NJ Funding cuts-worried about graduating D with Special Needs

Parent Cafe
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<p>Long time poster here, looking for a bit of moral support!
Son is a 23 year old graduate music student. We’ve learned so much here on CC that has helped him and our family through the challenging process of college applications in general and the whole music audition thing specifically. It’s been a wild but mostly lovely trip.
He’s doing great.</p>

<p>Now, along comes DD. She’s a happy, warm and outgoing young woman, age 20.
She has significant cognitive limitations and ADD and is graduating in June from the special needs school that she has attended since age 12.
College is not a realistic next step for her. SHE doesn’t really see why not, as she thinks college is all about living in a dorm, hanging out with friends, going to dances/concerts,etc.<br>
Her current high school is an amazing place. The staff has little turnover, the teachers are all positive and nurturing yet have high expectations for the students. The school has clubs, yearbooks, dances, overnight trips, movie nights, sports; everything that ‘regular’ high schools have (and more!).
She has participated in pre-vocational assessments, job samplings, transition planning, public transportation training (she doesn’t drive) to prepare her for life after school.</p>

<p>SO, NOW, 4 months before she will graduate, the state of NJ, due to the budget crisis, is putting a freeze on funding for day services for people with disabilities:</p>

<p>[Department</a> of Human Services | Day Services](<a href=“http://www.state.nj.us/humanservices/ddd/services/day/index.html]Department”>http://www.state.nj.us/humanservices/ddd/services/day/index.html)</p>

<p>We are devastated. Funding provided each year for graduating students in NJ will not be available this year (unless an ‘emergency’ exists such as eminent homelessness).</p>

<p>We hope that our D will be accepted into a DVRS supported employment program that will continue to develop her vocational skills. Eventually, we think she can transition to employment in the community. But this program requires certain skills levels and production quotas from participants. If she is not successful there, she will have no DDD funding to provide day services. She’ll be hanging out at home, unemployed and uninvolved in life.
She will resort to hours of trashy TV, loooooong cell phone calls, overeating out of boredom, and worse things I try not to think about too much.</p>

<p>We (and the other parents) are connected with advocacy groups and hope that the bad situation will be resolved relatively quickly. But it is scary for us all. These are vulnerable young people who have worked hard to maximize their abilities and who hope to continue to work toward their individual goals in life, which are varied.<br>
With some continued training, our D might have a chance for a satisfying and productive life.
My H and I have lived frugally so we could assure her some security in life after we are gone. But it will not be enough if she is without sufficient skills and training to be even partially employable. </p>

<p>VERY sorry for the long tale. If anyone has been through this, especially in NJ, I would love to hear your story or suggestions. PM me if you would like.
THANK YOU for allowing me to vent my frustrations here in my safe CC haven!</p>

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<p>I’m so sorry! I hope it works out…</p>

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<p>Is there any chance she can take some courses in CC near your home? Are there any CCs in your area that have dorms and some vocational counseling? </p>

<p>What areas is she interested in and shown an apptitude for, as you mentioned her being assessed? Are there any apprenticeship programs that might be suitable? </p>

<p>Could she shadow/intern with someone in a field she’s interested in and has aptitude for?</p>

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<p>My heart goes out to you. I have a couple of friends with kids with cognitive limitations, and the transition from high school to whatever is next is frightening. Just when the economy is the worst and even healthy neurotypicals of normal intelligence can’t find jobs, we take away the job support for young adults with disabilities.</p>

<p>We’re so shortsighted. If we can train people to get <em>jobs</em>, we won’t have to support them for fifty years. Even if a person can only take a sheltered job, that’s still better in many cases than no job.</p>

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<p>Can I recommend you contact Senator Sweeney’s office. He is the Senate President and a very strong advocate for the disabled. His D has Downs. Senator Sweeney is going to be the most important player in funding for the disabled. This is one area where I expect he will draw a line in the sand on cuts.</p>

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<p>Thank you for the warm responses to my desperate posting!</p>

<p>Unfortunately, D would not be able to succeed in CC classes as a ‘regular’ student.
Her academic skills are awful for her age, ie reading at 3rd grade level, basic math with use of calculator only, etc. Poor recall for facts, which is frustrating even for her because she knows that the info is in there somewhere.
She would probably love to (and will be able to) audit CC or community school classes related to dance, music etc which are dear to her. But mostly we are looking to optimize her self reliance skills and employment opportunities.</p>

