From "phew!" to more work

My project this fall has been to get Noah ALTCS approved (which would mean that Noah would get federal dollars for autism services). Sure, I've been through the ALTCS hoops with one child already, but it was so much more of a pain this time around, for two reasons 1) it's budget crisis time, so no one wants to approve new spending, and 2) Noah is no longer preschool-aged, which means the approval criteria he has to meet is much more strict.

It's been arduous trying to get him approved. SO much paperwork to compile. Oh, and the school wasn't incredibly helpful, making me wait for the new evals and IEP that the ALTCS worker kept nagging me for.

But it all paid off! Noah was approved for ALTCS this week! Phew.

Except . . . I talked to Nick and Noah's AWESOME DDD case manager Friday and realized that the approval just means it's time to work on even more stuff. We need to try to get Noah approved for specific hours for services now, which means a new ISP meeting and a habilitation plan submitted to tech review and all sorts of other goodies . . .

The work is so worth it, though. Did you know that the cost of caring for someone with autism over a lifetime is about $3.2 million dollars, according to the Harvard School of Public Health? Holy expensive! Noah's ALTCS approval means that we'll get financial help with his medical and therapy costs, which is miraculous. Thank freakin' God.