It seems our republican led state has relentlessly cut services for families struggling to care for a severely disabled child at home. Three years ago, state lawmakers simply cut $6 million from a program that pays for private-duty nursing care for Floridians who wish to remain outside institutions. One program that is designed to allow parents to care for disabled children at home or in community settings now has a wait list with about 22,000 names. The Feds found the state funding and managing its community programs so poorly that hundreds of children have been forced to live, and sometimes grow up, in institutions for the elderly. A total of five children have died in Florida nursing homes during the last half of 2010 — and 130 have died since January 2006, according to state records.The DOJ is asking a federal judge to declare the state's program for disabled children in violation of federal law and to force the state to cease warehousing children in institutions.......more
AHCA Secretary Liz Dudek said. "Florida has made many improvements in its already strong program of caring for medically complex children and helping their families cope with their everyday challenges." But a Miami civil rights lawyer who has also sued the state over the institutionalization of children called Dudek's actions mere "window dressing."
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