Kansas Governor Mark Parkinson says the state faces its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression -- and it's not over. While
we're waiting to see how the math whizzes in the state legislature deal with the problem, the journalists at the Kansas Health Institute are doing some great reporting on how state budget cuts are likely to hurt real people. So far, we've recommended Dave Ranney's stories "Waiting lists for state services expected to grow," "Man wants out of nursing home" and "Family awaits help." Here's another excerpt from Ranney's series.
OLATHE -- Kelly and Bob Specht have three children. Connor, 17, is their youngest.
Conner is developmentally disabled, though his mother resists the characterization.
"The term I prefer is 'differently abled,'" Kelly Specht said.
While a baby, Connor was seen by as many as nine specialists.
"When he was two months old, we had a neurologist tell us he would never walk or crawl and that he would be blind," Specht said. "We were devastated."
But by the time he was 2, Connor was walking. Now, he can ride a bicycle, but his vision keeps him from learning to drive a car.
Now 17, Connor is enrolled in special education classes at Shawnee Mission South High School. When he was in second grade, the Spechts applied for and received $200 a month in Medicaid-funded services meant to help families rear their children
with disabilities at home rather than in more expensive institutional settings.
But the subsidy ended in summer 2009, a casualty of Kansas budget cuts.
Now they're on the state's waiting list for Medicaid-funded services for children and adults with developmental disabilities.
"We know there are a lot of families who have more needs than we
do," Kelly Specht said, "and we feel like Connor is a success story." But his future is uncertain.
"He can go to school until he's 21, but what happens after that? Ishe still going to be on a waiting list?" she said. "It's hard to
imagine what we're going to do when that time comes and those services
aren't there."
According to the latest waiting-list numbers, 1,200 adults -- special education graduates, mostly -- were waiting for services.
Read the full story here.
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