by the Survival Coalition of Wisconsin Disability Organizations

The biennial budget and subsequent action by the legislature get mixed reviews by parents of children with disabilities. Among the most fragile families in Wisconsin are those with a child with a significant disability. While these families often have extraordinary needs that require supports and services that go beyond what a family can meet on their own, the legislature and administration provided little relief.

Despite a pattern of bipartisan consensus by previous legislatures to prioritize the needs of children with significant disabilities, the current legislature froze funding for all long-term care for people with disabilities, including children. The legislature preserved overall Medicaid benefits for children with disabilities, but took no action to reduce extraordinary wait lists for long-term supports.Currently about half of all children with significant disabilities who are eligible for the Children’s Long-Term Supports – 2,244 children – continue to wait. These supports are vital to keeping families out of crisis and providing them with the information and supports they need to keep their families intact. When a family is failed by the system or does not receive supports in time, parents lose jobs, find it impossible to care for their children, resort to expensive out of home placements, and seriously compromise their quality of life.

In the area of education, students with disabilities fared better, with the passage of two significant positive pieces of legislation: a prohibition on harmful seclusion and restraint practices and a mandatory child abuse reporting law. However, the impacts of large reductions in overall public education funding are expected to be significant for students with disabilities.

A March report released by the Survival Coalition of Wisconsin Disability Organizations summarized the results from a statewide survey of 442 parents of children with disabilities in Wisconsin. Of those who completed the survey, 46% indicated their child’s educational programming was worse when compared to the last 1-2 years. The report also outlined anecdotal concerns related to increased loss of staff support (40% of all survey respondents); larger class sizes (33% of all respondents); a change in services the child was receiving (33%); access to teachers with less experience (29%) and increased clustering of students (18%). The Survival Coalition concluded that public school funding in the state is not adequate to address the health, safety, and academic progress of students with disabilities.

In the coming weeks and months, people who care about the needs of children with disabilities should ask candidates for elected office where they stand on the services needed by these vulnerable children.

The Survival Coalition of Wisconsin Disability Organizations is a cross-disability coalition of more than 40 state and local organizations and groups.
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Note: This is one in a series of blog posts providing perspectives on some of the state policy changes and fiscal decisions made during the past legislative session, and the impact they are having on Wisconsin’s children and families. We hope the public will consider these impacts and will urge candidates to talk more about these issues as elections approach. The views expressed in each post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of WCCF or the opinions of authors of any of the other posts.