Parents caring for disabled children left waiting for pay, as bill fails in WA Legislature
When Katie Scheid’s daughter, Millie, was two years old, their lives changed almost overnight.
Millie was diagnosed with severe cerebral palsy, after suffering a stroke in the womb at 39 weeks. Millie now requires 24/7 care. She needs to be fed through a feeding tube, she can’t speak, and she has more than 50 seizures a day.
The state determined Millie could receive 185 hours of personal care per month paid for through Medicaid. Under state law, anyone except a legal parent or guardian can get paid to provide personal care – bathing, dressing or managing medical needs – to a child under 18 years old. Parents are eligible for this pay only once their child becomes an adult.
But with a growing caregiver shortage, hiring someone can be difficult and expensive. Families often struggle to find a non-parental caregiver who can go through the intense training and onboarding it takes to receive pay to care for their child. State estimates show children in Washington are eligible for roughly 1.4 million hours of personal care each year that go unused.
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https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2024/03/04/intellectual-and-developmental-disabilities-parental-pay/