Young Adults Will Soon Be Able To Remain on Parents’ Health Plans

Last Updated: 8/20/2010

Help is available for families of children with special needs whose private health insurance will no longer cover children once they reach a certain age. The new federal health insurance law requires many private insurers to allow children to remain on their parents’ health insurance plans until they are 26 years old.

Families of children with special needs who have private health insurance, typically through work, face a dilemma when their child gets older. Under many private health insurance plans, coverage for children ends once the child reaches a certain age — typically 21, depending on state law. Although some private insurance plans allow parents of a child with disabilities to continue coverage well into the child’s adult years, many plans terminate coverage regardless of the child’s disability status. At that point, parents must obtain alternate health insurance for their child, often through Medicaid or some other state or federal program.

There is some good news for families who find themselves in this position. As part of this year’s healthcare reform law, many private insurers must allow children to remain on their parents’ health insurance plans as dependent family members until they are 26 years old. While some states may require insurance plans to extend coverage even further than this, the new law makes sure that all children will have access to their parents’ insurance until at least age 26.

Unlike many provisions of the new law that do not go into effect until 2014, the age limit requirement begins to take effect in October 2010 and must be completely in effect as of the new year. Although the law applies to many types of employer-provided group health insurance, it does not apply to state-sponsored plans or ERISA plans. However, for a majority of families who receive health insurance through their employers, the new law adds several years of certainly to what was previously an unclear future for their children with special needs.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Information

ADHD is a persistent pattern of inattention or hyperactivity/impulsivity manifested in academic, employment, or social situations. There are three distinct subtypes of ADHD. The Inattentive Subtype primarily involves difficulty consistently directing and sustaining one’s attention. The Hyperactive Subtype primarily involves severe restlessness or difficulty remaining still, and in some cases difficulty controlling one’s impulses. The Combined Subtype describes people who demonstrate a significant portion of both Inattentive and Hyperactive symptoms.

Onset & Characterizations

ADHD arises during childhood and is not attributed to gross neurological, sensory, language or motor impairment, mental retardation, or severe emotional disturbance. It is marked in school settings by careless mistakes and disorganized work. Students often have difficulty concentrating on and completing tasks, frequently shifting from one uncompleted activity to another. In social situations, inattention may be apparent by frequent shifts in conversation, poor listening comprehension, and not following the details or rules of games and other activities. Symptoms of hyperactivity may take the form of restlessness and difficulty with quiet activities. Students with ADHD often have significant problems with time-management, task-completion, organization and memory.

Some Considerations

• ADHD is not a form of mental retardation or emotional disorder
• ADHD is not a disorder that a student “grows out of”. Diagnostic criteria for ADHD in adults include current, persistent attention difficulties.
• Errors in the written work of students with ADHD may appear to be “careless” but actually are the result of the disability.
• Common accommodations for students with ADHD are notetaking assistance, taped lectures, a quiet test environment, extended time on tests, priority registration, early syllabus and study skills/strategies training.

Instructional Strategies

The following strategies are suggested to enhance the accessibility of courses instruction, materials, and activities. They are general strategies designed to support individualized reasonable accommodations.

• Include a Disability Access Statement on the syllabus, inviting students with disabilities to request accommodations.

• Students with ADHD generally perform better if given a syllabus with clear explanations of tasks and specific due-dates.

• As the semester progresses, verbal reminders in class of impending deadlines (e.g.” Remember, the problem sets are due Friday”) are very helpful to students with ADHD.

• Assist the student with finding an effective notetaker, if the student is eligible for this service.

• Allow the student to tape-record lectures.

• Whenever possible, start each lecture with a summary of material to be covered or provide a written outline. Broad margins and triple-spacing on handouts enables students to take notes directly onto the outline, an aid to organization. Provide a review of the major points at the conclusion of each lecture.

• Avoid making assignments in oral form only, since students with ADHD may miss them. In addition to oral announcements, write assignments on the board or pass them out in written form.

• Students with ADHD may tend to “drift” mentally during class, especially during long lectures. They are better able to stay focused when the class format is varied, as when lecture alternates with presentation and class discussion.

• For large projects or long papers, students with ADHD benefit from assistance with breaking the task down into its component parts and setting deadlines for each part.

• Since they are often distractible, students with ADHD benefit from preferential seating near the front of the class or away from possible sources of distraction like windows, doors or noisy heaters.

• When in doubt about how to assist the student, ask him or her.

• Allow the student the same anonymity as other students (i.e., avoid pointing out the student or the alternative arrangements to the rest of the class).

