After Gary Moore, administrator of the Division of Family and Community Services at the Department of Health & Welfare, mentioned during his budget presentation on services for the developmentally disabled that one portion of the program, services for children with developmental disabilities, includes a service that takes disabled kids to activities like scouting or swimming lessons, Sen. Sheryl Nuxoll, R-Cottonwood had a repeated question: Why? She asked Moore why the parents couldn’t do that themselves.

Sen. Roy Lacey, D-Pocatello, said he could offer some insight, as he has a developmentally disabled grandchild who is 11 years old. “He is very severely autistic,” he said. “And parents and grandparents work very hard to help these young people advance and grow, but it is more than a full-time job to do that. … My wife and I take the kids on Sundays and Tuesdays to give the parents a little respite. These children need care 24/7, it’s not like they can turn them loose.” He said the state service “gives the parents a little breathing room, they can take care of their other children. … These children need to be busy all the time, they don’t ever stop.”

JFAC Co-Chair Rep. Maxine Bell, R-Jerome, thanked Lacey for his comments and said it helps to put a human face on the issues lawmakers hear about in state budget hearings.

Moore said 3,036 children were served by the state’s Children’s DD Services in the past year; 3,712 received services from the Infant-Toddler Program. The Southwest Idaho Treatment Center, formerly the Idaho State School and Hospital, which began accepting clients in 1918, had nearly 1,000 residents in 1957, but now has just 25, as the state has moved away from institutionalization for people with developmental disabilities.

The governor’s recommendation for funding DD services next year calls for a 4.8 percent increase in general funds, 3.2 percent in total funds; the increase is nearly all for increased personnel costs, including the once-every-11-years 27^th payroll period that will occur next year. Two-thirds of the DD services budget goes to community-based services; one-third to SWITC. Half of the funding for the services comes from the federal government.