Early intervention
Texas hinders opportunities that would help developmentally disabled kids improve.
If we were designing an orientation for Texas lawmakers, it might include a morning in the entryway at Ben Taub Hospital with ill patients waiting for beds. Afternoon would be spent with a teacher trying to get by in a crowded classroom without necessary school supplies. And in the evening, the politician would sit at the bedside of a severely disabled child and watch while a therapist teaches the simple skill of swallowing food.
Limited life experience — that’s the only way to explain some of the policies coming out of Austin over the past several years.
Otherwise, how could lawmakers underfund the Texas Early Childhood Intervention program, which helps Texas’ most vulnerable children, including those with disabilities and developmental delays? How could the Legislature slash and then refuse to fully reinstate the Medicaid reimbursement rate for therapists trying to teach these children the basic abilities of swallowing and speaking?
On account of legislative shortsightedness, children who have started school ready to learn on grade level, won’t. Children who might have spoken clearly, will not. Children — who with early intervention could have gotten jobs — will grow up beholden to their families and social services for a lifetime of support.
Due in large part to state funding cuts, enrollment in this important intervention program has suffered a disturbing drop, according to a new report by Texans Care for Children, a nonprofit.
The number of children getting early help plummeted precipitously between 2011 and 2016 in urban counties: 30 percent in Harris County, 35 percent in Collin County and 22 percent in Dallas County.
Statewide enrollment declines have affected black communities in Texas the most: enrollment of black children statewide decreased 30 percent since 2011, when the state began to reduce funding and eligibility. Hispanic children saw a 10 percent drop and white kids suffered an 8 percent decline.
The state’s promised efforts to recover lost enrollment following closure of programs has been halting, leaving children to slip through the cracks. In one area of Northeast Texas, 400 fewer children are getting the help they need.
The good news is that, unlike some physical disabilities, funding cuts are entirely reversible. The Texas Legislature must recommit itself next session to young children with autism, Down syndrome and cerebral palsy, who will be a part of our state’s future one way or another. Lawmakers need to fully reverse the Medicaid therapy rate cuts enacted in 2015 and ensure that existing providers of therapy services have the resources that they need to remain in the program.
Lawmakers also need to fund outreach so more eligible families can learn about the program. ECI doesn’t serve only children of poverty. Many middleincome families who have kids with significant disabilities can qualify for Medicaid due to the exorbitant expense of care.
An excellent special education program in public schools also serves as a key part of comprehensive care. Unfortunately, lawmakers have been systematically underfunding public schools, with special education students the hardest hit.
Politicians in Austin give lip service to the notion that all Texas children should have the opportunity to live up to their potential. All that rhetoric will be nothing more than empty promises unless they provide proper funding.