Special-needs children at risk

This morning, Friday, the Yolo County Board of Supervisors will consider certain budget reductions that threaten dramatic impacts on some of our most vulnerable citizens: Special-needs children. This term is typically understood to include children with mild to severe learning disabilities, medical problems, and developmental challenges. One of the reductions the County is considering entails transitioning from the use of California Children's Services therapists at Green Gate School in Woodland, to therapeutic services provided by private service providers in Sacramento.

This proposal is premised on the assumption that utilizing a private service provider for occupational and physical therapy will save the County money.

This reasoning is shortsighted from both a fiscal and a legal perspective. Most significantly, though, it places additional and unwelcomed obstacles in the path of what are already difficult lives for special-needs children and their families.

When my daughter was diagnosed with multiple disabilities, I experienced first-hand the obstacles special-needs children face on a daily basis. Because she is non-verbal, unable to walk on her own, eats through a feeding tube, and has moderate-to-severe hearing loss, life is difficult for my daughter.

To assist my daughter in the things that we ordinarily take for granted, CCS has provided invaluable therapeutic services for her for almost the entirety of her life. Undoubtedly, these services have

vastly improved the quality of our lives.

Because CCS is located at Green Gate School in Woodland, where many special-needs children already attend, access to these essential services is convenient for children and their families. Since there are no private therapeutic service providers in Yolo County able to provide specialized therapeutic services, the County is considering the utilization of providers in Sacramento County and elsewhere.

This proposal would impose an incredible hardship on Woodland children and families by having to transport them to Sacramento.

Equipment, feeding supplies, walkers, standers, braces, and hearing aids are all part of the traveling regimen. Loading and unloading these items makes transportation far more challenging, time consuming, and difficult.

Aside from the burdens placed on children and families, there are legal considerations in transitioning these services. The Health & Safety Code expressly requires that designated county agencies provide these services.

In other words, the county is legally obligated to provide therapeutic services. Additionally, legislative intent is clear: The administrative responsibility for providing such services was never intended to be transferred to private service providers.

While the Legislature has given the State Department of Health Services the ability to contract for services, it has given no such authority to county agencies. Any such recommendation to transfer responsibility to a private vendor should be carefully evaluated to ensure that it comports with the plain requirements of the statutes.

Further, the law requires therapists to be familiar with and understand CCS regulatory and policy requirements.

The law also requires that therapists be familiar with and able to apply medical necessity criteria, and to differentiate between medical and educational responsibilities. To avoid conflicts of interest, the law precludes the service provider from being associated with the educational agency.

I suspect that the guiding consideration in the County's decision will boil down to a fiscal one. This concern fails to consider, however, that by transitioning to private service providers, the County may risk the loss of state funding and could be costing taxpayers far more in the long run.

For example, Yolo County has been granted an "elite" status that allows the county to bill Medi-Cal for therapy services provided to Medi-Cal beneficiaries, essentially offsetting the cost of the CCS program. It is highly unlikely that any private service provider would be able to meet the requirements necessary to qualify for this "elite" status.

Therefore, the County would retain the responsibility for providing services and meeting all of the criteria within the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. A costly endeavor indeed!

As a parent of a special-needs child, I know that these decisions have real consequences to families that struggle to provide the most basic tools to assist their children in living with and overcoming their physical and mental obstacles.

I hope that the Board uses wisdom and discernment, and proceeds only after performing an extensive evaluation of the potential personal, fiscal, and legal pitfalls threatened by the elimination of CCS.

-- Shawn Landry is a Woodland resident and the father of a special-needs child.

Entire Article available at http://www.dailydemocrat.com/guestopinions/ci_14762500