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>>My name is Linda Smith and today I'm going to be talking about the overview of the laws
that impact transition and then the overview of adult services.
As a parent that has 4 children, 4 adult children with disabilities
and as an adult myself with disabilities, I have learned that once your child graduates
from high school or ages out at age 22, that doesn't mean that you finally get to say,
goodbye child and your child is done and you never have to worry
about your child with a disability again.
What it means is that you now say goodbye to certain laws and certain services and you have
to begin again on some new services.
And this can seem kind of challenging.
In fact originally I thought it felt like I had gone over a cliff
and was just free falling at the moment.
So the idea behind these transition services and these transition series
that the Utah Parent Center is giving, is to give you some ideas so that you can work
with your youth and that you can work so that you can step together hand in hand
with your special educator and adult service providers and that you can work so that both
of you can go hand in hand so your child is ready for the adult services as they age
out at age 22 or graduate at age 18.
First of all we're going to talk about some of the laws
that impact individuals with disabilities.
There is the American with Disabilities Act or the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
Now you may have used part of this in school.
There's also the section 504 Act of the Rehabilitation Act and all three
of these acts are anti-discrimination laws.
There's also the Ticket to Work or Work Incentives Act, Improvement Act of 1999
and the Health Insurance or Portability and Accountability Act
of 1996 or we love to call it HIPA.
The Americans with disabilities act has a definition for disabilities that is also used
in section 504 of the rehabilitation act and interesting enough,
that definition was just changed, thanks to a lot of advocacy done by parents
that have children with disabilities and by individuals that have disabilities.
Before then there was court law that for some reason exempted individuals
with learning disabilities and attention deficit disorder many times
with in the American's with Disabilities Act.
With this new definition and some of the words that were added,
now individuals with learning disabilities and attention deficit disorder are included
in the American's with Disabilities Act as well as the section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.
The definition of disability, the term disability means a physical or mental impairment
that substantially limits 1 or more major activity of such an individual.
A physical or mental impairment that substantially limits 1 or major live activity,
a record of such an impairment and here's the interesting 1, or an individual that is regarded
as having such a disability, as being regarded as having a disability.
So you don't necessarily have to have a disability.
You may be regarded or teased as having a disability.
Some of the major activities include but are not limited to, caring for oneself,
performing manual tasks, seeing, hearing, eating, sleeping, walking,
lifting, bending, speaking, breathing.
Now here are some of the new ones though, breeding, learning, concentrating, thinking,
communicating and then the final one is working.
Major body functions include a major life activity might include such things as functions
with your immune system, normal cell growth, neurological, brain, respiratory, circulatory
and other functions within your system and they can include everything from sleeping,
employment, walking, anything that affects your life in the community, employment,
in school or any other thing like that.
An overview of the Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination against people
with disabilities in employment, transportation, public accommodations, communications
and the one I want to really emphasis is activities in the state
and local government including colleges and Universities.
A lot of times we don't think about that but our local community recreation activities
and community centers, our colleges and universities,
all of their programs, need to be ADA accessible.
Implications for transition, as far as your students with transition,
it also requires in school that all buildings and programs be accessible to the student.
It also requires that services that are provided in colleges, universities
or that employers provide be non-discriminatory and that the procedures be non-discriminatory
and that reasonable accommodations be given.
Now what does this mean to you as a parent
and to the individual with the disability or student?
It means as a student, that student needs to learn about their disabilities.
They also need to learn about their restraints so they can tell the individual, the employer,
the university professor, what their strengths are but also what type
of accommodations they need and what better place to do that then when they're
in middle school and when they're in high school starting to speak out for themselves and say,
I might need somebody to take notes.
I might need somebody to help me write down what my homework is going to be.
I might need a communication board.
So the student starts getting use to advocating for what accommodations they need
so when they turn 18 they are not confused about their disability or what that issue is
and they can advocate for themselves.
