Baker backs funding ‘Turning 22’ program
Law aids young adults with severe disabilities
Gov. Charlie Baker Monday pushed for full funding of the state’s “Turning 22” program, an initiative he says fills a critical need by providing work and living support services for young adults with disabilities after they leave school-based special education.
“The Turning 22 program is one of the most important programs we have to help young people with developmental disabilities transition from sort of very aggressive school-based care to independent living,” Baker told reporters Monday after touring the Price Center in Newton.
“For the folks we were talking to here, they’re part of a large cohort who are part of the Price community who work two, three, four days a week,” Baker said. “Many of them live independently, some of them live at home, some of them live in group communities but the bottom line is, they’re having an opportunity to pursue what I think we would all describe as the kind of life that we would hope.”
The “Turning 22” law was enacted in 1984 to provide a planning process for young adults with severe disabilities as they transition into the adult service system. The Price Center is one of many of the programs in Massachusetts, according to Baker, that do a “really terrific job” of helping people make that change.
The program has been fully funded for the past several years, said Baker, and budget proposals from the House and the Senate are similar to his own $25 million budget line to continue funding for fiscal 2020.
“It’s certainly our hope that, as the process unfolds between now and the end of June, that we continue to fully fund this program because obviously it makes a big difference,” Baker said.
The number of young people who have transitioned through the program run by the Department of Developmental Services has grown steadily in recent years, from 809 in fiscal 2015 to 1,171 in the current fiscal year.