I kind of feel like I’m sinking in quicksand at the moment

I kind of feel like I’m sinking in quicksand at the moment. My oldest son has a Learning Disability that was never diagnosed with any fancy term or classification, other than the school faculty labeling it as a Learning Disability. I attended every IEP meeting, and I kept asking questions and writing down notes, but would misplace those notes whenever I took care of other important matters, and we kept moving around a lot. My wife kept scolding me for not getting him into the government programs, but like I told her, I didn’t know where to go or with whom I should talk to get the process started.

Eventually, during the last IEP meeting, one of the faculty members told me that the school can send the records to the local learning center for me if I fill out the papers, which I did. He’s a full-grown adult with an education level equivalent to 5th grade, and only 1 year left of state funded schooling as an adult. I just received notification from my Health Insurance companies that they will be dropping him from my insurance because of his age. He finally got approved to get tested for his disability, but the appointments are fully booked for the next 3 months. The last time I talked with my other son’s therapist about it, she told me that time is critical for getting him into the state funded programs because of his age, so he can support himself.

Whenever I research other options and programs for assistance, it seems like the only people who primarily can get assistance are diagnosed as autistic, which he is not diagnosed as that. I’m worried that he won’t be able to get medical and dental care as an adult or be able to take care of himself because of his disability, and he doesn’t understand what is going on or how the World works. It is looking like he is going to fall through the cracks.

1 Heart

Google: how to help your adult special needs child get government help
This should give you link after link of help based on the state where you live. A city social worker should also be able to help you and they should be able to get Medicaid. Don't give up!

1 Heart

@SG Team I will try that. Thank you.

@CKBlossom @CKBlossom He’s not completely in the green yet. I’m still jumping through hoops to make it happen, but at least I now have a solution to the problem. It just requires some leg work to make it happen.

I actually started calling each of the insurance compies when he was a year out from aging out, but all of the companies told me the same thing, that he can only be extended with a note from our family doctor. Our family doctor would not give me a note until he got tested, but the testing facility for state funded programs wouldn’t test him, until I delivered copies of his IEP’s to their facility, and his school told me they usually deny the request and submissions from the parents at least once. It wasn’t until his most recent IEP meeting in which the school said they could submit the records on my behalf, and they told me that it has more credibility if they do that for me.

It wasn’t until I received the more recent letters from an office that acts as a liason or focal point for 2 of the insurance companies and reached out them, which was when they directed me to another office for updating my family records, and that office told me he would qualify as a full time student and the steps to take for getting him updated as such. It felt like I was playing a classic game of snakes and ladders, and I kept shaking my head while wondering which office was at the front of the domino line.

Anyway, thank you for your concern, and you have a great weekend too!