The next is the Rehabilitation Act and the Rehabilitation Act is a recognition of rights
and capabilities of individuals with disabilities and it's also,
it's a reminder the Rehabilitation Act is about employment.
Individuals that seek employment through the rehabilitation
and the Rehabilitation Act was started because there was an underemployment
of individuals with disabilities.
What does that mean as far as the transition?
It uses the same definition for disabilities as in the Americans with Disabilities Act.
It also uses the same definition of transition as in the Individuals
with Disabilities Education Act, IDA.
It reduces gas and services and barriers to accessing services
and it requires the department of rehabilitation an education to work together in funding
and training, meaning that when your child is receiving transition services
through middle school and through high school, you want to ask that as you're having your IEP
that you have a vocational rehabilitation service provider come in to your IEP meeting
and you start talking about if your student will need vocational rehabilitation services
if they're going to seek employment, what those services will look like,
how do they become eligible for those services and who do they contact for those services.
So when the time comes for your student to leave school services, they already have contact
with that vocational rehabilitation service provider and they already are eligible
for services through vocational rehabilitation and they're already setting
up their vocational rehabilitation services.
Rehabilitation Act has other key areas related to transition.
One of them is eligibility, is the individual eligible?
Are they eligible for employment?
Do they want to be employed?
And that doesn't mean right at that moment.
Their employment might require job training.
It might require education to become employed in the area they want to become employed in.
It may require assessment.
What grade level are they on in reading, in math?
What careers would they be good at?
How well do they do in fine motor skills?
How well do they do in other skills that would help them in their career?
It could be clear development, individual.
And now here's another interesting 1, in the special education you have an IEP
or the individual education plan.
In vocational rehabilitation you have an individual plan
for employment or what's called an IPE.
And each individual makes their own plans for employment and sets
down goals and objections under that plan.
And then you talk about funding and how that plan will be funded.
Next under the rehabilitation act you have section 504 of the rehabilitation act.
And section 504 under the rehabilitation act protects persons
from discrimination based upon their disability status.
Now the difference between section 504 and the American's
with Disabilities Act is section 504 only helps with programs that are federally funded.
So if the college program is a federal program, which most states, universities and colleges are
or if that program receives state grants or federal grants, then they are covered
under the section 504 of the rehabilitation act and need to provide accommodations
and accessibility under those programs.
The following program is the Ticket to Work or Work Incentives Act.
Now this is for individuals who have social security, either social security incentives
or social security disability incentives.
And the Ticket to Work or Work Incentives Act was put together to help individuals
who require, who want to be more self-sufficient.
And it was an act that was put together because the government felt
that there were disincentives for individuals to go to work who were on social security benefits.
So when your young adult turns 18, if they receive social security assistance,
they'll receive what's called a ticket in the mail.
And this ticket will have a number on it and if you lose the ticket
or they lose the ticket, don't worry.
You can call the vocational rehabilitation office or the social security office
and they will give you the number again.
But basically what the ticket does is it's supposed to increase self-sufficiency
and increase the individual's choice
in obtaining either vocational rehabilitation services or other employment services
or other support services the individual might have.
Currently in the state of Utah the provider
that is used the most is the Utah State Office of Rehabilitation.
However there are a few other employment providers that can be used,
as well as the ticket can be used at the same time for other employment services.
For instance if you need job skills training like how to write a resume or other type
of jobs skills training, you could use the ticket for that at the same time.
The ticket also removes barriers that require people with disabilities to choose
between healthcare coverage and work.
You now can remain on social security benefits and retain your healthcare coverage.
That disincentive has been removed with the new social security act and the Ticket to Work
and Work Incentives Act which is really exciting.
And they have found through studies that it is far more reasonable for you to go to work
and you will make more money and you can retain your social security
and your healthcare benefits for a time if you do go to work.
It also assures that more Americans with disabilities will have the opportunity
to participate in the workforce and lessen their dependence on public benefits.
So the old disincentives are no longer there and so everybody is encouraged now to go back
to work and to use their social security incentives
and to also use their healthcare coverage and to also use employment.
