Unlocking Disability Support: A Conversation with Developmental Pathways
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Aleia Mastroianni: [00:00:00] Hi everyone. Welcome back to another episode of SpecialEd, IEPs, 504s, Oh my: Conversations with DCSEAC. I'm your host, Aleia Mastroianni.

Today's topic is one we've been eager to get out to all of you for quite some time. Many of our episodes so far have been conversations with parents or with professionals who work directly within our school system. But today, we're jumping out of the school system and into community and state supports.

Today's topic is one that a lot of families hear about, but they often feel confused or overwhelmed. Today we're talking with Developmental Pathways. We're so excited to bring you this one. Developmental Pathways is a case management agency, or CMA. They're the organization that helps families access, Medicaid waivers, and other disability services for both children and adults.

For many families, including my own, Developmental Pathways, has become a really important partner, helping [00:01:00] connect our children and adults with services, funding, and support that can make a huge difference in the quality of life, but the system can feel complicated and long and sometimes intimidating.

So today we are beyond excited and grateful that Rachel Walker, the Associate Director of Community Affairs with Developmental Pathways, is here to walk us through the process and explain the programs available for children and help families understand where to start. 

Hi everyone, I'm so excited.

Today we get to interview the extraordinary woman who's been DCSEAC's liaison and champion, Ms. Rachel Walker. Hi Rachel. Thanks for coming in today. 

Rachel Walker: Thank you so much. I'm honored to be here.

Aleia Mastroianni: Alright Rachel, let's jump into this 'cause this is content heavy, so parents be warned, but this is so useful. You can go back and listen to it again. I wanna start just with the basics.

Many parents here in Douglas County [00:02:00] hear the name Developmental Pathways, but they don't really know what the organization is or, I found that, even have a lot of shame and worry 'cause someone has said "you should talk to them." They're like, dang it, I haven't talked to them. So we wanna try and demystify that.

What is Developmental Pathways and what is the organization's role in supporting families and children in the community? 

Rachel Walker: Absolutely. So Developmental Pathways is just a local nonprofit organization. We've been around for almost 62 years now, started by parents with children with disabilities. We've been around for so long. We've served in a lot of different capacities. Some people still know us as a community center board, but we're really a case management agency now.

There was some redesign that happened a couple years at the state level, and so with that redesign, we really came out of that as your case management agency. Although we still have that designation of community center board. We are here to support the lifespan. So with people that have disabilities or children that have maybe developmental delays, we're here to support.

So we serve from birth to death and everything in between. If we have some folks in our community [00:03:00] that have pretty significant disabilities as we're talking about in this group in particular. 

Aleia Mastroianni: When we did have changes at the state level, Developmental Pathways earned the contract to manage all of the waivers.

We'll get into waivers later, but that means all pediatric waivers. And all adult waivers.

The easiest way I have found to tell people is you can't directly call Medicaid yourself. So you have to have an organization that works as that interface.

Rachel Walker: Correct. So yes, we are your case management agency for Arapahoe and Douglas and Elbert County. And Aleia has already told you this is content heavy, so we'll do my best to explain it. But there, there are really three main contracts available at the state of Colorado level for disability services. The first being early intervention, so our little zero to three years old, which I realize a lot of people listening to this probably went through our early intervention program and then tracked into the school district when their kiddo was three through ChildFind.

Hopefully some of these words are familiar for you. Developmental Pathways does have some continuity of [00:04:00] services that can happen after the age of three. Case Management Agency houses, all the Disability Long-Term Care Medicaid services. And so that's how our designation of case management agency came to be. And you're right, there are nine Medicaid waivers in the state of Colorado. There's also a handful of what are called

non HCBS Medicaid programs too that families could explore. Those are less access, sometimes families go straight to Medicaid waiver, but I wanna make sure that people are aware that there are other things available. And then we have somewhat locally funded dollars that are through our community center boards.

So Arapahoe Douglas Counties do a fabulous job of giving us mill levy and we're able to use that mill levy for folks in our community that have intellectual and developmental disabilities. That mill levy translates for Developmental Pathways into another program that's locally funded for those that have an IDD diagnosis, or intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Sorry, I talk in a lot of acronyms.

