• Save the Date
• What Impact Will This Year's Budget Have on
  Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs?
  
• Parent Mentors Honored at Open House/
  Volunteer Appreciation Event
• Interested in becoming a mentor?
• Meet SFCD Board Member
• Focus on the Positive
• Spring Fever
• A Community Advisory Council Testimonial (CAC)
• Reviews from the Joan Cassel Memorial Library
• 2010 Winter Ice Skating Party
• Annual Report Highlights
• Thank You
• Upcoming Events

What Impact Will This Year's Budget Have on
Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs?

In January 2011, Governor Brown released his draft budget for the state of California to address the $25 billion deficit. It won't be finalized until the California Legislature agrees, and there are a number of proposals that voters must approve. But there are a number of key cuts or proposed changes that will impact children and youth with special health care needs:

• DEVELOPMENTAL SERVICES/REGIONAL CENTERS ↓$750 Million: (+ severe cuts from last few years): Regional Centers coordinate community-based services for over 240,000 infants, children and adults with developmental disabilities. Would extend 4.25% reduction in payments to Regional Centers and service providers and would reduce Regional Center funding by approximately $600 million through "statewide service standards" for services, eligibility, rates and parental/consumer responsibilities.

• HEALTHY FAMILIES ↓$135.7 Million: Would include premiums and co-pay increases and would eliminate vision coverage. Potentially would affect 565,000 children, but this increase may not be allowed by federal health reform law.

• IN HOME SUPPORT SERVICES (IHSS): ↓$486.2 Million: IHSS serves over 460,000 children and adults with disabilities. New proposal would reduce hours of service by 8.4% for all recipients, resulting in overall 12% reduction for all recipients (including the 3.6% reduction enacted in 2010-11).

• MEDI-CAL ↓$1.709 Billion: Limits services and utilization for adults; imposes copayments for adults and children; eliminates Adult Day Health Care Services, over-the-counter medications and nutritional supplements; and reduces payments to physicians and providers. All proposed Medi-Cal reductions have been rejected by Legislature or courts in recent years and proposed 10% rate reduction is pending in US Supreme Court.

• SSI/SSP GRANTS ↓ $177.9 Million: SSI/SSP grants provide cash assistance to help low-income seniors and people with disabilities meet basic living expenses. Would reduce grants for disabled individuals from $845 to $830 per month (minimum allowed by federal law).

Coming soon on the June Ballot:

• PROPOSITION 10 (FIRST 5): Divert tobacco tax revenue generated by Proposition 10 to pay for Medi-Cal services for children up to age 5. Subject to voter approval, this would redirect $1 Billion in 2011-2012 and divert 50% of annual Proposition 10 revenues each year that currently cover developmental services to Medi-Cal recipients. Voters rejected a proposition last year to redirect First 5 funds.

• PROPOSITION 63 ↑$861.2 Million: Divert Mental Health Services Act revenues in 2011-2012 that currently fund county mental health services to fund: Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment Program (EPSTD), Mental Health Managed Care (MHMC) and AB 3632 (state-mandated mental health services for special education students). Voters rejected a proposition in May 2009 to redirect Proposition 63 funds.

These proposals are not yet final. If you have something to say, voice your concerns. Legislators need to hear about how these proposals will impact your family. Try visiting them in their home offices, attending, speaking or providing written input at a hearing.

• Family Voices of California
• California Budget Project
• California Disability Action Network
• Health Access
• Latino Coalition for a Healthy California

Tara Robinson is the Manager for Family Voices of California, a statewide collaborative of locally-based parent run centers working to ensure quality health care for children and youth with special health care needs. To sign up for the statewide listserv or free monthly webinar trainings, please visit the website at www.familyvoicesofca.org.

Parent Mentors Honored at Open House/
Volunteer Appreciation Event

The Parent Mentor Program is excited to announce this year's Parent Mentor Volunteer honorees, Edmund Lee and Kenneth and Cinthya Padilla. These mentors were chosen due to their dedication to serving others. They have each mentored numerous families and participated in parent panels at various local colleges and universities. In addition, Edmund provided the media with insightful interviews and the Padillas participated in Family Voices of California two day Health Summit in Sacramento. We are truly grateful for these amazing mentors and we look forward to their continued service.

