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- Does Family Voices or Cerebral Palsy of Colorado have funds for helping individuals or families?
- I am a parent of a child with significant special needs. I can’t find any childcare for my child and therefore I cannot work. What suggestions might you have about how I can support my family?
- Somebody told me that my child might be able to qualify for Medicaid even though we are not poor enough to receive any kind of welfare services.
- What other kinds of children’s waivers are there?
- Our family health insurance has denied speech therapy (or physical or occupational therapy) for our child with special needs. What funding sources might there be to pay for them?
- My child has emotional/behavioral problems. Does Family Voices help families like ours?
- Why is it that my child got so many more services in the last state we lived in than here? Aren’t public services the same in every state?
- We are moving to Colorado from a different state and have a child with special needs. Who should we contact first?
- My child is turning 18 soon. What can I do to make sure he has everything he needs as he transitions into adulthood?
- I’ll be serving on a committee of my local Community Centered Board (or school or other service system) and would like to know if anyone can tell me how to serve “professionally” on that committee. I don’t want to be seen as a “token parent.”
- Does Family Voices or Cerebral Palsy of Colorado have funds for helping individuals or families?
Answer: No. Family Voices may be able to suggest resources for funding services, equipment or other needs. They have more knowledge of resources that pay for services and supports for children and youth than for adults. You might find additional information from the following resources:
- United Way Helpline
www.211.org
- Disability Navigators (for adults)
www.cowinpartners.org/colorado-dpn.asp
- Independent Living Centers (for adults)
www.uchsc.edu/atp/library/fastfacts/silc1.htm
- EPSDT Outreach Coordinators (Serve children & youth to age 18 with Medicaid; keep updated community resource lists) Call in Metro Denver 303-866-6167or 303-866-6006; Outside Metro Denver 1-800-221-3943.
- Your child’s school, HMO or Medicaid Waiver case manager
- Early Childhood Connections Service Coordinator (birth – 3 years old)
Toll Free Number: 1-888-777-4041
- Health Care Program for Children with Special Needs (HCP) www.cdphe.state.co.us/ps/hcp/home/contact.html
- Department of Human/Social Services (for publicly funded programs)
www.cdhs.state.co.us/servicebycounty.htm
Please do not hesitate to call or email us if you would like some assistance. 800-881-8272.
- I am a parent of a child with significant special needs. I can’t find any childcare for my child and therefore I cannot work. What suggestions might you have about how I can support my family?
- Have you contacted the Department of Human Services? If household income is low you may be able to qualify for welfare assistance. Work credits can be given to parents who care for disabled or chronically ill children, thus preventing them from having to leave the child to go to work elsewhere. See “h” above for contacting Social Services.
- If your child has Medicaid and qualifies for home health care services you might consider getting trained as a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA). You could work for a home health agency that cares for your child, serving as his CNA, like any other employee. If your child does not yet have home health services, contact home health agencies and describe to their nurse case manager your child’s special needs and functioning abilities. The nurse will be able to tell you whether she thinks your child might qualify. She will work with your child’s doctor to determine the amount of services that your child needs. Your child will be assessed to see if he meets the functional and/or behavioral needs levels that would allow him to have home health services.
You can also start at your community’s Single Entry Point (SEP) Agency. Personnel from these entities do some of the assessments for children and youth as well as adults.
Single Entry Point Agencies in Colorado are listed on this website: www.chcpf.state.co.us/HCPF/LTC/sepindex.asp
For a list of classes for CNA training go to: www.dora.state.co.us/nursing
- Consider job-sharing if you need to keep your income low and can only work when another parent can babysit or your child is at school. You might consider caring for other people’s children also. Sometimes employers will alter your salary and benefits to respond to the needs of keeping your child’s public benefits (SSI & Medicaid).
- Make sure you get your child on a Medicaid Waiver Waiting List if he/she qualifies. Contact your Community Centered Board or the Single Entry Point Agency in your area (www.chcpf.state.co.us/HCPF/LTC/sepindex.asp) to do so.
Read more about Medicaid Waivers below.
- Somebody told me that my child might be able to qualify for Medicaid even though we are not poor enough to receive any kind of welfare services.
Answer: If your child is functioning much differently than other children his age and requires a level of care that might require that he live in a hospital or special nursing facility if you weren’t able to care for him, he might qualify for a Medicaid Waiver.