The final law I'm going to talk about for adults is the health insurance portability
and accountability act or HIPA.
What information is protected under HIPA?
The information that is in your medical records is provided.
It is the conversations with your doctors that you have
or with your nurses about your healthcare treatment.
It's some information about you and your health insurance computer system.
It's information about your billing system.
They cannot sell that to other people.
They cannot give that to other individuals and as most other health information that you held,
that is held by those who must follow this law.
The office of civil rights enforces the HIPA privacy rules, which enforces the privacy
of individual's identifiable health information and the confidentiality provisions
of the patient safety act which provides identifiable information being used
to analyze patient's safety advance and improve patient's safety.
Now what rights do you have?
You have the right to ask to see and get a copy of your health records.
Now you may have to pay for a copy of those health records,
to make a copy of those health records, you may have to pay 5 cents or 10 cents
or whatever it costs, for a copy of those but you have a right to obtain those health records.
You have a right to make corrections
and have those corrections added to your health information.
You have a right to receive a notice
that tells you how your health information is used and shared.
You can decide whether you want to share
and give permission before your health information can be shared.
You can ask to get a report on why your information was shared and if you're not happy
and you believe that your rights are being denied
or your health information isn't being protected, you have the right
to file a complaint with the office of civil rights or you can file a complaint
with your provider or health insurer or you can file a complaint
with the US government, either one.
And so those are different things.
Who are the different people that don't have to follow HIPA?
Life insurers, employers, worker compensation carriers, many schools
and school districts do not have to, many state agencies
like child protective services state agencies,
many law enforcement agencies and many other offices.
Now what have I told you about the different things?
The 1 thing that as parents you need to really understand about all the adult laws is
that as an adult with disabilities none of these services or laws work unless the individual
with the disability is willing to disclose or tell that they have a disability.
They don't have to go in to a lot of information and say I have mental health issues
and I have bipolar and I have learning disabilities,
oh and I have intellectual disabilities, they don't have to go in to all the information.
All they have to say is I'm an individual with a disability.
But they do have to disclose that they have a disability if they want to receive protection
under any of the adult laws such as the American's with Disabilities Act
or the section 504 of the rehabilitation act.
That goes for the colleges and universities.
It goes for rights as far as recreation and it especially goes for rights as employers.
One of the discussions you're going to want to have with your youth is
when they want to disclose their disability.
They don't want to disclose that they have a disability with everybody
that they walk down the street with.
And they will want to decide when they want to disclose their disability with an employer.
Do they want to disclose it before they seek a job, at the time that they apply for a job
or do they want to disclose the disability after the job offer has been given?
Those are all decisions that the individual with a disability needs to make.
But they also need to practice, just like any good speech maker,
on how to talk about their strengths and why they are a good person to be employed,
why they're a good person to have in that university class, what their strengths are.
Teach them to talk about why they are so special.
What makes them the individual that they are?
Teach them how to talk about their disability and how it becomes something that is good
but it becomes a special ability because all of us with disabilities have creative abilities.
For instance, I have attention deficit disorder and learning disabilities but that also means
that I'm highly creative and that I have many more ideas in the creative process than a lot
of other people do and I can use those skills and add that when I'm talking to my employers.
Think of all the wonderful things that your students can do at the moment
and start looking at their strengths.
Maybe it's that they can find everything on the floor and pick it out.
Maybe they can hear certain sounds.
Maybe they're really good at organizing things or finding things in telephone books.
Whatever their strength is, whether it's art, whether it's math, whether it's computers,
whether it's just collating papers, make sure you're working
on those strengths during junior high and high school so that they learn to talk about those.
There are 4 things to talk about and work on from the time that they're little.
First they need self knowledge about their disability.
Make sure they understand their disability because it will take time
for them to accept their disability.
Next, after self knowledge comes self-acceptance.