Aleia Mastroianni: We all do. 

Rachel Walker: Yes. That IDD diagnosis that maybe didn't qualify for Children's Waiver, but are [00:05:00] gonna likely qualify for adult services. So there's lots of options. Developmental Pathways holds all three of those contracts, which is why we get to be so comprehensive in the way that we support our disability community.

Aleia Mastroianni: So for parents out there who feel like, I don't even understand any of that, please know, that was me too. I remember being told you should do Developmental Pathways and trying to understand that. Don't be stressed. We will keep trying to break it down. I think that it sort of segues kind of nicely into my next question.

Really, the first step when you're starting this disability journey, when you realize, Hey, my child might have a learning difference. I remember people would say to me, oh, yay, you have an autism diagnosis.

That means you get access to all the services. And I was like, what do you mean? What services? And it was incredibly stressful. When do you think in all of that crazy process, should families reach out to Developmental Pathways? 

Rachel Walker: So I'm hearing this question as we know it's intimidating, and we also know that it can be hard to take that first step to [00:06:00] ask, say, Hey, I need more resources.

And that's gotta be so humbling in some instances as a parent, as a caregiver, as a family member. But man, there are amazing resources out there for you if you just call and say, I need some help. And then make that first phone call and we will help guide you from there. I will say it's an arduous process if you're gonna go through the Medicaid waiver path and someone's gonna hold your hand through that.

But if you wanna embark on that journey, it's really worth it, right? So I told you we have a lifetime of supports. So let's say wherever you are in your journey, middle school, and you want to say, I think my child, is going to need a lifetime of services that could be offered through your case management agency, through these Medicaid waiver, through these disability services.

So it's worth the investment upfront. It's very scary, I realize that. But just know that everyone at Developmental Pathways is here and they want to help you. There are limitations to how we can help, and so hopefully we're pulling in some other resources, or you [00:07:00] have this amazing DCSEAC that can support you with parents that have been through the journey, and so pull on your resources, pull on your natural supports to get you through the process, and then I'm hoping this podcast inspires you to take that first step to giving us a call.

Aleia Mastroianni: Totally. You can call the intake line and say, "I'm not exactly sure what I need. I keep being told that I need to call you," and they will be able to help you.

They're not going to turn you away or roll their eyes that they're used to this. They're used to families who don't know and have been told, sometimes by pediatricians, by doctors, by therapists, you should call Developmental Pathways. And it's scary to call when you don't even know necessarily what you're calling about.

They're really good at saying, "awesome, let's do an evaluation," and then they'll present to you all the different services that they can offer. And then you work on what is my child eligible for? What are they not? There are even services that they provide while you're waiting to work on eligibility because it is long.

It is hard. And we can't sugarcoat that, [00:08:00] ladies and gentlemen. Those of you that have been through it, those of you that are facing it, it is a long process. But like Rachel said, it is so worth it. And what you're gaining access to is that lifetime of services. It won't stop when the school system stops.

Even though it usually takes about a year to get all the little steps done, all the qualifications, but what you're gaining access to is state and government funding to help support your child or your adult for the rest of their life. So it's worth it. It just, it's a lot. So don't, if you're feeling overwhelmed, it's okay.

Rachel Walker: And also you're not alone. It is an overwhelming experience for everyone. I said this to some families before, and I don't mean this to be shocking or upsetting, but you do have to make a plan if you have a child with significant needs in your care when you're not around. 

Aleia Mastroianni: Yes. 

Rachel Walker: And so that's just a reality check.

If you're on here and you need that final push of motivation to give us call, there's also an online intake form that you can fill out that tends to cue you a little faster. So I will [00:09:00] say that's a little nugget of information that this podcast can have is that our online form is fabulous. You can submit the form for yourself, you can have a professional submit it for you.

Aleia Mastroianni: I love how you brought up, and I think we, we can address it,

we will not live forever. Most parents expect to raise their child through 18 plus and hopefully send them out into the world for 30 plus years. And hopefully their kiddo might come back and help them in their end of life.

And with families like ours, we're looking at raising our children all the way through our death. And then we're trying to plan for the 20 years after our death to continue to care for our children. And I've had families who have come to ask for help and their child is in high school or bridge or beyond.

