Author: Kimberly Goodwin, PhD More American families are grappling with the high cost of raising children and the increasing cost of college education. Families who have a child with special needs, however, face a unique set of expenses. The additional medical and educational expenses could easily elevate the cost of raising a special needs child to $500,000, if not much higher. Since health insurance doesn’t cover the full cost of medical treatments, families bear the burden […]
“It is important to remember that financial literacy, like all transition activities, should be started early as an ongoing process rather than waiting until the child is ‘transition age’ which is usually considered around age 14-16 in schools.” BY LAUREN AGORATUS, M.A. Students with disabilities need to have financial literacy as part of their transition to adult life. This will enable them to live more independently. The Arc has launched a Center on Financial Literacy […]
Individuals with disabilities make up approximately 12.9 percent of Florida’s population; 9.9 percent of working aged individuals in the United States (18-64 years old) have a disability, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Yet, individuals with disabilities experience significant disparities in employment and participation in the workforce, per the American Institutes for Research. In Florida, 18.2 percent of individuals with disabilities are employed, while those without a disability are employed at a rate of 60.5 […]
NEW RESOURCE BY MELANIE DAVIS The Funding Guide for Children with Disabilities focuses on the author’s proven process for applying for support from the various funding sources that assist children. It also includes a directory of over 200 funding sources divided into three categories: National, State and Wish Funders. For more than a decade, Tamara Simmons has been assisting families in raising the funds they lack to cover assistive technology and other expenses for their […]
If you have a child with special needs who’s nearing adulthood, you may hear that you should take precautions to protect eligibility for government benefits. But what if you don’t want or need those benefits for your child? “Even if you believe you have plenty of money to care for your child,” says Lea Bancroft, MSFS, CLU, ChFC, ChSNC, a Special Care Planner1 associated with MassMutual Rochester2 in Rochester, New York, a general agency of […]