Each year the Parent Mentor Program begins its Special Education Series in the Fall and ends in the Spring. In April, a panel of disability related advocacy professionals will give a presentation to the mentors on understanding IDEA and its application in special education.

In addition, to commemorate the eight months of hard work, the program will be celebrating our new mentors' efforts at our upcoming graduation in May. Congratulations to new mentors!

Support for Families would like to extend a warm THANK YOU to ALL of our mentors. Over the many years, your hard work and dedication have been a vital part of the Support for Families network.

Interested in becoming a mentor?

We encourage you to participate in our upcoming Parent to Parent training scheduled for this June. This training offers English and Spanish speaking parents the opportunity to meet existing mentors, improve active listening skills, role play and practice positive communication strategies. It's an excellent opportunity to polish your self advocacy skills and to prep you for the new school year.

In addition, if you've thought you could use more help in understanding he IEP process and would like to help other families at the same time, becoming one of our mentors through the Special Education Series can help you learn about IDEA. This is your opportunity to meet other parents and learn about your rights and responsibilities; special education eligibility criteria; the special education "language;" and tips and strategies to help you prepare for your child's I.E.P. The next Special Education Series begins Fall of 2011. It's never too early to begin preparing for the next school year!

The Parent Mentor trainings are FREE. Limited child care is available with two week advanced registration required.

If you are interested, please contact us for more information, by telephone at (415) 920-5040 or by email at: pmp@supportforfamilies.org

Meet SFCD Board Member Judy C. Chen

My son, Jake, was born via emergency c-section at 36 6/7 weeks due to intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR). He weighed 4 pounds, 11 ounces at birth, and we went home after 10 days with no idea of what lay ahead.

At 4 months, Jake went on a feeding strike. He was hospitalized shortly thereafter for Failure To Thrive. After some initial tests, Jake was diagnosed as hypothyroid and found to have acid reflux. However, Jake continued to refuse feeding, and a gastronomy feeding tube was surgically placed in his stomach close to his first birthday to help him get the nutrition he needed to grow. The first years of Jake's life were a never ending cycle of doctor appointments, therapy appointments, practice sessions to encourage him to take food by mouth, and tube feedings around the clock. It was isolating, and we were filled with so much worry about what might be wrong.

Thank goodness for Support for Families! We were referred to Support for Families by our pediatricians. Support for Families became my lifeline when I had nowhere else to turn and no one seemed to understand. (Most people had never heard of a child who refused to eat, myself included!) Whether getting information from my parent mentor or having a heart to heart conversation with my parent mentor, calling the hotline, or attending a seminar, there was and is always support from someone who wants to help. Most of all, there are people who understand what we were and are going through. It was so comforting to know we were not alone, and that there was someone I could count on during those dark days. To this day, I still call the SFCD hotline.

Today, Jake is an active little 6.5 year old guy. He still needs a lot of support around eating, but we were able to remove his feeding tube after intensive feeding therapy. He attends a special day class in San Francisco, and enjoys going to school. We are still trying to determine an underlying cause to his developmental delays, but we try to take one day at a time. And attending the seminars that Support for Families offers help for me to better assist Jake through all of this. Education and knowledge has made me better equipped to deal with this situation.

Since serving on the Board of Directors, I have been and continue to be impressed with the genuinely helpful staff and all the meaningful services the organization provides. They truly want information and support to be accessible to all, and are very accommodating. The organization not only helps support, but empowers parents. I am so grateful for the support I have received. In many ways, this volunteer experience has given back to me tenfold. Please feel free to contact me to discuss ways you can get involved with this special organization.

Judy C. Chen lives in San Francisco with her husband, Michael V. Gamboa, and two sons, Jake and Noah. She has served on the board since 2006. She co-founded and organized a feeding tube support group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sfbayareafeedingtubesupport that meets in person and supports each other online. The group meets the first Monday of the month at the CPMC Child Development Center at 6:30pm. She is also a volunteer in Jake's special day classroom. You can reach Judy at judycchen@yahoo.com.