And all of a sudden it's starting to set in like, oh my goodness, I'm not gonna stay strong forever. This level of care, I might actually need some help. And that's hard for parents. I'm the same, my daughter's gonna need care for [00:10:00] the rest of her life. And I couldn't imagine not having her in my home and taking care of her.

But I also want to try and imagine her life for the next 20, 30, 40, 50 years. And then all of a sudden I'm like, oh, I'm, I am gonna get old. I am gonna need help. And Developmental Pathways will still be there with me.

Let's jump into one thing that often confuses families is the relationship between Medicaid and a disability determination and a waiver.

What does all of that mean? And I've heard from lots of families who choose to not even start the process because they're like, well, I wouldn't qualify. We make too much money.

I'm here to say it's based on your child's income, which if you guys are like me, it's zero. My daughter doesn't have an income. But it is actually not even through Developmental Pathways. This is something that you have to do through the state.

So can you tell our families and parents what that eligibility determination is why they need to do it and why it's through the state and not through you guys. 

Rachel Walker: So I will say I [00:11:00] am not a program expert. So a little disclaimer there, and I hate saying that.

Aleia Mastroianni: Can I throw in and say I'm not an expert either. We're just trying our best, 

Rachel Walker: we're getting you the information, but I can answer this question for you. My role at Developmental Pathways is really to have like a bird's eye view of everything that we do and then be competent enough to explain it to our community.

But I don't do direct programming, so unfortunately when you call Developmental Pathways, you'll probably not speak to me. But a disability determination is something that happens at age five. So if you were in an early intervention program, you qualified based on your child's delay, you can qualify up to the age of five based on delay alone.

So you went through your evaluation. Many of you, that might have happened through Child Find. It's now through Developmental Pathways. You went through that evaluation and you were determined to have delay in development and now you have your delayed determination. At age five, things change.

We need a disability determination, so we need things like a diagnosis paired with some testing, and that's [00:12:00] demonstrating to the higher powers that be that this person has a significant need that would qualify for additional resources at the state level. That disability determination is not linked necessarily to

medicaid waiver. It's component of qualifying for a Medicaid waiver. But if you wanna access really any programs after the age of five, you need a disability determination done. Aleia's exactly right. Some of these requirements are because we have lots of state and federal partners and entities that oversee the way we use our funding and how we do our eligibility and allow folks into these programs so some of it is not even linked to Developmental Pathways and some of the criteria that we're looking for that often that's from a separate

agent. Some of the things that you'll have to fill out as you start the process might be an application for long-term care Medicaid. That could be different from the Medicaid if you currently have Medicaid that could be different from the Medicaid that you have.

And so we're looking very much at [00:13:00] the person with the disability in the household. And Aleia's right, I've been told that this is not why they're called Medicaid waivers, but man, it sticks in my brain so I'll share it with you and hopefully sticks in your brain. Is that the waiver part of that statement allows us to waive some of the financial

components to eligibility. So a hundred percent that we're looking at the individual who needs the services income and not the household income. A lot of people think that with Medicaid it's strictly based on income. And I want to say yes, that's true to an extent, but when you have someone in your household that has a significant enough disability or functional impairment, we're now looking at their income.

And truly, if they go over income, there are ways to shelter some of their assets. So let's say that you set up money in your child's name and you're like, oops, now that makes us Medicaid ineligible. Talk to our intake workers. They'll help you navigate the additional resources. Some of the common ones that are out there are called like an able account or a special needs trust.

So I'll just [00:14:00] toss that out there. So the higher powers that be, that want to Google this listening on can go and start to explore some of those options, which will make this a lot less intimidating. 

Aleia Mastroianni: Totally. We're hoping, fingers crossed, that we can do a podcast, maybe we can get to it over the summer, where we wanna interview a special needs attorney and talk about all of those different options.

Especially as we're looking at adulthood and ourselves aging and putting our homes in trusts and all the things like that there. It's a lot to think about and it might seem crazy if your little kiddo is five right now. I'll tell you that when I filled out the disability determination from my daughter when she was probably, you know, five is probably when I had to do it.