And I'm here to tell you, as an adult with a disability, self-acceptance is a lifetime goal
and it comes and goes, just like transition does for each 1 of you
and each time you have a crisis, so does self-acceptance.
Each time I have a crisis I have to go back through the self-acceptance phase
and say ok I have a disability, its ok.
The next tool is self advocacy, talking and speaking up for myself
and that I have the rights to have certain rights within school and in employment
and that those rights make me equal and allow me to be equal in the class.
When I went back for my master's degree, for the first time I used the Disability Resource Center
and different services through the Disability Resource Center like a note taker,
even though I could take notes and it made a big difference in how I could do my classes.
And then after that comes self-determination.
Make sure you use those steps and start working with your child when they're young
and it's a lot easier process, no matter how significant your child's disability is.
They can start advocating for themselves.
This last year I was told about a speaker with intellectual disabilities and autism,
that got up and spoke about how he was able to attend college
and that he was the first individual to attend college and have this program.
Now he wasn't taking all the prerequisites or all the regular college programs
but he was there setting up a brand new college program for students
with intellectual disabilities at this college campus because he was willing to self-advocate
for himself and self determine different skills and classes
that he could take on that college campus.
He's paving the way for other individuals with disabilities because he had enough self-esteem
and self-advocacy skills that had been taught to him that he can pave the way
for other students that will go forth after him.
Finally, remember the passage from childhood to adulthood,
for all of us, involves a dignity of risk.
The right to make mistakes, that's not always easy for all of us as parents.
I know I was always running around trying to catch my son that was in the hospital so much
that it broke my heart, that I thought why does he have to go through any more heartbreak?
But I had to remember that it's far easier to fall and a far shorter distance when he's
in middle school, grade school and high school, than it is as an adult.
And he has the right to make mistakes and learn from them and it's a lot easier to learn
from them at that time when there are so many other support people around than it is
to have those mistakes as an adult.
So give them the opportunity and the right to make mistakes and learn from them.
We're now going to talk about some adult services.
The problem is that students in transition
from school are leaving a somewhat organized provider system.
You have 1 system, you have the education system and they're entering a more complex
and confusing world, not fully understood by most school professionals much less by parents
or by the individual with the disability.
You're now going to enter a maze of different state agencies, departments and organizations
and you don't have to just worry about 1, you have to worry about several.
And so it gets very complex at this point and sometimes it can be frustrating.
The challenge is to prepare for transition from school.
We must learn about agencies and services which may be needed.
And the best time to learn about them is while our student is still transitioning in school.
Remember, no one is entitled to services in the adult system.
Each program has eligibility requirements.
Services are not coordinated or housed under 1 roof.
Families may be required to access several programs and agencies.
They may be required to set different eligibility requirements for each program
and to achieve different goals for each program.
Ways to effectively access adult and community services, encourage your son or daughter
to start taking the lead, you know, as they have their individuals with their IEP meeting.
It's important that they not only attend the IEP meeting but they start speaking out,
that they start introducing people, that they start taking more
and more of the lead in that IEP meeting.
Clarify the student's expectations.
What do they want to do?
What are their strengths?
Where do they want to be in employment when they grow up?
Where do they want to live?
What do they want to do in the community?
What are their talents?
Start looking at those things and yes,
adults they say change careers 7 to 9 times in their lifetime.
Yes your student as a 9th grader is going to change their idea of what they want
to be several times before they graduate from high school
and probably several times more before they leave college or become a full adult at 26, 28.
But around that time they'll still be looking at several interests
and it will just start narrowing down more.
So clarify those expectations, those strengths and talents.
Encourage your son and daughter to take the lead on the team.
Understand what services are offered in the adult system, network with professionals
and other parents that have been through it that can say, oh have you thought
about this service or this service?
Ask for a statement of rights and appeal procedures.
What is the system?
How do you go up the chain of command?
Become active on advisory boards.
I'm here to tell you that every state agency has an advisory board and they're all looking
for parents and individuals with disabilities to sit on that advisory board.