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Focus on the Positive: A Strengths-Based Tool for Parents and Professionals

Identifying and building on children's strengths can have a powerful impact on children's learning. This practice—known as a strength-based approach—focuses on a child's interests, gifts, skills, competencies, talents, and positive characteristics when doing any educational planning for the child.

The following benefits have been demonstrated when a strengths-based approach is used:

• Children are helped to appreciate their own strengths when their innate abilities are reflected to them by adults.

• Adults who start their planning with the child's strengths draw upon the child's "intrinsic motivation and existing innate drive for learning and achievement."*

• Teachers who focus on children's strengths may set higher expectations for children, and these expectations in turn can positively impact children's ability to succeed.

• Children's strengths and abilities can be used to address problems and effect positive changes.

One tool for implementing a strengths-based approach is a "Strengths and Strategies" worksheet developed by Dr. Paula Kluth. This worksheet helps professionals and families document positive information about a child by creating two lists. The first list includes the child's strengths, interests, gifts, and talents. The second list answers the question "What works for this child?" and outlines ideas for motivating, supporting, encouraging, and connecting with the child. Dr. Kluth recommends including at least 50 items in each list.

Professionals who know the child and parents should complete a "Strengths and Strategies" worksheet together. It then can be used to:

• Learn about the whole child – not just the problems, challenges, and struggles
• Provide information for IEP meetings, including goals and objectives
• Plan curriculum and instruction, including adaptations
• Develop specific supports for challenging situations
• Foster collaboration and communication between program staff and parents

The results will benefit everyone—children, parents, and professionals.

"Snippet #7: Strengths and Strategies: Building on Children's Strengths" by Alison Stewart, Training Coordinator for the Special Needs Inclusoion Project http://www.snipsf.org/node/3.

More information about Dr. Kluth's "Strengths and Strategies" and a sample "Strengths and Strategies" worksheet are on her website http://paulakluth.com/articles/strengthstrateg.html.

Ann Carr and Judy Higuchi of HRIIC can be reached (415) 206-7743 or visit the HRIIC website at www.hriic.org.

Spring Fever: Welcome to Silly Season

By Terri Mauro, About.com Guide

Wacky kid behavior often comes in waves. If spring has brought on a bad case of the sillies for your special child, here are some possible explanations -- and what to do about them.

Allergies
Your child may not have the body awareness or language skills necessary to explain to you about the tingle in his nose or the pressure in her sinuses, but the lightheadedness and "spacey" feeling that often accompanies allergies can leave kids feeling distracted and disoriented. If itchy eyes, sniffles or headaches accompany the onset of silliness at your house, check with your pediatrician about the possibility of an allergy diagnosis.

Weather
The wild swings in weather that often come with the onset of spring can represent a disruption of routine for kids who are sensitive to change. Changes in climate can bring changes of air pressure that can have a kid feeling out of sorts for no good reason, too. Long days of rain and the lack of outdoor play thatbrings can make kids antsy, and staring out a classroom window at abeautiful sunny day can make them restless. Try to keep routines as consistent as possible, and have a stash of fun
rainy-day activities at hand.

Clothes
Changing from one set of clothes to another can be a challenge to kids with tactile sensitivity -- getting used to different fabrics and styles, having more skin exposed, dealing with stiff new togs or mourning the loss of outgrown outfits. Make sure to keep your child's sensory-related clothing preferences in mind when buying new stuff for the new season, and do whatever customizing is needed, such as cutting out tags, before your child has to wear them.

Vacations
School vacations, although beloved by kids, can also lead to stress due to changes in routine and large blocks of unstructured time. Travel during those vacations brings with it a whole additional level of routine-disruption stress. Try to keep things as normal and planned as possible, and give your child plenty of preparation for new and unusual activities or places. Provide maximum support and hold minimum expectations for these often hard-to-handle periods.

