Post-Roe Birth Surge Raises Concerns for Disability Services
Post-Roe Birth Surge Raises Concerns for Disability Services
Plus: Disabled students up to twice as likely to be chronically absent and the AARP examines issues for retiree parents of adult disabled children
Medical Motherhood’s news round up
Snippets of news and opinion from outlets around the world. Click the links for the full story.
• From The 74: “Exclusive: New Minneapolis Data Finds High Absenteeism Among Disabled Kids”
Since the start of the pandemic, the number of students with disabilities who are chronically absent from Minneapolis Public Schools has doubled or nearly doubled in more than a third of schools. More than 1,600 do not attend classes on a regular basis.
[…]The district did not post data regarding 14 specialized schools that serve students with profound needs, including self-contained special education programs. At some of those programs, attendance is not reported at all. According to separate state data, less than 4% of students enrolled in Minneapolis’s high school for students with the most intensive behavioral issues attend on a regular basis.
The numbers illuminate a largely unexamined facet of a national crisis coming out of the pandemic’s school disruptions. Historically, students with disabilities are the demographic group most likely to suffer from high rates of absenteeism. And they are so vulnerable to the resulting harms that federal civil rights laws require educators to take special care to make sure they get to school — and that they get help catching up once they are there.
[…]Overall, according to data recently posted by the Minneapolis district, the number of students with disabilities who are chronically absent rose from 29% in the academic year that ended in 2019 to a peak of 53% in 2022 and then 46% in 2023. However, those averages conceal huge variations among individual schools, ranging from 21% to 80% in 2023.
[…]Often, the students school leaders don’t go in search of are disengaged because they are not getting the help they need to succeed, says Andrea Jepsen, a Twin Cities special education attorney who was one of the lawyers who brought the case.
[…]Indeed, research has found that while children with disabilities quickly lose academic ground when classes are interrupted, they also are more likely than other students to post strong growth during the school year.
[…]National research has found that students with disabilities are 1.5 to 2 times more likely to be chronically absent than their general education classmates, for reasons ranging from chronic health problems to anxiety caused by bullying and harassment, trauma and housing insecurity. […]
• From the AARP: “What Retirement Means for Parents of Adult Children With Disabilities”
[…Jeanne] Piorkowski, 64, of Newton, New Jersey, is among the hundreds of thousands of older Americans who have adult children with disabilities living with or dependent on them.
“Being retired would enable me to do more for Ray,” she says, referring to her 30-year-old son, who has Down syndrome. “But on the other hand, I don’t foresee being able to travel very much or doing the things that other retirees enjoy.”
More than 1.1 million adults receive Social Security benefits due to a childhood disability, and nearly 345,000 of them have parents receiving retirement benefits, according to Social Security Administration data.
There are probably far more families in this situation, as these numbers only include families receiving Social Security payments. And the challenges are becoming increasingly urgent as more Americans reach retirement age and their children with disabilities live longer.
“This is a really big issue and we’re right on the cusp of it becoming a much bigger problem,” says David Goldfarb, director of policy at The Arc, a national nonprofit that advocates for people with disabilities and their families and provides services through a network of state and local chapters.
“I would expect these issues to grow exponentially as the decade moves forward,” Goldfarb says. “Because society is getting older, we have more individuals that are going to need more supports and services.”
The challenges begin well before retirement. Because of the time they must devote to caregiving, these parents often seek work that gives them flexibility to stay home with their children or to take them to activities or medical appointments, or they take part-time jobs without retirement plans. That can limit career prospects and economic horizons.
[…]AARP research shows that caregiving disproportionately falls to women, and a February 2023 Urban Institute reportprepared for the U.S. Department of Labor found that women earn $237,000 less, on average, over their working lives because of time they take off to raise children or provide care to parents or spouses. Mothers of children with disabilities often must step away from their careers for even longer, meaning they earn still less.[…]
• From the Texas Tribune: “With Texas births rising post-Roe, disability advocates say child services need bolstering”
Daniel Wiederhold, born with a rare and usually fatal type of brittle bone disorder, was one of the lucky ones.
Wiederhold received caregiving services from a specialized state health care program — after being on the waitlist for nine years. He benefited from special education in public school — until he broke his femur in seventh grade, after the school insisted on providing their own attendant nurse for him and she made a mistake with his power chair.
He and his family consider themselves blessed because, despite the many obstacles, he’s been able to live at home and engage in the community. Now 31, he was even a face of the Texas Medicaid Works campaign.
“We are one of the stories where this has worked,” Debbie Wiederhold, Daniel’s mother, said.
They also know others won’t be so lucky. As Texas has underfunded programs for people with disabilities over decades, accessing these services is a minefield. And advocates, lawmakers and experts worry it may become even more difficult in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned, as demand for these state services rises but policy goes on unchanged.
More than 16,000 additional babies were born in Texas in 2022 compared to 2021 after the state banned almost all abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, according to a University of Houston analysis of 2022 fertility data. People across the abortion policy divide have started worrying that the state won’t accommodate an increased population of children with disabilities, both as the fertility rate rises, and as some Texans who may have chosen to have an abortion after a prenatal diagnosis of certain disabilities no longer could.
[…]And despite children with disabilities repeatedly being used on both sides in the heated political debates around topics like abortion or school vouchers in the past year, advocates across the aisle have agreed that the current system is malfunctioning
[…]“Let's put our money where our mouths are,” said [Donna] Howard, the Austin state representative. “We want these babies to be born? Let's make sure we're providing the services that will support them and give them the best quality of life we can.”
Medical Motherhood brings you quality news and information each Sunday for raising disabled and neurodivergent children. Get it delivered to your inbox each week or give a gift subscription. Subscriptions are free, with optional tiers of support. Thank you to our paid subscribers!
Follow Medical Motherhood on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram or Pinterest. Visit the Medical Motherhood merchandise store.
I LOVE your news roundup! It keeps me informed on hot topics relevant to medical motherhood and allows me to scan the country's canvas to see how my state measures up. I learn new ideas and different points of view on various topics that may help my community, county, or state. I am better informed because of you. I share pertinent articles with those who can invoke change where I live and I encourage others to sign up for the newsletter. Thank you for such wonderful information.