Take the time to get involved on the advisory board.
You can learn a lot about the laws as well as about the people that work in the system
and it really helps your student.
Ask, attend and participate in public comment meetings.
Get on their website and you can find out when those public comment meetings are.
Develop strategies and supply strategies and supports for your student or with others
who need the same services and for yourself because it will take a lot of support for you
to get through these different systems and find other parents that are struggling
as they are going through the systems.
Now we're going to talk about some of the adult service providers.
I'm going to list some of them and then we'll go through them slowly.
Some of the adult service providers include vocational rehabilitation
which is employment for people with disabilities.
Choose to Work, which is also employment and they work
between Vocational Rehabilitation Services and the Department of Workforce Services.
Then there's the Department of Workforce Services which is also employment.
Notice I put all 3 of those together because they're all employment.
After that you have Centers for Independent Living.
Centers for Independent Living work with individuals to help them
to live independently in the community.
After that you have Social Security Administration
which is the social security insurance and social security disability insurance.
Then you have Work Assistance and Benefits Planning which shows you how to be employed
and to keep your healthcare insurance
and many times your social security benefits while you are employed.
Other adult service providers include the Division of Service of Mental Health
and Community Mental Health Services which help individuals with mental health.
They also include substance abuse and so if the individual is having problems
with substance abuse you can also go there.
There's also the Department of Health which has several services
which we'll talk about in a minute.
Adult education, which is a great service that many of you don't realize is there,
which includes basic adult education in reading and math and also getting your GED.
There's also disability resource centers which seems to be a hidden resource which is
for students with disabilities in higher education, the colleges and universities.
Then there's the vocational and technical schools, the Utah applied vocational
and technical schools and many of those have what's called an ADA specialist
that can help students with disabilities.
Then there's disability organizations such as the Utah Parent Center that can help you
and private providers that can help you with services like group homes and other services.
The Utah State Office of Rehabilitation, there mission is to assist
and empower eligible individuals with disabilities to achieve
and maintain meaningful employment.
Now listen to that, achieve and maintain meaningful,
not just any employment, meaningful employment.
It includes counseling for the individual, medical, psychological treatment,
assist of technology, job placement, follow up services, assessment
and eligibility and other services.
For instance, many individuals we tend to think, well they have a significant disability.
I don't know if my child can be employed and I've heard that many times.
Yet I know so many individuals with significant disabilities that are employed.
One of my good friends, Brian, is employed at the Utah Center for Assisted Technology.
He is totally paralyzed all the way down from his neck down and he uses a puff and sip straw
and he works on computers with different assisted technology devices
and it's amazing to watch him.
There are other individuals with significant disabilities that can work
and there are different levels of employment.
Think about job training services.
Think about on the job training.
There's also what's called supported employment services where an individual goes
with that person on the job and helps them work on the job each day.
So there are a lot of job supports out there.
Following that, the individual can also receive training to the applied technology centers
or they can receive training through a college and university
to receive a degree for their employment training.
So there's a lot of supports and services out there that we don't think about
and we automatically assume that our student might not be able to be employed.
Stop and talk to individuals who work
in the employment services before you automatically decide
that your child might not be able to be employed.
The Utah state office of Rehabilitation includes Choose to Work, which is for individuals
that are ready to work and just might need a little job support or have had a job before
and might just need contacts with employers.
They also do excellent job fairs where you can go out and, Dale handles job fairs,
and you can seek employment with employers that have had disability training to work
with different people with disabilities.
They also have a website that lists employers that have jobs out there that have been trained
to work with people with disabilities.
The Utah Center for Disability for Assistive Technology is also
under the Utah state Office of Rehabilitation.
Their short name is known as UCAT and they have different assistive technology
that you can try out before you ever purchase it.
They have the computer center for citizens with disabilities.
There's also Utah Benefits Planning Assistance and Outreach.
