The State of Children with Disabilities and Special Health Care Needs

July is Dis­abil­i­ty Pride Month, mark­ing the anniver­sary of the Amer­i­cans with Dis­abil­i­ties Act. This ground­break­ing civ­il rights law was passed in July 1990 and pro­hibits dis­crim­i­na­tion against indi­vid­u­als with dis­abil­i­ties. This anniver­sary is an oppor­tu­ni­ty to hon­or peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties as a val­ued part of our soci­ety — we can do this through­out the year, as well. This is also an oppor­tune time to review the expe­ri­ences of young peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties and spe­cial health care needs in our coun­try and con­sid­er how to strength­en the sup­port they receive.

Chil­dren and youth with dis­abil­i­ties are a high­ly diverse group rep­re­sent­ing many con­di­tions and iden­ti­ties — from learn­ing dis­abil­i­ties and men­tal and behav­ioral diag­noses to spe­cial health care needs. These young peo­ple con­tribute in pos­i­tive ways to their fam­i­lies, schools, com­mu­ni­ties and even­tu­al­ly — in adult­hood — to soci­ety through their work. At the same time, these chil­dren are also more like­ly to expe­ri­ence chal­lenges social­ly, emo­tion­al­ly, aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly and in oth­er areas, com­pared to chil­dren with­out dis­abil­i­ties or spe­cial health care needs. In turn, their par­ents or care­givers expe­ri­ence stress relat­ed to their fam­i­ly finances and care­giv­ing duties.

This post pro­vides the lat­est sta­tis­tics on chil­dren who have dis­abil­i­ties or spe­cial health care needs and exam­ines how they are sup­port­ed and where cur­rent approach­es may be falling short.

Click here to read the full article. 

Source: The Annie E. Casey Foundation