<p>D loves small children. She relates to them and adults better than to her same age peers. I understand this is not uncommon. She actually has some skill dealing with toddlers, much patience, loves to read to them, etc. She has made friends of all the small children in our neighborhood and their mothers who love having her serve as ‘mother’s helper’. She could not be relied on to babysit alone.</p>

<p>She has job sampled in a nursing home, children’s play museum and a factory assembly situation. Hopefully the Vocational Rehab folks will find her abilities sufficient for them to continue supporting her after graduation in the NJ DVRS program we have in mind.
It is mostly my fear of her ‘failing’ there and then having NO vocational supports beside what we as a family can devise that keeps me up at nights.</p>

<p>And of course, there are many of her classmates that have much greater special needs than she does and for whom the DVRS type vocational programs will be deemed inappropriate for them out of the gate. They will be left with nothing.</p>

<p>Cardinal Fang, you have hit the nail on the head. The shortsightedness is appalling.
My daughter wants to continue to learn and to work, she is not looking to be a drain on the state’s budget forever. </p>

<p>Tom1944, great contact suggestion. I will absolutely pursue it.</p>

<p>Thanks again to all for your thoughtfulness.
It is so lovely that folks here on CC are interested in helping young people of all abilities and not only those headed to the ivys!</p>

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<p>Would a non profit Occupational Center be of any help? I post this, but imagine you are more familiar than I am with programs like this and their advantages and disadvantages.</p>

<p>[Welcome</a> to The First Occupational Center of New Jersey](<a href=“ocnj.org”>Ocnj.org)</p>

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<p>Could your daughter possibly be an aide at a small family daycare?</p>

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<p>DeniseC- Yes, we are researching programs like the one you sent link to.
Almost like college choice, it is important to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each program for our particular student. The other common issue is lack of transportation to a program. Our D does not drive and will need to rely on public transportation. Luckily in NJ, there are paratransit services available for people with disablilities, such as AccessLink, that she may be able to use.</p>

<p>Cardinal Fang- D would love to work in a daycare. It actually would be her ‘dream’ job. Unlike larger, center run day care centers, small family run centers may be less interested in employing D then just hiring one of the many non-disabled job seekers out there. The horrible economy had made job placement all the more difficult for the disabled who have more skilled and experienced seekers out there for the same jobs.</p>

<p>I do appreciate everyone who is taking time to respond to my post. I hope that within the next month we will learn if she is accepted into the training center she hopes to attend (and that funding is available).</p>

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<p>An update for all you kind folks who came through with suggestions for my daughter:
As of this week, the NJ budget has money restored to a line item for day support services for 2010 graduates with special needs. Yes!!!</p>

<p>The budget still needs to be passed, so we are not ‘safe’ until July 1st.
But there is at least hope that programs will be available for our neediest graduates.
A BIG sigh of relief for the approx 800 NJ students with special needs graduating this year.
I would like to believe that the massive letter writing campaign we waged had SOME effect on this positive development. The special needs advocacy attorneys in NJ may have had more. </p>

<p>If all continues to go well for our family, we will not need that support.
DD just this week began working PT at a sheltered workshop. She continues to attend school the other days. Too soon to tell but she may succeed in that setting and continue there FT after graduation. The ultimate goal is competitive employment in our community.
We even secured paratransit busing to GET her to the workshop. Miracles do happen.</p>

<p>Thank you all for your support and suggestions! We are very appreciative.</p>

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<p>Good news! Good wishes!</p>

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<p>OP updating post:</p>

<p>Happy summer everyone!
So, good news at our house. DD graduated from her special needs school last month.
LOTS of end of year trips, the prom, yearbooks, etc; she loved it all.
She even earned two $$$ awards from community service organizations. We are quite proud of her.</p>

<p>And she has secured a FT spot in a vocational training program a few miles from our home WITH county supplied paratransit service to and from program each day.
She’s been attending 2 weeks now, enjoying the other employees, her supervisors, the whole experience. It is a well regarded program that may lead her to employment in the community down the road.
For now, she is learning HOW to work, advocate for herself, navigate a workplace setting, interact with a large numbers of coworkers…so many pluses.</p>

<p>Wanted to let you kind posters here know that (so far) there is a surprising good outcome to a problem that looked pretty bleak only a few months ago!</p>