There is a wait for these services but they are excellent and what they will do,
if the individual has social security assistance and they want to be employed or are employed,
they will work with that individual to put together a specialized plan just for them
that will show them work incentives that they can use
that will help them increase their social security benefits
and keep their health insurance while they're employed.
There's the division of services for the blind and visually impaired and the division
of services for the deaf and hard of hearing, all of those services
out of the Utah state office of rehabilitation.
Next you have the Utah Department of Workforce Services.
I love their website.
The Utah Department of Workforce Services says we provide employment and support services
for our customers to improve their economic opportunities.
So this department includes Choose to Work, once again, to work with people with disabilities,
food stamps because we're doing economic opportunities.
They have Medicaid within their services and childcare.
They also -- I said I loved their website and at the end I will give you a resource
for all of the different websites.
On their website they have what's called, Just for Youth and that's 1
of my favorites of their websites.
On it you can contact the colleges and universities.
You can look at adult basic education.
It talks about insurance, it talks about transportation,
it talks about everything you can think about talking about your youth with
and it gives you Utah contacts for that information.
They also have what's called a Utah job seekers guide and I love these job seekers guide.
There's one that's called Tips for Teens and it has a lot of basic pictures and then
on the page you'll have things like, be well groomed and it will say, brush your hair,
take a shower, all those things that we keep on trying
to tell our teens and they're going, well why?
You know, be on time.
Get up. And so it's a great resource and you can download those off the website
or you can call the department of workforce services and they'll send you these guides.
There's also training services which will give you some information about how
to put together a resume and they have several resume guides
where you can just type in your resume.
They have how to do a job interview and different training services like that.
Finally there's the career center.
You can even take different tests to see what type of careers you would be good at,
what type of interests you have and then finally there's a section on jobs where you can look
to see what type of jobs are hot in Utah right now.
What type of skills do you need to be employed in those areas
and what type of education do you need?
What skills, what you need to be good at, how many people are employed in Utah,
where are they employed, all of that type of information as well as what jobs are listed
at the moment in Utah and employers that are seeking individuals for employment.
Next is the Center for Independent Living.
I also love the Center for Independent Living.
If you have a student that is shy, doesn't seem to speak out for themselves,
the Centers for Independent living start working with individuals with disabilities at age 16.
And I think 1 of their best classes is the self advocacy class where they help individuals learn
to speak up for themselves and learn to self advocate.
There's also such things as bus training, how to cook, how to get around in the community,
everything about the centers for independent living is to assist persons
with disabilities to achieve greater independence.
And the other thing I love about the Centers for Independent Living is for a long time I was shy
about talking about my disability.
I didn't want to let anybody know and I had hidden disabilities
so I didn't have to let anybody know.
But the Centers for Independent Living taught me that it was ok,
that I should be proud of my disabilities.
That they were cool and that they really weren't disabilities, they were abilities.
They were characteristics that were unique to me and that I should speak out about them instead
of being shy about them and that totally changed my entire view about the world of disabilities
and abilities and for that alone I recommend the Centers for Independent Living.
They have centers all the way from Logan down to St. George, Utah, Ogden, Salt Lake City,
Provo, Price, Vernal, Twilla and Moab.
So be sure to seek them out and they also have assistive technology services
within their centers and they will help all students even school age,
with assistive technology.
Social security and work incentives, the social security is so hard to understand
and even calling their general line can be hard.
There is what's called, on their line called the Red Book
and for years I went, what's The Red Book?
Well The Red Book is their idea of telling you what social security benefits are
and what you need to understand.
Now if you read it through the first time and you don't understand it, don't feel bad.
I actually trained in social security work incentives and I read the Red Book
about 5 times before I started getting the words in it.
So if you have to have a dictionary by you, don't feel bad.
It is a hard book to understand.
But learn to understand the Red book if you have to access social security and work incentives
because it will make a difference.
The social security disability insurance, SSDI and the supplemental security income,
SSI disability programs are Federal programs
that provide financial assistance with people with disabilities.