It feel, it feels silly 'cause it's talking about like how long can they stand up at work and the normal things that you would do to apply for disability as an adult. Just fill it out. Fill it out the best of your ability.

Don't be intimidated if they ask. It is something very official and governmental, but you will get a disability determination letter from the state of Colorado.

All we really [00:15:00] needed was that piece of paper that qualified her as disabled and that sort of unlocked all of the services with Developmental Pathways.

Rachel Walker: I love the way that you said that it's true that some of these entities at the county level are the operators for these, some of the components to eligibility, to determination. And yes, pay attention to your mail. Pay attention to when you're case manager, if you get active in services with us, send you alerts to say, Hey, you have to re-up with Medicaid and they will send you those steps.

And I know it's a lot, I acknowledge it's a lot, but if you can stay vigilant and be your child or student's advocate in this space, it'll go smoothly for you. 

Aleia Mastroianni: The next thing I wanted to talk about was the pediatric Medicaid waivers. And warning to parents,

There's a lot of information here. This is all also broken down on Developmental Pathways website. And I wanna acknowledge, not everybody qualifies for a waiver. Especially if you're in the significant special needs part of our community, this will come up.

You'll [00:16:00] hear people, are you on a waiver? Are you on a waiver? And it comes up a lot. If your kiddo doesn't receive these services, don't stress out. We're gonna talk about later in the podcast about services that are available for children who don't have exceptionally high medical or behavioral needs.

I'm going to ask Rachel to break apart the three pediatric medicaid waivers so you can know what they are, and you can think about, Hey, is that something that I think my child might qualify for?

So we wanna just sort of give you an overview of what those big three pediatric waivers are, a little bit of what it takes to qualify, and a little bit of what those waivers can get you access to.

Rachel Walker: There are three pediatric Medicaid waivers. You might be like, oh, I thought there were four. They combined two of them. So recently that happened. If you heard of four, nothing got taken away. It's just simply that they combined a couple of them and that allowed ultimately greater access for additional services for folks.

So they combined the [00:17:00] children's HCBS, home and Community Based Services waiver with the CLLI waiver, which is the Children's with Life Limiting Illness Waiver.

They combine that to the children with Complex Health Needs Waiver. I believe, and I have no idea if this is used outside of Developmental Pathways that we've been calling this CHIN, because of the acronym. 

Aleia Mastroianni: Nice chin. Why not? 

Rachel Walker: Yes. Yes. These are for children, just like it sounds, with complex health needs.

We might have children that are tracking into primary and specialty care pretty often, that have these lifelong medical complications. The children that could enter that program, would get things like respite care, but there's also things like bereavement supports and more family and sibling supports within that program.

The other children's program is called CHRP, children's Habilitative Residential Program. The CHRP waiver is designed for our children that really have those high behavior and [00:18:00] intervention needs. So children that are on this waiver are at risk of out-of-home placement. So they could be tracking towards foster care.

They might be having consistent interactions with Department of Human Services or law enforcement in some way. Previously, children could only access this waiver if they had an intellectual and developmental disability diagnosis. But they have expanded eligibility, which is a huge win for us, for serious emotional disturbances.

So our AN families that are on right now, that might be of particular interest to you- I know Aleia, 

Aleia Mastroianni: She's speaking to my heart. I love our AN families and kiddos.

When I saw this change it made my heart so happy and so excited because there is a profound level of need in this community, a profound level of misunderstanding. We're more likely to have interactions with law enforcement and the judicial system, and it is still all disability based because it is coming from a social, emotional, mental health disability and the fact [00:19:00] that our state and Developmental Pathways is able to now provide support for those families, it's just a huge door open.

So AN families, if you'd thought, DP isn't for me, it might be worth checking this one out. 

Rachel Walker: And that's a new development as in the last year. So if maybe you called us and were told something different a couple years ago, always worth calling us again, there's things that are happening, it feels like monthly right now where there are changes and you can stay up to date by just contacting us and we'll tell you if something's changed that you could potentially be eligible for.

I'll make a plug here. Developmental Pathways, because we realize there are a lot of system changes happening right now, and you did such a great job plugging our website.

