Autism Meets Coronavirus II: Waiver Services
Maryland's Autism Waiver, co-administered by the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) and the Maryland Department of Health, has formulated a COVID-19 response.In Waiver Standard Time, this is a fairly rapid response – after all, this is a program with an 8-9 year wait for an eligibility assessment. I also can't remember the last time I had a vacancy that took less than six months to fill. The waiver has never been built for speed.
New guidance
If your child is one of the lucky 1,200 Marylanders who receives Autism Waiver services, for the remainder of the 2020 fiscal year, the state has made additional waiver service hours available:
15 additional Intensive Individual Support Services (IISS) hours per week, increasing the total available from 25 to 40 hours per week.
336 additional respite hours. The current allocation is 336 per fiscal year, so this is double the amount of respite care ... during a stay-at-home order. Jokes aside, if you're trying to work through this school closure, extra hours have the potential to be very helpful.
10 additional family consultation hours.
Extra coverage sounds lovely, doesn't it? Right up until you realize that to access these extra hours, you need staff to provide them. And staffing shortages are widespread. We've had openings for Leah for almost nine months.But here's where the news gets interesting: For the first time ever, parents are permitted to provide IISS hours to their children. Siblings and extended family members with high school diplomas were already allowed, provided they followed hiring protocols. Now parents can be IISS providers as well (note that this does not extend to respite hours).
Why you should consider it
If you're unemployed or underemployed, whether it's because of the pandemic or because you're the parent of a child who doesn't thrive in typical child care settings, providing some of your child's IISS services can help your household's bottom line. If you're short-staffed, you've probably been working with your child on the functional skills and activities of daily living that are typically covered in an IISS session. My provider agency has already been fast-tracking applications from extended family members, and is waiving reference requirements and streamlining the application for parents.
Parents will be permitted to double as IISS providers until 60 days after the state of emergency is lifted. It would not surprise me if that timeline is extended. Quite simply, provider agencies have not been able to meet the demand for staff for years. In July 2020, 100 additional slots will be added to the Autism Waiver, an announcement that makes for a lovely press release and gives hope to parents who have waited years. In reality, 100 additional slots equals 100 more families who will struggle to access services. Agencies might find it profitable to continue to employ parents on IISS teams.
More about the Autism Waiver
Pathfinders for Autism collection of articles on the Autism Waiver
A recorded presentation I gave in April 2017. Please note that the numbers have changed since then. In 2017, the Autism Waiver had 1,000 slots. That number is up to 1,200, and will increase to 1,300 in July.