Stories From Main Street: Early Intervention Programs For Kids With Disabilities Face Financial Obstacles
NEW CITY, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- When a child has a disability or developmental delay, time is of the essence.
"You want them on the right track," said Jerry Staller, who heads early intervention for Jawonio, a longtime service agency for the disabled in the Hudson Valley.
Staller said that over the years funding for early intervention programs has not kept pace. Some therapists have even called it quits.
Early Intervention Programs For Disabled Kids Face Financial Obstacles
"People are throwing up their hands and saying, 'We can't work in a deficit,'" Staller told WCBS 880's Sean Adams.
Jawonio closes the gap with help from donors.
"Through our fundraising, we've run annual fundraising dinners, called our Kidz Express," Staller said.
This year's dinner, being held Thursday in New City, is in honor of 17-year-old Brandon Kline, who has cerebral palsy.
Jawonio has provided him services since he was a baby.
Today, Kline is thriving and preparing for college.
"The thought of this early intervention program at Jawonio not being there for the kids that will come after Brandon, it's just so disheartening for me," Brandon's mother, Margaret, says in a fundraising video. "I can't imagine this not being available for other children."
In recent years, New York state took over the payment of claims from counties in an attempt to reduce fraud and increase accountability, but the process has been marred by bureaucracy, said Assemblyman Tom Abinanti, D-Greenburgh.
"There's been a backlog of payments," he said. "These small communities have been forced to deal with insurance companies first.
"Right now the battle is to just get timely payments and to eliminate all of the red tape that has been added over the last three years."
Lawmakers, meanwhile, are continuing to look for ways to improve early intervention so little ones receive the care they deserve.
"We see many of our kids that started in E.I. (early intervention) doing beautifully in the regular education programs," Staller said.
