Dad, Mom, and baby Meghan

Dad, Mom, and baby Meghan

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

We need to keep the pressure on -DDD-DES- AZEIP budget cuts

From a fellow member of this Yahoogroup:





Subscribe to ArizonaEarlyInterventionParents_Caregivers





Powered by us.groups.yahoo.com




Here's what we need to do:

1. Everyone needs to call OSEP 202-245-7549

This is Patty Guard's number, she is the acting director for OSEP (the office of special education programs in the department of education).

Tell her you are from Arizona, your child has an IFSP under Part C and your services have been ____________ . Tell her how your procedural safeguards have not been enforced ____________ _________ _____ and that you expect OSEP to assist Arizona in understanding the assurances it made when it took the $9.9 million in federal dollars to administrate this program.

2. Call the Governor's office with calls, tell her you cannot believe that providing essential supports and services to children and adults with disabilities was not included in the latest round of budget negotions for FY 2009.

3. Call your Congressmember and tell them to tell OSEP to stop watching what' s happening in Arizona and get INVOLVED. Tell them to tell Arizona that they cannot violate children's procedural safeguards, that eliminating services to children who have legally binding IFSPs is illegal and OSEP must tell Arizona to enforce your child's IFSP.

4. Again call your local legislators and tell them they must restore these services ASAP,(Remember your child's IFSP is to be individualized and based on your family's priorities, concerns and resources and that all decisions to changes services must be made by the TEAM, which includes you as your child's parents, you are to be provided Prior Written Notice, before any proposed change and you have the right to dispute resolution if you disagree with any proposed change and you have the right to pendancy (your previously agreed upon services continue during the dispute resolution process).

Send your letters to:

CC:
DES/AzEIP - disputes
3839 N 3rd St, Suite 304
Phoenix, AZ 85016

DDD Compliance and Review Unit
1789 W Jefferson
Phoenix, AZ 85007

Peri Jude Radecic - AzEIP disputes
Arizona Center for Disability Law
5025 E Washington St, Suite 202
Phoenix, AZ 85034

2 comments:

Stacy said...

Keep blogging about this! We aren't out of the woods yet!
I went through this list and tried to include contact info for as many people/legislatures as I could find.

KonaGold said...

I didn't even stop to think about it, but it would seem like they legally can't just stop services! It's so disturbing that someone would even THINK about stopping services for all these kids! I mean, it is obvious to me that they NEED services, early intervention has been a big help to both of my boys.

Forgive and forget?

My heart is pretty heavy today, happenings of the last week have wounded me; re-opening old wounds. Through this journey into the past, I re...