From the intro to a story in the Tucson Weekly in Arizona:Clare Hofmann Augustine's 3-year-old son, Marsalis, has received early-childhood intervention therapies and support from the Arizona Department of Economic Security since shortly after he was born with Down syndrome.
Although those services end when a child reaches the age of 3, Hofmann Augustine joined more than 100 other families and therapists to speak out in support of Arizona's most vulnerable--children with developmental and cognitive disabilities.
He and his mother joined other parents who also have children with Down syndrome in front of Child and Family Resources, a social service agency that recently announced it was being forced to lay off 21 staff members after losing $7 million in DES funds, thanks to state budget cuts.Hofmann Augustine said she and her friends hoped to lend a voice to the children the agency serves (including their own children) to prevent the destruction of early-childhood intervention services after $172 million was slashed from the DES budget by Republican-led state leadership.
"To me, it's like the weakest of the weak is being preyed upon. It's immoral what they've done, and it hurts my heart," Hofmann Augustine said.
In early February, DES released a list of programs affected by state budget cuts. The department had already announced it saved more than $110 million through layoffs and employee furloughs--but the department still needed to cut more.
The cuts hit early-childhood intervention services hard. Right now, 4,000 children receive in-home therapies as part of early-childhood intervention. As of March 1, according to DES, those services will be reduced or cut, as will benefits for about 20,000 low-income children and almost 5,000 children in foster care.
"It is just so wrong to cut services to these kids from 0 to 3 years old. They are just starting out and in great need. I'm not saying that early invention filled every gap, but in my life, they've made such a difference," Hofmann Augustine said.
When Marsalis was born and diagnosed with Down syndrome, Hofmann
Augustine said, she was depressed.
"These therapists are well-educated about who they are serving. It also made such a difference in my life. I was going through such a funk bringing this baby in the world ... a gamut of emotions. But in early intervention, I just got so much support. It turned things around for me," Hofmann Augustine said. "They were there, caring for him, and it helped me understand he's a valid human being, and he has so much potential."
Marsalis, like many children with Down syndrome, was born with a heart defect and had to have heart surgery when he was 4 months old. Another focus on his care in early intervention has been in-home speech therapy; without it, Hofmann Augustine said, transitioning him into preschool in the Marana Unified School District would have been difficult.
While Hofmann Augustine and her friends stood outside, Democratic state Sens. Paul Aboud and Linda Lopez addressed media, family and providers inside a packed Child and Family Resources conference room.