From NYTimes: Parents of Special-Needs Children Divided Over Palin’s Promise to Help

[Guest guest]

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September 7, 2008

Parents of Special-Needs Children Divided Over Palin's Promise to

HelpBy JENNIFER

STEINHAUER<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/jennifer\

_steinhauer/index.html?inline=nyt-per>

and AMY

HARMON<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/amy_harmon/i\

ndex.html?inline=nyt-per>

Amid the barbs and hockey banter Wednesday night, Gov.

Palin<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/sarah_palin/i\

ndex.html?inline=nyt-per>

directed

an emotional appeal to the hearts of millions of parents with children who

have special needs, promising they would " have a friend and advocate in the

White House " in a McCain-Palin administration. As she spoke, the camera

panned to her baby, Trig, who has Down syndrome.

Ms. Palin's offer of friendship sparked hope in many parents, advocates and

lawyers as the often-marginalized subject of disabilities rights took center

stage. " We need one, that's for sure, " wrote one blogger, Rhymerchick, a

Phoenix mother with an autistic child, adding, " I am tempted to vote for

them just because of that promise. "

In animated debates in blogs, chat rooms and classrooms across America,

others wondered what such advocacy would entail. But the governor offered no

details, and Comella, her spokeswoman, would not elaborate on what Ms.

Palin would seek to accomplish for disabled children as vice president. " She

is going to be an advocate in the White House on multiple levels, " Ms.

Comella said in an e-mail message Friday, " because she understands the

issue, what's needed and what works. "

To those in Alaska who work with children with special needs, Ms. Palin's

pronouncement was surprising; the disabled have not been a centerpiece of

Ms. Palin's 20-months in office or any of her campaigns for office.

She signed legislation that would increase financing for children in Alaska

with special needs — though she was not involved in its development — yet

that state is the subject of two lawsuits that allege inadequate services

and financing for those children, particularly those with autism.

" I never heard Governor Palin say as governor, 'You have an advocate in

Juneau,' " said Sonja Kerr, a lawyer specializing in disability law in

Anchorage.

What lawyers, advocates and parents are seeking now, Ms. Kerr said, is to

learn. " What is behind the announcement? " she said. " An advocate is someone

who pleads another's cause, so what is her plea going to be? To get rid of

Medicaid<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthto\

pics/medicaid/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>

wait

lists so we can get kids services? To quickly pass the American with

Disabilities restoration act? That is what I haven't heard. "

Alaska, both by dint of its sparse population and lack of resources, has

often struggled to provide care and educational services for its roughly

18,000 children with physical and emotional disabilities.

For years the state shipped thousands of children out of state for mental

health services, a problem so acute that Ms. Palin's predecessor created a

program intended solely to get enough services in the state to bring the

children back; from 2004 to 2007 the number of children sent out of state

fell to 300 from about 600.

While the state made a decision to close down mental health institutions in

the 1990s, it has been unable to provide alternative services for children

with mental health issues.

The rural makeup of the state outside Anchorage (where half the population

resides) makes services all the more difficult.

" The reason they have so many problems is lack of resources, " said

Mayerson, a lawyer who represents children with autism in 30 states. " We

once went to Kodiak Island, where there are probably more bears than people,

to see a kid with autism who needed a behavioral consultant. They literally

have to fly these people in on float planes. So I can't exactly fault a

school system for not having a speech therapist, but I do fault the district

for not bringing them in or sending children out of the district for those

resources. "

Ms. Palin recently signed legislation that rewrote the state's school

financing formulas, in the process dramatically increasing the budget for

school districts that serve children with extreme special needs. " She had no

role whatsoever " in the development of the legislation, said its author,

Representative Mike Hawker, a Republican. " Her role was signing. She

recognized the importance of what we did and endorsed it. "

Democrats have pointed, sometimes correctly, sometimes erroneously, to items

in the state budget for the disabled that Ms. Palin cut. According to state

documents, she cut the state's Special Olympics budget in half.

The central concern of many parents with children who have special needs is

the financing to fulfill the decades-old federal mandate requiring public

schools to offer educational services to their children — or pay for them in

nonpublic school settings.

The law, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, passed in 1975

with bipartisan support, called for the federal government to pick up 40

percent of the state cost of teaching children with special needs. The

federal government pays less than half that, though more under the Bush

administration than under President Clinton.

Mr. McCain voted to reauthorize the law, but voted against a measure, with

nearly every other member of his party, to increase financing through a

reduction in tax cuts for the wealthy. Mr. McCain has been a proponent of

school vouchers, denounced by many advocates for children with special needs

as draining public money away from special education programs; Ms. Palin is

a school-choice advocate, her spokeswoman said.

Mr. McCain also opposes proposed federal legislation that would help pay for

states to move people with special needs from state institutions into other

living arrangements, but he has said he supports updating the Americans with

Disabilities Act to offer more protections.

Ms. Comella, Ms. Palin's spokeswoman, would not elaborate on Ms. Palin's

decision to make special needs children a centerpiece of her acceptance

speech. But Ms. Palin's personal appeal held enormous emotional pull for

parents who rarely see a public official who can personally identify with

the same parental challenges as they do.

Ms. Palin's effort to rally parents of children with disabilities has also

prompted reaction among those who fear that her idea of advocacy might

really mean preventing abortions of fetuses with Down syndrome, rather than

lobbying for the early medical and developmental assistance that is so

crucial to their children's well-being.

New technology is enabling more women to learn in earlier stages of

pregnancy whether their fetus is affected by Down syndrome. About 90 percent

choose to terminate pregnancies. Parents of children with disabilities have

sought to educate prospective parents on the emotional rewards of having

children like their own. But many say they know better than anyone else how

crucial it is that they be given a choice.

" Surely she understands that it can be dark and difficult sometimes, "

lynn Lester, whose daughter has Down syndrome, wrote on her blog this

week about Ms. Palin. " Having been in the same position, I simply do not

understand the desire to legislate (rather than educate) women into making

better choices. "

Iannone, a Democrat and mother of le, 3, who has Down syndrome,

said that she was so thrilled to see Trig on stage that she had to remind

herself: " I am a liberal. I am a liberal. I am a liberal. " Ms. Palin, she

said, " has a child with a disability, but that doesn't mean her party is

disability friendly. "

The last time a candidate explicitly appealed to families of the disabled at

a national convention, advocates said, was 20 years ago, when the

presidential nominee, H. W.

Bush<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/george_bush/in\

dex.html?inline=nyt-per>,

endorsed the Americans with Disabilities Act — and got a 10 percentage point

bump among voters who identified themselves as having disabilities,

according to Imparato, president of the American Association of

People with Disabilities, a lobbying group.

On Thursday, Mr. Imparato said he and other advocates received an e-mail

message from Senator Barack

Obama<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/barack_obama/\

index.html?inline=nyt-per>'s

campaign outlining the disabilities issues that the Democrats had addressed

at their convention.

" They certainly must be aware of the effect Palin is having on this

community, " Mr. Imparato said.

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The New York Times Company <http://www.nytco.com/>