Excerpt from Salt Lake Tribune: (click for entire article)
During Christmas vacation, Broderick Leiataua took his mother's hand several times a day and guided her to the door. Though the 12-year-old boy is severely autistic and cannot speak, she knew where he wanted to go. His after-school program for autistic children has literally changed his family's life, allowing his mother, Clarissa Crisp, to earn a college degree and raise her family above the poverty level.
Now, with potentially huge state budget cuts looming for disabled programs across Utah, many parents like Crisp are panicked. "We're finally at a place tonight where things are coming together," she said. "My biggest fear is for my son to end up in an institution." The fear is nothing new for Utah families with disabled children, who greeted last year's $4.6 million cut to the Division of Services for People with Disabilities with fatigue and trepidation. Often worn out by caring for their intellectually or physically disabled child, they worry about losing any more hours of in-home help or day-care programs.
Last year's cuts shaved $1.5 million from private companies that have state contracts to provide most day-to-day care for the disabled. Several state programs that offered low-cost services to families significantly shrank or disappeared. More than 100 state jobs were privatized, saving the state thousands on overhead.
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