Both have different rules so don't confuse the 2 because they have different rules, guidelines,
payouts, everything is different about -- a lot of it's different.
So make sure you know which 1 you're on or you can be on both.
But what they are are special rules that make it possible for people with disabilities,
receiving social security assistance, to work and still receive monthly payments.
Realize that the disincentives are no longer there not to be employed and go ahead
and have your student apply for social security benefits but also don't give up if you're turned
down the first time and keep on applying.
Next we're going to the Division of Services for People with Disabilities.
The Division of Services for People with Disabilities mission statement is
to promote opportunities and to provide supports for people with disabilities
so they will have every opportunity to participate fully in Utah alive.
Now there are some requirements for DSPD, in fact many people you have heard
about the waiting list for services.
These services are for individuals with intellectual or physical disabilities
which are likely to continue resulting in substantial limitations
in 3 or more major life activities.
If you have an intellectual disability they will come
and do a functional skills assessment as well as other assessments.
So there are some things that you will be required to have different assessments to apply
for DSPD and if you get on their waiting list be sure that you contact your provider each year
and remind them that you are there.
As your student transitions from child services to adult services that is different lists
so make sure that you contact your service provider and let them know
that your child is transferring to adult services
and that they're going to be needing adult services.
You can also, if you have a DSPD service provider, you can have them come
to the IEP meeting and I encourage you to have them come and be 1 of your IEP team.
They can really be a good assistance to you.
The next is the Division of Mental Health and Local Community Mental Health Centers.
Mental Health Services are available to the citizens
of Utah however finances have become rather tight in Utah in the last little while
and so you can ask but most of the mental health community services now are limited
to individuals that receive Medicaid services.
However there are some factors that change that so please be sure and check directly
with your local mental health community center
and there are local community mental health centers throughout the state of Utah.
And if there are mental health services, please make sure that as a student --
that your student with a disability gets in and gets the help that they need
for mental health services because children can have mental health issues
as well as adults from an early age.
After that is the Utah Department of Health -- the Utah Department of Health has several,
in fact it's 1 of the largest state departments in Utah
and it has many different agencies and services.
I'm just going to talk about a few.
One of them is the Maternal and Child Healthcare Bureau.
Now you're child may have services under this bureau at the time.
They may have early on from zero to 3 have received baby watch early intervention services
and later on received services through child healthcare services or other healthcare services
or children's health insurance program, CHIP,
but the reason I'm mentioning this particular bureau is because they have a wonderful website
that talks about transition for students with healthcare needs as that student is starting
to think about transitioning on through to adulthood
because there's many things we don't think about.
We don't think about that child going from a pediatrician to an adult doctor.
We don't think about them from a primary children's medical center to all
of a sudden being kicked out to the adult hospitals in the state of Utah and there are
so many things that all of a sudden they're the adult at age 18 and they're the one that goes in
and talks to the doctor not us and the doctor's not going
to give us any healthcare information unless we have guardianship.
And so your child better be able to talk to that physician and know what to say
and understand what that physicians telling them or be able to ask and there's pages and lists
of medical things that individual with a disability needs to start thinking
about in the transition area and you can write that on your individual IEP.
So start thinking about those services and look
up those different checklists to put them into your IEP.
Next is health insurance under the department of health.
Health insurance, there's what is called the primary care network or PCN.
This is for individuals that have no healthcare insurance and they're low income.
It is usually open about once or twice a year where somebody can get
on to primary care network because of the lack of funding for that service, unlike CHIP.
But it's the adult equivalency to CHIP.
Then there's what's called the Utah premium partnership for health insurance or UPP
and UPP is basically if as an adult you are employed by an employer
but you can't afford the co-payment that the employer is saying that you need to pay
to get the employers healthcare insurance.
If you have the right income level, they will pay your co-payment
so you can get the employers healthcare insurance.
And then there is healthcare insurance for the uninsurable and you can get that insurance.
