Westchester and East Putnam SEPTA web site.

For more information, please e-mail us at info@septa914.com

This site has been created to help facilitate communication between all SEPTA and PTA Special Ed. sub-committees throughout Westchester & East Putnam Counties.
Monthly updates serve as a resource to members and unit officers in our region.

UPDATED: June 20th 2009

As the school year draws to a close, Naomi and I want to thank all of you who have helped us to develop a new and important community of support through the SEPTA914 web site. The plentitude of excellent parent education programs and speaker events in the WEP Region has been truly impressive. You should all be proud of the work that you do and sleep well knowing that you have each made a difference in the lives of the members of your community. We wish you all a relaxing and restorative summer that is full of joy and sunshine.

If your term as SEPTA or PTA committee chair is complete, many thanks for your leadership. Please let us know who will be stepping up to fill your shoes in your school district (and also send that info to the WEP region! here is the link to the electronic form: http://office.nypta.com/NyptaForms/FormAEntrywiz.aspx).

If you are brave and/or crazy enough to come back next year, we'll see you again in September. Have a wonderful summer.

Tara Klein & Naomi Brickel
WEPR Special Ed Co-Chairs
www.septa914.com

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The 411 on Medicaid in Westchester County.....

Many people have recently asked me for info on getting Medicaid, so I thought it would be helpful to summarize some info on this process....

For children under the age of 18, there are two ways to get the Medicaid waiver in Westchester County: the "Care at Home" program or the HCBS Waiver, available via the regional ISC review committee (which meets monthly to triage cases).

1.) The Care at Home program is still well funded, but requires two key components: OMRDD eligibility AND a 30 day hospitalization period at any point in the child's life. If the child meets these (2) important requirements, they 'automatically' qualify for Medicaid. The entire application process and approvals take about 6 months to complete, but in the end it is totally worth the it.
SKIP of NY is the most knowledgeable on this program. I would recommend families contact Joanne Colucci at 212-268-5999 ext. 191 for info.

2.) At this time, there is little to no funding for the HCBS/ISC waiver because of the NYS budget crisis. It is really only currently available for emergency cases, but that situation changes very often, so it make sense to give it a shot. A ISC committee meets monthy to review packets based on need. Parents can contact Bhanu Mehta in the DDSO ofc in Theils, NY at 845-947-6154 for more info.

The first step for both is to apply for OMRDD eligibility. The general criteria for OMRDD is an IQ of 60 AND/OR very low ADL scores. Here is the form, which must be submitted with current evaluations: http://www.omr.state.ny.us/wt/images/wt_transmittal_form.pdf

Our local rep is a great guy named Matthew Faulkner. Here is his contact info: Westchester County Department of Community Mental Health, 112 East Post Road, 2nd. Floor. White Plains, NY 10601 phone: 995-5253. He can guide you.

Generally, the child must have less than like $13,000 in assets for either waiver to apply. Parents should set up a special needs trust ASAP if there is any money in the child's name that exceeds this number. The best lawyers in this area to do this work are:  http://www.littmankrooks.com/staff-arkontaky.html  or http://www.frishmanfaber.com

If any of you have feedback or additional information that you can share with parents on your experience, please let me know and I will post it here. Thanks.

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Link to PTA WEP Regional web site; http://www.wepr-pta.org