Chicago Special Parent Magazine 2008

PERSPECTIVE Illinois Division of Insurance (312) 814-2427 www.ins.state.il.us (815) 459-9518 members.aol.com/_ht_a/ jamlady10/bizcard If a group insurance plan refuses a service it could be breaking federal law. Contact this agency or talk to a lawyer familiar with disability law. Illinois Division of Specialized Care (800) 322-3722 www.uic.edu/hsc/dscc Works with parents and attorneys to review school records, write reports, provide advocacy and help parents document and get proper medical attention for their children with special needs who do not realize their potential in their current school setting. You are not alone I Tammera L. Lawson 48 Pembrooke Road Montgomery (630) 966-0927 If a family has no insurance or an insurance company refuses to pay, contact this agency to fund specialized needs such as therapy, equipment and further evaluation. Parent-child advocate serving Kendall, Kane, DeKalb, Will and DuPage counties. Illinois Guardianship and Advocacy Commission P.O. Box 7009, Hines (708) 338-7500 Intake: (866) 274-8023 state.il.us/igac VOICE Advocacy and Parent Training P.O. Box 834, Mokena (815) 469-4929 Support organization for parents of children with special needs. This agency protects the rights and promotes the welfare of people with disabilities by providing legal representation, investigating complaints of rights violations and providing state guardianship for Illinois’ population with disabilities. Wanzenberg & Assoc. Educational Consulting 386 Pennsylvania Ave. Glen Ellyn (630) 926-6385 www.iepguardians.org Educational consulting firm focusing on special education strategy/advocacy for families. Illinois Life Span Project 18207 Dixie Hwy. Suite A, Homewood (800) 588-7002 (708) 206-3993 www.illinoislifespan.org AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS Asperger Parent Support Group (847) 255-5465 Statewide information and advocacy coordination system for people with developmental disabilities and their families. Meets the first Tuesday of each month in Rolling Meadows. Autism Community Connection Naperville www.autismcommunity connection.com Save-A-Child 698 Exmoor Terrace Crystal Lake n virtually every aspect attitudes been changed. Our of community life today, understanding has moved us it is more common to from a focus on deficits and see the participation of segregation toward one that families with children who celebrates strengths, abilities have disabling conditions. In and inclusion. Indeed, we our neighborhood schools, have adapted our social, places of worship, parks and educational, legal, medical commercial districts we are and recreational systems to expanding the opportunities include these children not for all of our community only in our families at home, DR. ALAN members to be included. but in virtually all aspects of ROSENBLATT Today’s special parents community life. should feel less isolated It is said that the true than those of previous generations while strength of a society is measured by how efforts continue to integrate their chilit treats its most vulnerable citizens. We dren into the mainstream of our culture. have come a long way over the centuries The data on children with special since the laws of ancient Sparta required needs only begins to shed light on the the abandonment of deformed and sickly extent of the issue, but referring to these infants, the segregation of people with numbers provides some perspective on disabilities in prison-like asylums in the how extensive the special parent commuMiddle Ages and the use of “idiot cages” nity actually is. And for special parents it during the Renaissance. As recently as is an affirmation of how many others are the 20th Century, people with disabiligoing through similar challenges. ties were the first group systematically The 2005-2006 National Survey of exterminated en masse in Germany under Children with Special Health Care Needs Hitler. found a total of 13.9 percent of children Without a doubt, we still have quite a under age 18 in the United States, or way to go until we are able to provide all about 10.2 million children, are estimated of the necessary and appropriate supports to have special health care needs. In for children with disabling conditions so Illinois, that figure is also 13.9 percent, that they may be fully integrated in the or about 452,000 children. Children with daily lives of our communities. Along special health care needs are present in with the evolution of our social attitudes, nearly 22 percent of U.S. households with we will hopefully continue to see an children. expansive increase in our medical underStatistics from the Illinois State standing of the underlying mechanisms Board of Education in 2005 show that of the different chronic medical disorders 15 percent of students between ages 6 that will lead to more specific and effecand 21 years received special education tive treatments. services compared to nearly 12 percent of With rising federal deficits and larger students nationally. burdens being placed on states and local The impact of having a child with communities to fund federal mandates special health care needs on family life is it is absolutely necessary for local media substantial. Twenty-two percent of Illinois to inform, inspire and improve the lives families with children with special health of Chicago’s special parents so that they care needs reported financial problems will in turn enhance the quality of life for attributable to their child’s condition. their special children and families. These Individuals with disabling condiefforts will ultimately make ours a better tions have always existed in the human and more inclusive community. population and as the superstitions Dr. Alan Rosenblatt is a neurodevelopabout disabilities have been replaced mental pediatrician in private practice by scientific and medical knowledge, on the north side of Chicago. so too have society’s perceptions and Online support and ChicagoParent.com | Specıal Parent 2008 CHICAGO | 31 http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/jamlady10/bizcard http://www.ins.state.il.us http://www.uic.edu/hsc/dscc http://state.il.us/igac http://www.iepguardians.org http://www.illinoislifespan.org http://www.autismcommunityconnection.com http://ChicagoParent.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Chicago Special Parent Magazine 2008

Chicago Special Parent Magazine 2008 Contents In Our Shoes Of Mothers and Mission Control A Love Story Keeping the Whole Family Well What Do I Do? Resources God's Special Child Our Kids Inspirations

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