Then finally there is employment personal assistance program or EPAS and this is a program
for individuals on social security assistance and once again this is a fabulous program
in the sense that you can hire an assistant to help you with anything you need
to become employed, to be employed each day, whether it's to do the dishes,
to drive you to work, to do the chores at home, whatever you need to maintain employment as long
as you are employed 20 hours a month.
So it's a great service.
Finally we're going to talk about education.
The Utah State Office of Education has what's called Adult Basic Education
and I just became aware of it.
I knew that there was adult basic literacy programs but that was for individuals
that couldn't read at all and so I thought, well what happens to the individual
that can only read at a 3rd or 4th grade reading level and they want to go
on to say a technical school that requires a 5th grade reading level.
Where are they going to get their reading skills up
or where are they going to get their math skills up?
The adult basic education courses are for those individuals.
They can take those courses through the Utah state office of Education.
They're throughout the state, to get their basic math skills and their reading skills up so
that they can take classes in college or they can read better at work
or they can get a better job, whatever is needed for math and reading.
The other is to get their graduation degree
if they did not get it while they were in high school.
After that you have the Utah State Board of Regents which includes the Utah Colleges
of Applied Technology which are also known as UCAT
and they have what are called either ADA resources or study centers
that will help students that have disabilities to help them
if they are struggling through those colleges.
Or you have Utah colleges and University's and these will go by different names
but they're what are called disability resource center so look them up as centers
for disabilities or disability resource centers at each different college.
Now the thing you need to know about them however is interestingly enough,
the qualifying information for each disability, for the disability resource centers
at each college and university, is different.
They want to make it difficult for you I guess and so you have to get on each university's
or colleges website and then get on their disability resource center website
and see what the qualifying information is for that particular disability
and no it will not be the same necessarily that is what was under special education IDA.
You may need extra information that was not required under IDA so you need to find that out
so if you have to have extra testing done.
Also the testing must be done within the last 3 years so if there is extra information required,
make sure that your student was tested within the 3 years
of high school before they plan to graduate.
For more information about these different services,
I didn't put up their telephone numbers or their websites because they tend to change.
So for more information about these services you can contact the Utah parent center
where we have several parent consultants and wonderful office people who can help you.
We have what's called a state resource guide that lists all the state agencies
and services also with a list of how to go up the chain of command
and it lists their websites, a little bit about what each state agency does
and their phone contact information.
And some of the resource information in there even adds the local contact site
for your local area in the state.
And that website is www.utahparent and that's single p-a-r-e-n-t, center.org
or you can contact us by phone which is area code 801-272-1051 and we love to get your calls.
It's wonderful to talk to you around the state.
The time to plan is for, for the future is now.
Don't wait until your child turns 18 and has graduated.
Don't wait until they graduate out at age 22.
Don't assume that your special educator is going to know everything
and that you can just sit there and expect the special educator to hand everything to you.
They might be learning the system the same as you.
Think about from the time your child starts in 9th grade,
start thinking about contacting local state agencies and the adult services.
Start asking for information, for pamphlets,
for handouts about their services, what are they like?
Can you send me a pamphlet so I can start reading about you in your contact information?
Start thinking about setting up a college fund, think about setting up a trust fund.
Apply for social security when your adult turns 18.
If you feel that your adult can -- young adult at 18 cannot speak for themselves or is going
to have problems with healthcare, health insurance, going to the hospital
or understanding the doctor or they're going to have problems with their own financial,
start thinking about guardianship and seek guardianship and what that requires and find
out about what that requires before they turn 18 and be ready to apply for that at age 18.
Don't wait until your child is in the hospital, ready to go to the hospital
and the hospital tells you, no your child can't have this surgery
because we don't think they're capable of making that decision
and you haven't taken out guardianship.
For any other information, be sure to call the Utah Parent Center.
We're here to take a longer time.
This was just a short coverage of all and many varied laws and state agencies but we're here
to take far more time with you as you need the information.
Thank you for listening to us today.