We're abundantly proud of our website. We poured all the resources, we know all the information about the programs. We pushed it onto our website to increase access, transparency, all of that thing for our community. On our website, there is a blog now that's called Policy Pulse, and I can get that link to Aleia so that you [00:20:00] can stay educated on some of the system updates that are happening.

We're not speculating, right? We're that's not our role. Our role is to share the information that's happening at the system level and to make sure that our community is informed. We're not here to sway you one way or the other. We don't have stake in that. We have stake in getting you the services you need and giving you the information about potential changes to your services.

Aleia Mastroianni: Exactly. Alright, I interrupted because

we have one more pediatric waiver. Tell me about it. 

Rachel Walker: I appreciate that and I did save the one for last because it's the one that's most commonly known, I feel like in our community, especially the folks that might be listening. It's our children's extensive of supports, waiver or CES. This is a waiver that is for folks that have intellectual and developmental disabilities.

So if you're an SSN, there's potential that you could be eligible for this waiver. Every waiver has targeting criteria, so there's a level of you're at the certain age, you meet the specific criteria, you demonstrate this level of [00:21:00] need. All of that is unique to each waiver, and so the CES is requiring line of sight supervision due to high medical or behavioral needs.

It tends to be fairly difficult to qualify for because your child really does need almost 24 7 line of sight supervision. This waiver, it's well known because it does have quite a bit of comprehensive services behind it. So ample amounts of maybe respite care or community connector or we've talked a little bit about family caregiver, which can be an element of all the programs that we're talking about today, but there's just a lot that's known about CES because a lot of families, if you can qualify for it, end up pursuing that specific program.

Aleia Mastroianni: Agreed. There's a lot of myths and talk about it amongst parents. My daughter is on the CES waiver and I always would tell people like the most stressful day of my entire year is requalification day because you requalify each year. But sort of as you indicated, age and [00:22:00] ability. My daughter's now 13, almost 14, and really none of her adaptive skills have gotten better.

Because we have a intellectual disability, nothing has really changed and I breathe a little bit easier because it is easier to qualify as your children age and still don't gain the skills. And so I always view it as a silver lining. I'm like, yep, her needs are very profound, but it does help us get some of the access to things that we need to support her.

This conversation about pediatric waivers segues nicely into the next thing I wanted to talk about, which is Community First Choice, which is a new program. And when you listen to those list of waivers, you might be saying to yourself, oh gosh, my child doesn't fit any of those.

I know we need help. I know we have significant disabilities, but I don't have to have line of sight every single second. This is most families. Most families are in this situation where they know that they're struggling [00:23:00] with disability and they'd love help for their child and programs for their child.

But the waivers are very tightly regulated and are hard to qualify for on purpose. But there is good news. What has changed is that there's a program now called Community First Choice and it is not a waiver.

You do not have to qualify through a waiver process. You do have to have a disability determination like we talked about previously. But it is giving access to some of these supports that were offered on the waiver and have moved them down to Community First Choice so that all families can have access to some of these services, not just the waiver families.

So, with that rather confusing intro by me. Rachel, what do you wanna say? What is Community First Choice? How is it helping? What does it look like? How can people get on it? 

Rachel Walker: I think you did a fabulous job setting the foundation there.

So to back us up, Community First Choice is a very confusing program, but man, it [00:24:00] can be a great resource for families that maybe aren't equipped or aren't positioned to jump all the way to a Medicaid waiver.

This is a new program that happened in July of 2025. It allows folks that are on Medicaid, so our folks that are accessing Medicaid, either via income, there's a bunch of different types of Medicaid.

I think there's 30 plus different types of Medicaid. So I will say a little disclaimer, it depends on the type of Medicaid that you have, but most Medicaid will qualify you if you meet functional eligibility for Community First Choice. Aleia is exactly right. It allows the folks that maybe didn't meet the targeting criteria for a Medicaid waiver, but man, we need support during our activities of daily living.

There's pretty high impact here. We're not independent, or we have caregivers who need additional support in providing that level of care for their loved one. That's Community First Choice. So it allows what were previously Medicaid waiver only supports. So things that you had to jump through all the hoops to [00:25:00] get through a Medicaid waiver.