Sometimes the eligibility technicians at community social services Medicaid offices are not familiar with the waivers. Parents need to find out from other agencies, advocacy associations or other parents about these important resources for children and youth with special needs.
There are waivers for different populations, designed to serve specific needs. One of the children’s waivers requires that a family’s income (parents or primary caretakers) not be low enough that the child might qualify for SSI (Supplemental Security Income). This waiver is called The Children’s Home and Community Based Services Waiver or CHCBS Waiver. (In the past it was called Katie Beckett or Model 200.) Children on this waiver are significantly impacted by health and/or developmental disabilities or delays. They must function well below their peers in at least one area, passing a screening assessment called the ULTC 100.2. (See Long Term Care Eligibility Assessment at www.chcpf.state.co.us/HCPF/Pdf_Bin/400-401LTC.pdf) They must show proof to Medicaid from the Social Security Administration that their income is above the eligibility level for their child to qualify for SSI.
If your child qualifies for a CHCBS Waiver “slot” he/she will then get Medicaid and a case manager who will help you to access necessary services within Medicaid and elsewhere. No other funding accompanies this waiver. If your child already has private insurance the Medicaid will become a secondary payer to what private insurance doesn’t cover. This is only true, however, if your child’s private insurance health care provider is also a Medicaid contracted provider. (In some cases you may only use Medicaid for services since health insurance doesn’t always cover everything that our children need.)
To find out if your child might qualify for a waiver contact your Community Centered Board CCB www.alliancecolorado.org/default.asp?pid=388 or www.ccbpartners.org/index_about.htm or your local SEP (www.chcpf.state.co.us/HCPF/LTC/sepindex.asp). Family Voices will be happy to talk you through the steps of the process as well.
- What other kinds of children’s waivers are there?
Answer: There is a waiver for children who qualify for services through the developmental disabilities system who also have significant functioning and/or behavioral differences. This waiver is called the Children’s Extensive Support Waiver (CES). These children require nearly 24-hour supervision. Even at night, a parent or caregiver must attend to them in either a behavioral intervention or a health or safety intervention at least every three hours.
To be eligible for the CES Waiver the child’s family income does not have to be above the SSI Income Eligibility level. A child may already have Medicaid and still be eligible for this waiver. In addition to services covered by Medicaid the child can get things like special training, equipment, home modifications, non-medical care while parents are not available, special formulas or other things that Medicaid does not cover. The family will also get a case manager to assist them to identify and obtain needed services/supports.
To see if your child might qualify for this waiver contact your local Community Centered Board (CCB) www.alliancecolorado.org/default.asp?pid=388 or www.ccbpartners.org/index_about.htm.
There is also a waiver for children under age six who have the diagnosis of autism. The Children With Autism Waiver (CWA) requires that the child be eligible for or on another waiver program or have Medicaid through another program (like SSI). You can read more at www.chcpf.state.co.us/HCPF/msb/attach_06/519%20HCBS%20CAW.pdf.
To see if your child might qualify for this waiver contact your local Community Centered Board (CCB) www.alliancecolorado.org/default.asp?pid=388 or www.ccbpartners.org/index_about.htm.
The Children’s Habilitation Residential Program (CHRP) is for children who cannot live at home. These are children who have developmental disabilities (mental retardation) and their emotional/behavioral needs are too significant for unskilled parents or other caregivers to provide for them appropriately. They generally live in foster home families or group facilities. Read more at: http://www.chcpf.state.co.us/HCPF/Pdf_Bin/508chrp.pdf
You can see a list of all the other children’s and adult waivers at this site:
http://www.chcpf.state.co.us/HCPF/MedicaidEligibility/mefcc.asp.
For help in knowing how to see if your child might qualify for any of them you can start with Family Voices at 800-881-8272.
- Our family health insurance has denied speech therapy (or physical or occupational therapy) for our child with special needs. What funding sources might there be to pay for them?
Answer: Before you rule out your private insurance completely, please contact our insurance benefits specialist at Family Voices 800-881-8272. Leave your message with Sarony Young. Sarony has years of experience helping families to read their insurance policies to see if they have missed a possible means by which to get a different decision from the insurance company. It may be possible that the policy is ambiguous or misleading. It may be that the company might grant you an exception. Sarony can assist you with possible tips that may help you get that therapy paid for. She can also assist you to identify things you might want to look for when you are considering purchasing a new or different health insurance policy.
