Take Action...Volunteer...Let Go Of Fear
"What is it that we have a problem with, with children who are in special education?" a Democratic representative, after speaking about his nephews with autism, asked the education secretary on March 27, 2019, according to NBC news live broadcast.
Special Olympics wasn't the only program affected. It was about 10% cut to Special Education and other Disability Programs.
"I still can't understand why you would go after disabled children in your budget. You zero that out. It's appalling," said Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif, in the same NBC live news broadcast on March 27, 2019.
The person being questioned, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, stated eliminating its federal funding is a matter of "budget realities", and the government is unable to fund "every worthy program", according to NBC news live broadcast on 3/27/19.
But Why Are We Even Discussing Budget Cuts At All?
Cut Budgets to Special Needs Programs AND Complain About Inadequate Services?
This problem has gotten so large that the average parent doesn't know where to start to fix the problem; but everyone wants to fix it.
Everybody is genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." Albert Einstein.
My son, Noah, 4-yrs-old with Autism and Pica, is non-verbal, and extremely intelligent and determined. So determined in fact, that his love of a swimming pool would cause him to go jump right in without his swimmies. Noah, as an infant, had a nanny until he was about 10 months old. Then, he went on to attend daycares.
The nanny didn't work out. The first daycare called every week to say Noah was sick so they could send him home. He had 11 emergency room visits in 1 year. Pica was discovered when the daycare announced at a meeting they could not "keep him safe" because he "ate 30 books" and sits in the playhouse on the playground "eating grass, pine needles, and acorns". They also said "he does not play with other children" making it difficult to assign a staff to look after him. After an investigation, the daycare was cited for inadequate supervision and neglect of minors. The next daycare advertised "inclusion" and had two sensory rooms, pristine cleanliness, and large rooms with lots of space. They boasted about how the playground was split with blacktop area and mulch area to prevent Noah from eating mulch. With Noah's new home health aid, Noah attended this "sensory-friendly autism friendly" daycare. After several weeks of not eating, and several observations of insufficient staff, his IFSP team came to the table to talk about his home health aid calling out every week and his supervision level. The daycare encouraged us to try a day without his aid and promised to keep him safe. That evening, Noah was brought to the emergency room, and we had no notice from the daycare when we picked him up. But, thanks to the end-of-the-day note, the floating teacher documented "Noah ate 3 car wheels, a stone from the bottom of his shoe, an outlet cover, and something else off the floor he swallowed too quickly to see what it was."
These are things a parent never wants to hear OR READ on a note home from daycare.
Today, after over a dozen home-health aids, we've seen just about everything you can imagine from hand guns to sleeping. We grew tired. We grew scared to try new things.
And then we grew aware of the deeper routed problem- Money- Some say, the root of all evil.
At every level there are problems scattered across government, community, family, disabilities and abilities, you name it: it comes down to money.
Budget cuts come from a person's ability to believe that money is not needed or could be used for something else. Possibly, budget cuts could be money going back into one's own pocket. When we talk about our own families, sometimes we make budget cuts to groceries or splurge spending to save for something else. Some can point the finger at themselves when they think about how a child needs a communication tablet or a new pair of shoes, but that sale on backyard gardening supplies was amazing. Go up the ladder to the services we want for our children and adults with autism. Providers receive funding from the state for services. The amount of money it costs to start up a provider service, and the time it takes for the provider to market and create that business, is completed without funding. Existing providers can hire people, but with caution about tight pockets, taxes, and spending to create the programs. Why the tight pockets? Go up the ladder again to law makers. Lawmakers are representatives of the population they serve. We appoint them to their position to give the American People a voice. Their pockets get padded with funds to approve programs that help the American People. That's a lot of dollars, and a lot of voices to satisfy.
Ever heard the saying? "The squeaky wheel gets the oil. "
Who's voice is the loudest?
The more voices there are, the louder we will be. And as fast as the ladder can be climbed, the sooner the change will be seen. Budget cuts come from a person's ability to believe that money is not needed or could be used for something else.
Our hope is that our voice will be heard. At the same time, we might not be giving the effort we need to give to be heard. Budget cuts will never come to the table again if we Take Action, Volunteer, and Get Over Fear.
I leave you with this...
Give 10 minutes of your time everyday to do ONE thing. You can do that 10 minutes at one time or split up throughout your day. Once you have gotten in the habit of doing ONE thing for so long that its second nature to take that 10 minutes every day, give 20 minutes of your day. Need a place to start?
Sign up to volunteer and Umbrella FCST will give you that ONE thing to do 10 minutes everyday.
Email us at UmbrellaFCST@gmail.com Keywords "Give Back to The Community"