Families and children with special needs are entitled to EI services in a timely matter and these services may be interrupted indefinitely.
SERVICES
Hand in Hand Therapies
As the providers of services to your child though the Early Intervention (EI) program, we are writing this letter to inform you of a crisis within EI and the State of Illinois and how these issues will affect you and your child’s services directly in the immediate future.
The service providers in Early Intervention, including your OT, PT, DT or Speech therapists, are now experiencing a 12-week delay in payment for our services. In the last 3 to 6 months, the delay has been steadily increasing and we are now receiving only partial payments, the last one from the beginning of August. We have now been told by the State of IL Comptroller Dan Hynes, “…the situation is grim and getting worse.” The next time the IL government is scheduled to meet is not until January 12, 2010. They get two months off while we are losing our jobs and your children are in jeopardy of therapy service interruption. Unless we all are loud enough to help get our voices heard before then, no one will even be listening.
Families and children with special needs are entitled to EI services in a timely matter and these services may be interrupted indefinitely. There are hundreds of providers being laid-off or having to quit EI to find work elsewhere to support their own families. Most providers see between 10-30 children EACH. This translates to thousands of children with potentially interrupted therapy services with no end in sight. Additionally, you may be paying a monthly family fee as well.
Hand in Hand Therapies website: www.hihtherapies.com
Please help assure that your child’s special needs will continue to be met by calling the people listed in the link above. Please ask your friends and family to support your child’s development by doing the same. You need to make these officials aware of these issues and share your personal story. As service providers, our plight has fallen on deaf ears for over a year now and your children are now going to be the ones who suffer for the State of Illinois’ incompetence. - Tell them your story and you are afraid your child may stop receiving the services you were promised and are entitled to.
- Ask how will they assure you your child will continue to get their services if their providers are leaving the EI system because they are not being paid?
- Ask where is the family fee that you’re paying for EI services going? Why aren’t they paying the therapists that have been helping my child and the thousands of others?
- Ask what are they going to do about this?
- Tell them you vote, you’ll remember what they have done to help and you will be heard on Election Day.
- Tell them you are calling everyone you can think of.
- Tell them to release the funds to pay the Early Intervention providers!
It is up to you, the parents of these children, to advocate for your child’s services. With your help, we can make this government listen and help where it is needed the most.
Don’t forget, these people in government WORK FOR YOU!
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