To Families of Children on the APD Wait List:

You don't know me, but we have something in common. We are all parents of children who have a developmental disability and who are currently not receiving services from the Agency for Persons with Disabilities here in Florida. In fact, many of us are way, way down on the waiting list of over 20,000 people who are waiting for services. If you are like me, you are concerned about this and wonder what will happen to your loved one when you cannot continue to care for them. That is why I am writing to you. My goal is to organize those of us who have a son or daughter or loved one on that long waiting list and come together as a group to pressure the State of Florida into fully funding the services that we so urgently need.

At the Family Care Council meeting of the Agency for Persons with Disabilities (APD) Area 1, on August 26, 2008 in Pensacola, I took on the responsibility for starting the communication and organization of families who have a loved one on APD's waiting list for services. At that meeting (via phone conference) Dr. David Robinson, Area One Administrator for APD, made a commitment to the FCC to assist me in organizing the people on the waiting list by sending out a letter from me to those of us on the Wait List. Again, the goal of this first letter is to connect those of us on the waiting list, so that we can come together, get organized, and to present our request for full funding of services to our Florida State Senators and State Representatives.

To succeed in gaining public support for services for our children it is vital that we tell our stories and personalize this issue by putting a face to our cause. We must be more than a number to our state's elected officials who deliberate about our children's future. Our elected officials make the budget decisions for all people with a developmental disability in Florida. When our State Senators and State Representatives do not know about our children, they do not understand their struggle, they do not feel our anguish, and therefore they have no problem cutting the lifeline to our children's future.

It is our job to make our elected officials understand what their decisions mean to the real people who are indeed, their friends and neighbors in Florida. Therefore, please take a few minutes to email me so we can get organized. Later, I will be asking for a brief short story about your family/child with a developmental disability which can be used to present our case. I do not have the space here to tell our story, but when you contact me I will be happy to share with you our story, as an example. Our current situation with our adult son, Matt, who has Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disability is common of Florida's state-sponsored neglect. What haunts us is what may happen to our son after we are gone and no longer able to care for him.

The fundamental and only issue we are fighting for is more state funding to pay for a support system for ALL of the people with a developmental disability in Florida. The real and sad fact is the State of Florida has chosen to underfund the support system for people with a developmental disability. According to their figures, between 16,000 to 20,000 of us with children with a developmental disability are on a “Wait List”. This is unacceptable.

We are told by APD officials that we (those of us on the “Wait List”) cannot expect to get any significant help from the state of Florida until at least 2012. Therefore, it is more accurate to say that thousands of families with a developmentally disabled child in Florida are now on a “Do Not Serve List”.

The bottom line is that services for people with a developmental disability are grossly underfunded in Florida. The legislators have chosen to balance the state budget on the backs of our children. A simple comparison of the State of New York with Florida illustrates this point:

Pennsylvania Population 19,000,000

Serves 140, 000 people with a developmental disability with
$3.2 billion for FY 2008/09, at $22,000 per consumer annually

Florida Population 18,000,000

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I certainly hope that you will join our cause.

Sincerely

Mike Coonan, Parent