Young adults with autism need a future
As a parent of a young adult with autism and an intellectual disability, we don't deal with alternative facts on a daily basis. Unlike the President and our current governor.
The following are what Illinois parents cannot in our lifetimes call alternative:
• Eighty percent of people with developmental and intellectual disabilities in this state do not receive
services and many have been on the states PUNS waiting list for years, with no end in sight. My son has been on the database for more than nine years and no state official can tell me if he will receive services when he ages out of school and into adulthood.
• For more than 25 years Illinois has been near the bottom of the entire nation in protecting the most vulnerable. Momentum to get federal funding for developmental disabilities and improving the lives of people who need our protection started with Gov. Quinn and ended with Gov. Rauner.
• We have always provided for and supported our children, throughout their lifetime, making extreme sacrifices for our kids. But we will not live forever, waiting for Illinois to finally make improvements to the Developmental Disability system. Our kids will not stop getting older, while we wait for Illinois to make them a priority.
When will you, Gov. Rauner and Springfield, bring in more federal money and agree on legislation to reduce the state's PUNS waiting list to protect adults like my son with autism, when we can no longer do so? They will not be swept under the rug and the numbers have and will only grow bigger.
Time has run out, governor!
Mike Baker
Schaumburg