Remarks from Marca Bristo at the White House Celebration commemorating the 20th Anniversary of the ADA

By Lead On: Chronicling the work of Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago

Contact: Eden Heilman or Marion Steinfels

(334)235-4029

Southern Poverty Law Center, Loyola Law Clinic and Southern Disability Law Center File Complaint Against the Louisiana Department of Education

New Orleans

“All too often, students with disabilities are being denied the chance to take advantage of the many innovative educational programs and schools that have been developed in New Orleans since Katrina,” said Eden Heilman, lead attorney from the Southern Poverty Law Center. “It’s a travesty

“As the five-year anniversary of Katrina approaches, we need to take stock of where we are. We’re rebuilding our schools, but leaving behind our most vulnerable children,” said Davida Finger, Assistant Clinical Professor at Loyola University Law Clinic. “The Louisiana Department of Education has a legal and moral duty to intervene.”

Parents of two students named in the complaint described their family’s experiences dealing with this discrimination.

Leskisher Luckett, whose third-grade son was repeatedly locked in a school closet as a means of punishment, described the effect this discrimination has had on her son. “After being treated like a lost cause for years, Darren has come to believe that about himself. My son, my 9-year old son, is too young to give up on his education.”

Robyn Flanery’s daughter began suffering from profound emotional troubles upon entering the seventh grade. But, rather than receive any type of services to address this affliction, she was repeatedly punished for minor infractions until she was finally expelled from the school she had attended since kindergarten, leading to even greater emotional trauma.

“After years of being the ideal student, my daughter became seriously depressed almost over night,” Flanery said. “But, instead of helping us and helping her, our family was abandoned by the school community we had been a part of for so long.”

“This complaint is an opportunity for the Louisiana Department of Education to remove these well-documented barriers facing students with disabilities in New Orleans,” Heilman said. “We hope to work collaboratively with the state to craft a solution that will ensure no child is denied access to the innovative educational reforms occurring throughout the city.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center, with offices in New Orleans, Atlanta, Miami, Jackson, Miss., and Montgomery, Ala., is a nonprofit civil rights organization that combats bigotry and discrimination through litigation, education and advocacy.

– The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the Community Justice section of the Loyola Law Clinic and the Southern Disability Law Center filed a complaint today against the Louisiana Department of Education (LDE) on behalf of all special needs students in New Orleans public schools. The complaint outlines the LDE’s systemic failure to ensure that students with disabilities have equal access to educational services and are protected from discrimination. — one that the Louisiana Department of Education has a duty to address.”http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/splc-complaint-children-with-disabilities-face-discrimination-in-new-orleans-schoo

A Trust Protector Can Look Out for a Beneficiary’s Interests

Last Updated: 5/4/2010

One of the most important decisions a special needs trust’s donor (the person who supplies the funds for the trust) makes is the choice of a trustee for the trust. A trustee typically manages the day-to-day operations of the trust, often making distributions to the trust’s beneficiary, investing the trust’s assets, and paying the trust’s bills. But how can the donor make sure that the trustee will properly manage the trust when the donor is no longer around to keep an eye on the trustee, especially if the trust’s beneficiary is not capable of supervising his own trustee? In many cases, a trust protector can ensure that a beneficiary is protected from trustee mismanagement.

Once she assumes office, a trustee almost always serves in a “fiduciary capacity,” meaning that she is in a position of trust and confidence and has a legal duty to properly manage the trust’s assets while keeping in mind the best interests of the trust’s beneficiary. A fiduciary is held to a high standard of conduct, and she owes the trust’s beneficiary a strict duty of loyalty. However, in many cases involving special needs trusts, the beneficiary of the trust is unable to properly enforce this fiduciary duty because of his special needs. This is where a trust protector comes in.

A trust protector is a person chosen by the donor who is responsible for monitoring the trustee’s actions. The trust protector’s duty is to the trust’s beneficiary as an additional pair of eyes, making sure that the trustee is properly performing her job. The trust protector typically has access to the trust’s accounts, and can compel a trustee to produce a summary of what she has done for the beneficiary. If a trust protector believes that the trustee is not properly performing her duties, he can usually fire the trustee. Depending on how the trust is drafted, the donor can even give the trust protector the power to name a new trustee if the donor has not done so himself in the trust document. (Most of the time, however, the trust protector must name an independent trustee as the new trustee, avoiding the scenario where the trust protector fires a trustee only to name himself as the new trustee).

Trust protectors may be useful in a variety of situations. Take the case of Jennifer and her son, Adam. Jennifer is elderly and would like to make sure that her son, who has special needs, is cared for at home for as long a possible when she is gone. So Jennifer decides to establish a special needs trust that will hold her home for Adam’s benefit, and she funds this trust with enough money to make sure that the property is well kept and that the bills are paid. However, Jennifer’s closest relative, her niece Margaret, does not want to serve as trustee of Adam’s trust because she does not want the added responsibility of managing a home. Jennifer decides to name John, a friend of hers who knows Adam and who runs a property management company, as the trustee instead. Although Jennifer trusts John, she decides to name Margaret as a trust protector to review his yearly accounts and make sure that he charges the proper amount for his services and is keeping the property in good shape.

Every special needs trust is different, and in many cases, especially when a donor is serving as trustee, a trust may not initially need a trust protector. The best way to decide if your special needs trust should include one is to speak with your qualified special needs planner