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<p>Musicmom,</p>

<p>Have you looked at this school: [Landmark</a> College | The premier college for students with learning disabilities and AD/HD.](<a href=“http://www.landmark.edu/?]Landmark”>http://www.landmark.edu/?)</p>

<p>My friends daughter attended 1-2 years and it was a wonderful experience. She is living at home now and working at a day care center and quite happy. She can drive, so she sounds to be at a higher level that your daughter.</p>

<p>I’m not sure where you live in NJ, but the Y network in NJ is excellent and offer early childhood programs. Given the Y’s mission, I would imagine they would be open to hiring your daughter to work with one of these programs.</p>

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<p>nj2011mom-</p>

<p>thanks for suggestion of Landmark.
DD is not ready to be living away yet, maybe at some point.
She does not drive, needs prompts to ‘remember’ to do common everyday things…</p>

<p>New-ish program at The College of New Jersey (our home state) is attracting a bunch of attention. It is a ‘community studies’ program (or something close to that.
Not part of the ‘regular’ TCNJ curriculum but an option for special needs students.
DD knows 3 students from her HS that are or will be attending.
We would LOVE for her to have the ‘going away to school’ experience, valuable for personal growth in so many ways. But she will never, unfortunately, be able to tackle traditional college level material.
So we are maxing out any and all vocational programs we can find for her.</p>

<p>The Y is a great suggestion for employment for her. We have several in our suburban NJ area. </p>

<p>Thank you for responding…we appreciated all the imput we gain here for both our kids.</p>

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<p>I don’t get why the taxpayers of NJ who are already very overtaxed have to provide lifetime support for every citizen of the state. That is the first function of the family. While it would be nice to be all things to all people there is not enough money in the country to do anywhere near that. The state has probably already spent far more on your child than it does for most in the state. Where does it end?</p>

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<p>It is a difficult balance for all in the state…heavy taxes, but people in need. Good luck to your family as you find a way through the options for your daughter long term.</p>

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<p>You might want to look into Landmark. My friend’s daughter also has emotional issues and it was a great experience for her. She did not finish, but learned significant life skills that have helped her. They specialize and only accept ADD/ADHD/LD students. </p>

<p>Yup - we are overtaxed in NJ. People (except other Northern NJ residents) would gag at my property taxes for a 4br/3ba house that’s a 30 min train ride to NYC. I don’t have serious problems, however, paying for life skill services for the disabled. To my finance brain, it’s a present value issue - if we help them now, it will cost us less in the long run than if they need to be institutionalized.</p>

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<p>It’s wonderful that the state of NJ is looking “long term”…providing job training and the like so that these young adults CAN become members of the work force and become at least a little financially independent of their families and the state. Without state funded support early on…in the form of job coaching and the like, some disabled young adults would be a lifelong burden to the state. By getting some job training…perhaps this can be avoided.</p>

<p>Good luck to your daughter…it sounds like a wonderful job training program and I hope it DOES lead to employment and some independence for her down the road.</p>

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<p>barrons wrote:

I don’t know that the above response is appropriate in this thread, but given that it was raised:</p>

<p>My deceased father-in-law founded and directed a shelter workshop for the mentally and physically challenged in a small metropolitan area. The workshop received numerous grants both public and private. He had a Ph.D. in vocational rehabilitation after being told in high school that his visual impairment essentially precluded him from any sort of useful career.</p>

<p>I visited his business a number of times. The workers had varied disabilities and challenges. But they were trained and engaged in a variety of tasks from typewriter (remember those?) repair to operating shrink wrapping machines. The goal was to get these clients into a work environment and help them gain skills that allowed them to be employable. And I’ll confess that when I first arrived, there were times when I wasn’t convinced.</p>

<p>Fast forward to his later years when he and I would sneak out of the house so he could eat something he really wanted, as opposed to his doctor approved foods. Wherever we went, we had a decent chance of running into a former client who would come to our table and say, “Hello, Dr. ****” It was always a former client, someone who years earlier was “unemployable” and was now earning a modest living.</p>

<p>As the saying goes: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. We’re trying to teach musicmom’s daughter how to fish, and when we succeed, we will have done our jobs.</p>

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<p>A friend’s kids all went to Landmark however they were at a much higher level than the OP’s DD. I doubt that someone with third grade reading skills would be a fit for Landmark. Also from what I know the cost is pretty high. Her children loved it and did very well but they had no financial concerns and all three were in a different place with mainly on ADD type disabilities.</p>