It's pulled some of those supports and pushed them onto what would be almost the state plan for Medicaid. So if you have general Medicaid, you meet some of this functional eligibility, which we're looking at those disruptions of daily living activities, you'll have to go through an assessment to determine if you qualify based on that functional eligibility.

After you make it through there, you could get things like home delivered meals, personal care, homemaker, which would be house cleaning. These are all called attendant based services. So they're pulled off the Medicaid waiver, those attendant based services. There's maybe nine or 10 of them and pushed into this more easily accessible program for folks.

So huge win for the people that maybe didn't qualify for the Medicaid waiver, but they're like, I could really use someone to come in and help me with personal care for my loved one. Or maybe it's non-medical transportation, Medicaid's covering some of our medical transportation. But it would be helpful to have non-medical transportation to maybe a place of employment.

Maybe it's [00:26:00] to access recreation activities. There's a lot of good, amazing services that are offered through Community First Choice now. 

Aleia Mastroianni: So we've talked about all those Medicaid waivers and even Community First Choice, but Developmental Pathways offers other state and locally funded programs that can support families as well, that many don't know about.

Rachel, tell me about what some of those programs are. 

Rachel Walker: The children's waivers can be seemingly really difficult to qualify for.

Because of that targeting criteria, because we're talking about out of home placement or line of sight supervision, you really have to demonstrate a pretty significant need to qualify for those waivers. And yet you're like, hey, my student has an intellectual and developmental disability. Maybe their IQ is lower than 70, maybe their adaptive scores is lower than 70.

And you're like, we should qualify for something. There is a response to that. So we have our locally funded program that's called the resource coordination program. That will get you access to the Developmental Pathways scholarships that we offer, a resource coordinator that will [00:27:00] help you navigate either your funding requests or maybe additional resources that you need a human being for you to call and say, here's what's going on.

What do you know that I could be accessing? And then just like I alluded to additional funding, that funding is not gonna be as comprehensive as maybe a Medicaid waiver would be. But it could be for things like, Hey, I need respite care. I need a break. Can you help me with that? Or it might be like, Hey, what happens during summer break?

Can you help me explore summer respite camps or something like that, or I need a home modification or a vehicle modification. Some of those things can be funded through the resource coordination program, which is fabulous. There's also a state funded program that's called Family Support Services Program, FSSP.

That program does have a wait list. And it's based on need. So you fill out a most of need form. Depending on how that form goes, you'll move up and down the wait list. You can be on the resource coordination program while you're waiting for family support. So that's important to note. And that program looks similar, right?

You get a coordinator, you get access to funding, you get access to some of [00:28:00] our scholarship programs, and then we do a ton of community events and parent and caregiver trainings. Development pathways is never stagnant. We're always doing something with our community to engage to get you more resources, more information, more services.

Aleia Mastroianni: Our next subject is addressing that overwhelm, addressing all of the feelings and emotions. You feel confused, you feel guilty.

You feel in denial. It's a roller coaster that you're going through. I've met many families who are too scared to start or they feel like they've waited too long, that their child is far too old in the process. I love to let them know that that's not true. 

Rachel Walker: It's not true. There is no wrong time to start. Of course, the earlier you start, the more services you might receive over a period, of duration of time.

Absolutely. But there is no wrong time to start. You can start now. If you have a child in elementary school or I talked to some parents in Bridge, they're like, is now the time to start? I'm like, [00:29:00] absolutely. There's no wrong time to start. Agree. It is intimidating. There's a lot that goes into that.

You're talking about all those emotions: wrap that into a very complicated system and of course I understand why families peter out in the process and hopefully we've inspired some sort of get up and go, you can do this. You have DCSEAC. There's a lot of other resources out there that can help you through the process, even if you just need a cheerleader in your corner.

Because this can be life changing, right? This can alter the trajectory of where your child and student would end up. Let's say you have someone that has aspirations and interest in working someday, and you're like, I don't know how that's ever going to happen. What if we could get some Medicaid waiver services, maybe when they're a little younger, to help stabilize, to help get your family in a place where you are receptive to additional services and that sort of thing.

And then as they move into young adulthood, we've got a job coach in some of our adult programs that are going to come and help. You're not gonna have to navigate the system. Someone can help [00:30:00] come in and support you through that. There is just a way to leverage these services and you're picking and choosing, like I said, from a menu of services to make that huge difference.