Growth spurt
If your child tends to shoot up in height around this time of year, be aware that this can be a profoundly disorganizing process for him or her. Children with sensory integration and motor planning problems may find the difference in length of limbs and distance to the floor confusing and frustrating, and may have to completely revise their already blurry body awareness. Clumsiness, anger, regression of motor skills, tears for no reason, and an attitude of "giving up" can all be signs that your child is coping with a growth spurt badly. Explaining the situation may help, and extra support and lowered expectations will likely be called for.

Developmental leap
At this point, about three-quarters of the way through the school year, kids may be making major developmental leaps. They may be speaking more, reading more, understanding more, processing more, moving more, sensing more, feeling more. Those are all good things. And they're bad things, because when children with special needs jump to a new developmental level, everything has to come apart and get put back together again in a stronger and more advanced form. That falling-apart time can be difficult for everyone, but hold on: Things will be so much better when it's over.

The same, for parents
Kids aren't the only ones to react to these springtime stressors. Parents do, too. If you're suffering from allergies, feeling the changes in weather, going crazy with closet changes, agonizing over the way your spring clothes fit, getting caught up in vacation plans, worrying about what to do with your child over spring break, all of these things will up your stress level and lower your levels of patience, understanding, and time to spend with kids. Your child is likely to react to that very, very badly. Stop and take a look at whether your stress may be contagious. And then smell the flowers. Help your child smell them, too.

© 2011 Terri Mauro (http://specialchildren.about.com). Used with permission of About, Inc. which can be found online at www.about.com. All rights reserved.

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A Community Advisory Council Testimonial (CAC): To a General Education Teacher

Dear Mrs. Yin,

Thank you, Mrs. Yin, for your outstanding dedication to inclusive practices. It is important I acknowledge how appreciative I am of your commitment to inclusive practices for Marcella, my beautiful granddaughter. Little did I know when I was the principal of West Portal School – one of the first schools to implement inclusive practices – I would have a grandchild who would be an "inclusion student."

Our school became one of the original San Francisco Unified School District schools for inclusive education. We honored that hope and nurtured an inclusion model for our students, earning national recognition for inclusive practices.

Mrs. Yin, you deserve national recognition for your inclusive practices for children with disabilities.You include Marcella in a very positive manner, unifying the special education and general education systems:

• After you observed Marcella in the classroom at the beginning of the year, you recognized her physical needs and readjusted the class room space to accommodate her walker and her needs to ambulate throughout the learning environment.
• You do a preview of field trips - talking to her and her family about the physical environments and difficulties she may encounter and discuss strategies to resolve those difficulties.
• If there is a ramp for Marcella, you use it for all of the children. If the terrain is too adverse, you find another way for the class to travel, ensuring Marcella is not excluded.
• You promote communication for families so everyone is aware of upcoming programs and activities. (Your classroom blog with
delightful pictures tells the story of your inclusive classroom.) You welcome families into the classroom – and encourage volunteering and visitation. You consistently communicate through e-mail – building trust and promoting inclusion by informing Marcella's family of activities so they can help prepare her for school experiences.
• You work closely with the classroom paraprofessional to accommodate instruction to meet Marcella's special needs. You also work with her special support teachers in an effort to learn more about how she learns and what strategies you can use to support her learning.
• You listen – to Marcella – and her family.
• You take ownership of Marcella's school classroom program – not passing her off to support staff as a "special education" student.
• You don't allow bullying or "put-downs" and promote kindness and caring as an integral part of your classroom.

I observe so many good teaching strategies when I visit Room 106 – speaking at a pace that benefits young children – providing adequate wait time – varying activities so students need not sit too long – building on children's strengths and recognizing different abilities – and being well-planned so instructional time is maximized.

Thank you, Mrs. Yin, for being a teacher who goes beyond these excellent teaching strategies to build an inclusive community where all children are valued equally.

Yours truly,
Jeanne Villafuerte

Jeanne Villafuerte is a Grandmother and 1st Vice Chair of the CAC SPED.

Reviews from the Joan Cassel Memorial Library

2010 Winter Ice Skating Party