VA Families Fear More Cuts to Services for the Disabled

February 11, 2010

When Sam May graduates from high school next year, his parents want him to be able to achieve his fullest potential, living independently and working.

But without financial help from the state, May, 20, might have limited options once he completes his education in Fairfax County public schools, said his mother, Kathy May.

He has fragile X syndrome, a genetic condition that can cause intellectual disabilities an d autism-like behaviors. The condition means he always will need support to live independently, his mother said.

"I could never leave him home for an eight-hour day," she said.

The Mays are on a waiting list for an intellectual disabilities waiver from the Virginia Medicaid program, in hopes of qualifying for state aid for him by the time he turns 21 and is too old for the school system. The program uses the term "waiver" to refer to a disabled individual’s coverage for services.

The waiting list includes 637 other families in Fairfax County, Fairfax City and Falls Church, according to Alan D. Wooten, director of intellectual disabilities services for the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board, a government agency that administers some social services.

Proposed cuts to Virginia’s Medicaid program could make that waiting list even longer, Wooten said. The waivers fund a variety of services that help people with disabilities continue to live in the community, such as supported employment, companion services and nursing care, Wooten said.

With the support they receive through the school system, the Mays said they are able to care for their son without state aid. Sam May attends the Davis Career Center at Marshall High School, where he learns life and career skills and is able to work in a company’s mailroom.

If her son cannot get state-funded services when he graduates, Kathy May said she is not sure what the family will do. She and her husband work full time, so one of them likely would have to quit to care for him. Without two incomes, they probably would have to sell their home and move, she said.

May, 50, has a mother with Alzheimer’s disease and that makes her worry about what her son will go through as she and her husband, who is 60, age. & lt;/p>

"If this is so scary for me, what is it going to be like for him?" she said.

In 2007, disabilities advocates persuaded legislators to fund 330 additional intellectual disabilities waiver slots and 100 new slots for people with developmental disabilities statewide to help address the long waiting lists for those services. But as the recession hit the state’s bottom line, then-Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) began cutting the additional slots.

In his final budget proposal for fiscal 2011-12, Kaine suggested eliminating the remaining new slots and freezing the existing slots. That means when one of the 611 people receiving intellectual disabilities waiver funds becomes ineligible for services, the slot that would usually go to someone on the waiting list could not be used, Wooten said.

"That’s a real concern of our advocates and our providers," Wooten said.

The Community Services Board contracts with nonprofits to provide most of its services, and if the groups lose clients because of state cuts, they might not be able to survive, he said.

Kaine also proposed reducing the payments to providers by 5 percent, which could also affect the groups’ survival, Wooten said.

Advocates, parents and people with disabilities are seeking to persuade the General Assembly to reverse Kaine’s proposals. Lobbying efforts succeeded in the last budget year, but May is not sure it will work again.

"I think that, in an odd way, legislators have been somewhat hardened to this issue because we’re there every year," May said.