When children with special needs grow up
According to a study published in the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, more than half a million children with special needs turn 18 each year. However, turning 18 does not mean that the conditions that gave these children the label “special needs” have suddenly disappeared; indeed, most of these new adults will require just as much or more ongoing intervention to navigate an increasingly complex world.
lost in the shuffle
The most significant obstacle for children with special needs as they age out of pediatric care programs designed to help them make effective use of public education resources is that their need for care does not diminish, but the resources available to attention they do. Most of the funding that supports children with special needs comes from a single law: the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA. That Act only provides resources for people up to the age of 20 or 21 (depending on the state law distributing the funds).
Not just the extreme cases
This is compounded by the fact that, as a culture, Americans are firmly attached to the notion of personal responsibility. Once you’re an adult, you’re expected to be able to deal with the “minor stuff” on your own. If you’re not in quotes “legitimately” disabled, if you have, say, “simple” ADHD or a high-functioning autism spectrum disorder like Asperger’s Syndrome, then the assumption is that you no longer need help. As any parent of a child with special needs can tell you, that’s a ridiculous assumption.
More than you think
If half a million kids doesn’t sound like that big a number to you, consider that only 3.3 million kids graduated from high school in 2014, and the dropout rate was just 7% overall, which means we’re looking at a just over 3.5 million children who turn 18 in total. That half million, then, represents approximately 1 in 7 children. That’s a large proportion of our population that we’re essentially dropping the ball on as they age out of the only program that has made possible their care for the last 12 years of their lives.
What comes next?
Unfortunately, the next step is not well defined. For some who are no longer children with special needs, it is largely about continuing to live with their parents and struggling to find a job or a form of continuing education that suits their needs. According to a study published in the Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, two years after graduating from high school, 50% of newly diagnosed adults with autism spectrum disorder had not yet successfully obtained any paid work experience or secondary education. Unfortunately, it is difficult to find studies on other forms of people with special needs.
One thing is for sure: dealing with the half a million new adults with special needs entering our population each year is a challenge we will all have to face, and soon. The option to ignore the problem simply doesn’t reasonably exist.