Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Take CDREA's survey to see if your disabled child's civil rights are being violated

I announced yesterday that the Office for Civil Rights at the US Department of Health and Human Services had opened an official investigation into whether Hawaii's cuts in Medicaid home services were violations of the civil rights of children and adults with disabilities.

Today, the Children's Disability Rights Education Association has launched two surveys for the parents and caregivers of children with disabilities, to gain an idea of how widespread the problem is.

One survey is intended for the parents of children with disabilities who are already receiving Medicaid.  The second survey is for the parents of children with disabilities who are not receiving Medicaid.

Please see the CDREA article for more information.

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About Me

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I'm the mom of a child with disabilities. Hannah's first neurologist said she might never develop beyond the level of a 2 month old infant, and there wasn't anything I could do about it. The brain damage was just too severe. Nine years later, she walks, uses a touchscreen computer and I've just been shown she can learn to construct sentences and do simple math with the right piece of technology. Along the way, I discovered I needed to teach myself what Hannah's rights to services really were. Learning about early intervention services led to reading about IDEA and then to EPSDT. I've been waiting for the Obama administration to realize the power and potential of EPSDT for the medical rights - including the right to stay at home with their families - of children with disabilities. The health reform people talk about long term care, and the disability people talk about education and employment, but nobody is talking about EPSDT. So I am.