The reason why these programs exist is because we believe in the potential of everyone. These are home and community-based services. We don't institutionalize. We don't want people in institutionalized. 

Aleia Mastroianni: Yes! 

Rachel Walker: We want them integrated and included in our community, and this is the way to have that happen.

We acknowledge people with disabilities might need accommodations to be included. These programs allow for those accommodations to make that happen. We want your loved one to live independently if that's what they want. We want them to live enriching and fulfilled lives.

And sometimes families need additional resources to make that happen. So I'm hoping, I know I'm on a soapbox right now, but I'm hoping this inspires you to take that first step. Know that you are gonna have to participate. So I won't say that this is a passive, like you get to call us and that's it.

And then every, no, this is, you will have to actively participate in that 3, 6, 9, [00:31:00] 12 months that it takes you to get into these services. But it's worth it. 

Aleia Mastroianni: Think about all the hard stuff you do for your kids, this is a hard thing and it can feel overwhelming, but stick with it.

There is a cliff with public education. It ends, it ends and I know a lot of families where, you're like, my child went from so much structured, beautiful support within the school system and then it ends. The beauty is that Developmental Pathways does not end.

It is from birth to death, like Rachel said. And there are scores of services out there to help with all of those transitions and parts of life.

So hopefully, guys, we've encouraged you. I can't tell you how many coffee dates I've had sitting with parents and talking about waivers. I love talking with parents. Honestly, 'cause it was parents who sat down and talked to me. They were the ones who helped me and explained it to me and continued to explain it to me. And being able to pay that forward a little bit and just help a parent who feels [00:32:00] hopeless to say, oh, okay, I have a couple steps now, it makes my heart so full. So reach out to me to reach out to DCSEAC. We would love to help you address this overwhelm.

So Miss Rachel, as we're ending here if a parent's listening today and they're like, oh my gosh, oh gosh, I really should start this process, but I still feel really intimidated, what would you tell them is the first manageable step that they should take?

Rachel Walker: I think it's brave of every family to call us or to fill out that online form. It's a lot, and if you want a tangible step, I will give you that too. I know there's some logistical listeners too. Get your IEP, make sure there's some testing on there, and then when you submit that intake form attach it. It will help expedite the first couple steps in the process.

But I'm thinking more theoretically if we're just looking at the impact that this could happen in your everyday life, think about, Hey, what respite care might look like for my family. Hey, [00:33:00] actually my student is in a wheelchair and our vehicle is no longer fitting our needs.

What that might look like to have some of these amazing supports and services within your everyday life and hold that in your mind as motivation, while you move forward.

Aleia Mastroianni: I like that the manageable step is to to look at that end goal, to say, how is this going to improve my life?

And I think for so many of our parents out there, we're so motivated by helping our children. And I personally feel like, especially if your child has an intellectual disability, this is probably one of the best things that you can do to help your child long term. And that will give you endless energy.

So, Rachel, this is a big one and one I've been so excited to get into and record.

So thank you so much for giving us so much of your time. Secret note: I am going to attend another meeting with Rachel tonight. So this is how busy she is and she has a meeting in between our two meetings. She's a busy, busy woman and I appreciate how much [00:34:00] you continually show up and support DCSEAC and all of our families.

It means a lot.

* * The process of navigating disability services and Medicaid waivers can feel complicated, overwhelming, or even impossible. But we hope that conversations like the ones we had today can help families understand where to start and what supports are available. For the parents listening,

if you're feeling overwhelmed, please know that you're not alone. We are all feeling overwhelmed. We're with you. Many families take these steps gradually and it's okay if you're learning right now, later or earlier in your child's journey. Whenever is perfect. The system exists to support your child and your family.

And connecting with organizations like Developmental Pathways can open doors to services that make a real difference over an entire lifetime. Thank you for joining us for another episode of the pod. If you found this episode helpful, please consider liking or following our podcast and please share it with another parent who might benefit from this information.[00:35:00] 

Have a great week and as always, we're in this together. Let's walk this path with friends. We'll catch up with you next week. Bye.