If private insurance still isn’t going to be the payer for that therapy you will have to look at what other options might be available to your child. If your child is aged birth to three the Developmental Disabilities Early Intervention Program might be able to assist with some of the therapy. Your service coordinator from Early Childhood Connections should be able to help you access this system. She is also responsible for helping you to access any other available payer sources to cover that therapy if it is listed on your child’s Individualized Family Services Plan (IFSP) as a need.
For children over age three they may have access to a little bit of therapy in school. Many children may need more than what schools are able to provide. The child might qualify for a Medicaid Waiver or for assistance from a charitable organization. Please see our list in question 1 above for some places to try. Family Voices may also have other ideas. Call them at 800-881-8272.
- My child has emotional/behavioral problems. Does Family Voices help families like ours?
Answer: Family Voices is not really the authority on the evaluation and treatment needs of children with emotional/behavioral problems. We are more familiar with the problems of getting those services paid for. That is why we partner with both the Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health (www.coloradofederation.org) and EMPOWER Colorado (www.empowercolorado.com). These organizations are more knowledgeable about services and supports needed by these children and their families. They know some of the payer system issues and strategies as well. If you have questions about mental health treatment please call our toll free helpline at 800-881-8272. On that line there is a voice mailbox for you to leave your questions about services to this population of children.
- Why is it that my child got so many more services in the last state we lived in than here? Aren’t public services the same in every state?
Answer: No, publicly funded services vary from state to state. One of the few exceptions is SSI (Supplemental Security Income). That is a federally funded program that gives the same amounts of money to eligible recipients regardless of what state they live in, based on allocation regulations.
In Colorado we have a very severe form of restriction on our state funded services being able to change much from year to year. Due to a law called the TABOR (Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights) our state government’s ability to collect taxes and spend those taxes is very limited. It is a very complex law in our state constitution. The fact that it is in the state constitution means that to change anything about it requires a ballot initiative. (The legislature does not have full control of how the state will collect and spend money. The people must vote on it.) Ballot initiatives are very costly and cumbersome to pass. They often fail. People who don’t really understand what publicly funded services provide to disabled children and other vulnerable populations often don’t have enough information to help them know that the Colorado should collect or spend more tax dollars. Thus, our schools, health care, developmental disabilities services and other critically important state services are limited compared to other states. If you would like to become more knowledgeable about how our state policymaking impacts children with special needs AND how to get involved in improving it for them please contact us. 800-881-8272
- We are moving to Colorado from a different state and have a child with special needs. Who should we contact first?
Answer: It would be advisable to contact your future community’s ChildFind, which is run by the school district where your child(ren) will go to school. ChildFind can help get you get your child connected to preschool services (ages 3 –5) or kindergarten through 12th grade services. They may need to assess your child if your child’s IFSP (birth through age 3) or IEP (age 3 –21) is not current.
If your child is eligible for developmental disabilities services (birth – adulthood) you should contact the local Community Centered Board (CCB) where you will be living. Tell the person your child’s age, disability, functioning level, whether or not they have an IFSP or an IEP and what services they are getting or got in your present state. Your CCB is listed either at www.alliancecolorado.org/default.asp?pid=388 or at www.ccbpartners.org/index_about.htm.
You might want to talk to other parents who live in the communities you are considering moving to in Colorado. Parent to Parent of Colorado www.p2p-co.org or EMPOWER Colorado (if your child has emotional/behavioral issues) www.empowercolorado.com can get you connected to those families. Family Voices can also give you some other resources that could be helpful. 800-881-8272
- My child is turning 18 soon. What can I do to make sure he has everything he needs as he transitions into adulthood.
Answer: We like to suggest that everybody attend training on transitioning youth to adult services. Family Voices can do training for the health care aspect of this transition. Another organization, the Arc and Easter Seals of Colorado also do great transition training programs. You can find out more about these at www.arcjc.org/about_us/programs/training_transition.html. Most school districts try to provide some kind of transition training. The Colorado Department of Education has a great section on its website about transition resources. Go to this website for more info: www.cde.state.co.us/cdesped/transresources.asp
- I’ll be serving on a committee of my local Community Centered Board (or school or other service system) and would like to know if anyone can tell me how to serve “professionally” on that committee. I don’t want to be seen as a “token parent.”
Answer: Please contact Family Voices Colorado! We’ll give you some valuable tips we’ve found effective in our many years as “parent professionals” at the policy and committee tables. 800-881-8272.
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