Is Funding for Disabled Children in the Budget

Congress is in session and they are rushing to get through all the debates and bills before the session closes.  Washington, DC is buzzing the debate om tax cuts for the rich.  However the real debate should be on funding for millions of vulnerable children.

Every year some 1.45 million children who have an intellectual disability or are at risk for a developmental delay are not identified by school systems and administrators.  Additonally many children who have been diagnosed struggle to obtain effective therapies and treatments, because crucial programs are chronically underfunded — and are in danger of being scaled back even further in 2011.  If these vulnerable children, especially those with autism or another disability, don’t get the help they need in kindergarten or before, they start falling behind their peers early. And many struggle to ever catch up.

President Obama pledged during his campaign to greatly increase funding to take on this challenge. As the president and his advisers form the next budget request they’ll send to Congress, right now is our best chance to hold him to that promise.

Tell President Obama: Include $100 million in increased funding for early disability diagnosis and treatment of young children in your upcoming budget request.