of aging services.
This gives families more flexibility especially when living
in remote rural settings where providers are not available. It also represents a level of competition for
providers that may act to improve services if the standards that both
traditional and individual providers are required to meet remain high and
equitable (fair). Hopefully details about the requirements for individual
providers will be obtained and shared in future newsletters. To remove this
option $943,455 (total federal and state) would need to be restored to the
budget for DD licensed providers. More about this in the next letter.
The 03-05 Governor's Budget Recommendation for DD
services will require all consumers to
be eligible for Medical Assistance and meet federal requirements regarding
level of support, in order for the Department of Human Services to pay for
services on their behalf. The level
of support is determined by a Progress Assessment Review (PAR) conducted by DHS
case managers. If a consumer does not meet the federal requirements they will
need to privately pay for their services. This is an attempt by the state of ND
to maximize the number of federal Medicaid dollars they can receive for any
state dollars spent. It is important to remember two things:
- This works for all ND families raising children with DD only
if the asset requirement for Medicaid eligibility is disregarded.
- ND must continue to have enough slots under the Home and Community
Based Waiver for all families who request services.
Remember: THE LEGISLATURE
COULD FAIL TO APPROVE OR MAY DECIDE TO CUT
ANY OF THE BUDGETED FUNDS DURING THIS SESSION. The ND Legislature will be
reviewing the full budget for the Department of Human Services next week. The
schedule is listed below. Several families from FSP are interested in giving
testimony. If you are interested in testifying on the benefits of family
support or family subsidy dollars or other issues related to families or
children’s mental health or special health care services, let me know.
Tuesday – Jan. 14th:
Wednesday – Jan. 15th:
Thursday – Jan. 16th:
Advocacy: The ND Disability Advocacy Consortium (
- Working with the governor’s office to divert
funds from the long term care association to home and community based
services and
- Supporting a ways for people with disabilities
to buy into Medicaid
The
- Fully fund IDEA to assure that all eligible
students receive quality services.
- Fund early screening
and diagnosis including newborn hearing and metabolic screenings, vision,
developmental and mental health screenings.
- Fund early
intervention/programs for children with special health care needs to the
minimum amount needed to capitalize on federal matching dollars.
- Adopt necessary measures to assure that children
who need them receive private and public health insurance coverage for the
purchase of special communication devices and other durable medical
equipment.
- Fund a State Children’s Health Insurance Program
at $185% of the Federal Poverty Level with the SCHIP program administered as a Medicaid expansion due to
the rising cost of insurance premiums.
- Continue the disregard of the asset test to so
that family support funded through Medicaid is available to all children
with special needs who qualify for services.
- Fund mental health programs for children so that
mental health parity is achieved for children with both developmental and
mental health needs.
- Fund enhanced
transition services for youth before they graduate, through schools and
Vocational Rehabilitation and for Independent Living Centers to assure a
smooth transition into adulthood.
If you would like to serve
on the Task Force for Children and Youth or learn more about its work, contact
Donene Feist at (493) 233-2634.
Before You
Decide: Staff from the Family Support Project are
collecting brief statements or stories about topics that families want
legislators to be aware of before making decides on important legislation. The
topics are:
- Heroes 2. Families 3. Connections
4. Education 5. Health Care 6. Budgets
7. Family Support 8. Taxpayers 9. Vision
Each
week a short paragraph about the topic will appear in this newsletter. THIS
WEEK’S TOPIC IS EDUCATION.
Please
take 10 minutes to sit down and comment on the topic. It is not necessary to
write out a full story. Just a few minutes each week will help the project
collect the information it needs. To submit comments, just reply to the
newsletter or send an email to Cathy Haarstad at haarstad@minotstateu.edu
|
Education: Children with special needs are entitled to
receive a free and appropriate public education in the least restrictive
educational alternative under federal (P>L> 94-142 as amended, 20 USC
1401 et seq.) and state law. Most
families want their children to be educated in neighborhood schools with
their brothers and sisters and friends.
They want the educators in that setting to set high standards, to
provide learning experiences that are individualized and effective, to
provide activities that are meaningful and lead their child to make adequate
yearly progress. Furthermore the law requires that related services such as
therapy, transportation and after school activities needed for the child to
benefit from special education be in place. Families do not want this
education to be something that they have to constantly secure (a sometimes
full time job) but a service that is typically present through adequate
funding and training and recruitment of qualified personnel. |
Example: Our daughter is 12 years old. We are blessed
by having educators spend time with her every day and teach her many skills
that she may use in the future. When we look at her progress, we hope that it
is based on more than maturation but on systematic and well planned activities
and resources, delivered in a timely and effective manner to help her achieve
her true potential. We believe that conflict is inevitable and not necessarily
bad, arising out of circumstances that require her team to ask the tough
questions. We worry about whether the teachers she needs in her life will
continue in the field and be there for her in the future.
Leadership Links: If you are interested in new information on
leadership, try one of the following web-sites.
The Council on Quality
and Leadership: http://www.thecouncil.org/
The
Council creates opportunities for people to lead the lives they choose and to improve the quality of
services/support for people with disabilities/mental illness.
Rural Civic Leadership by
People with Disabilities: http://rtc.ruralinstitute.umt.edu/RuEcD/RuCmtLeadership.htm
Rural
Americans with disabilities and those who serve them experience problems with access
to transportation and housing, employment and self-employment, independent
living services, health and wellness facilities, and inclusion in community
planning and activities. RTC’s goal is to use scientific methods to develop
solutions to these wide-ranging problems.
The ND IDEA Advisory
Committee:
http://www.dpi.state.nd.us/speced/idea/index.shtm
The
purpose of the Advisory Committee to make recommendations and to advise the Department
of Public Instruction concerning the administration of, preparation of general regulations
for, and evaluation of Special Education programs in ND.
Shaping Our Destiny: http://www.aamr.org/ShapingOurDestiny/index.shtml
This
is a consumer guide that you can download for free. The guide outlines how people with developmental
disabilities and their families can advocate for and evaluate quality services.
The provider's guide details how service providers can provide quality supports
that keep consumers' needs a priority.
