FW: Overcoming obstacles

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From: Sherry Blanco Sent: Saturday, May 14, 2011 1:46 PMTo: ccruz@...Cc: Norman Blanco; tcalight@...; ; Diane DeBraga; Blanco; Lequia-Pringle; Parent_to_Parents ; IPUT4-TampaAutism ; deniseslist ; Speedy88acg@...Subject: Overcoming obstacles I appreciate watching your story, as it brings much needed attention to the disabilities community. I would like to share a few points of information: Children with Down syndrome AKA Trisomy 21 are born with an extra chromosome in the 21st pair, not an extra set of chromosomes. Early Intervention has been around since the IDEA legislation became Federal law. Unfortunately, a few years ago the EI changed it's rules, and since has been able to limit the amount of therapies and interventions that our children receive, once they have used up their insurance or have been denied services, ( they are covered with they are born with a disability-or a developmental delay is discovered later-such as Autism) Since this change it has only taken a few years to see the effects of the lack of therapy when the children transition into the public school system at age three. They are not as self sufficient, have less skills when they enter the classroom setting. Once in the public school system, every effort is made to segregate the students from the General education population-contrary to Federal and State law. This is a continuation of how the current system is creating a generation people who should be living independently with or without assistance, be contributing members of their community and examples as self-advocates for the next generation. Adding insult to injury, the APD waitlist for the Medwaiver program is underfunded and is constantly under threat of budget/service cuts. Instead they are recreating this unique group of citizens, setting them up for a lifetime of needed assistance, institutionalization, abuse and increased costs of taking care of people who can't take care of themselves. Sherry Blancoshiraya.yaonne@...