Hello friends of the autism community. Please, if you get an opportunity, read the article and what Carol says that we can do to help this family. They are from another culture, and I think the system is really railroading them. Circulate this to others that you think will help. This could be our child next. My son does many of the things that this little girl got taken out of her home for.
I spoke to Lyda Astrove, the attorney for the Chang family last night. She said the best way we can help is to all write letters to Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services, Chuck
Short, director, 401 Hungerford Drive, Rockville, MD 20850, and urge that in-home wraparound services be made available to families of children like Jessica.
She also said: "We will also be looking for any either education professionals, psychologists, or people who could serve as expert witnesses who could donate their time....these people aren't rich by any means...." Perhaps some of you fit this description, or know someone who could help.
How about it? Can we get a letter-writing campaign going?
Carol
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Autistic Girl Unsafe At Home, Judge Says Md. 11-Year-Old Ordered To Group Home in Fight With School District By Manuel Perez-RivasWashington Post Staff WriterFriday, April 27, 2001; Page B01
A Montgomery County family yesterday lost its bid to keep an 11-year-old autistic daughter at home after county social workers convinced a judge that the girl would be safer, at least temporarily, in a group home.
The case involved no allegations of child abuse or neglect. Rather, it grew out of a years-long struggle between the county school district and Caleb and Ann Chang over the best treatment for their severely disabled child.
Social workers said Jessica Chang could injure herself at home and should go, instead, to the live-in facility that the school district wants her to attend.
But an attorney for the Changs said the school district and the county were overstepping their bounds and infringing on the parents' rights.
"Does the county have the right to remove her from the home simply because she's severely autistic?" Lyda Astrove asked outside the courtroom. "Are they making a value judgment that she's so autistic that the parents can't possibly take care of her?"
Ultimately, Montgomery County District Judge Stanley Klavan said he had to make the "safe choice" and ordered that the girl be temporarily placed at Community Services for Autistic Adults and Children, a residential facility in Rockville. A full hearing has been scheduled for June.
"I find that this young girl is very, very ill. I find that she, in a split second, could do something that is irreversible," Klavan said. "My sympathies go out to this family. They are nice people. They've done nothing wrong. Nobody's accusing them of doing anything wrong."
Jessica Chang was taken from the courthouse by social workers as tears welled in her mother's eyes. Klavan allowed the parents liberal visitation.
Jessica, diagnosed with autism and mental retardation at age 3, lives in a constant whirl of motion. She knows few words of English, communicating better in Mandarin, and has little appreciation for danger.
A county social worker testified that Jessica has shown multiple signs of self-injurious behavior in previous contacts with county officials, including eating inedible objects, throwing things randomly, climbing onto window sills, and touching herself inappropriately. Claudia Segal, the social worker, said the Changs' North Potomac home -- where the girl has lived most of her life with her parents and three siblings -- did not provide a stable, secure environment to ensure her safety.
The Changs, both Taiwanese immigrants, acknowledged that Jessica has been hurt at home -- including once when she fell out of a second-floorwindow at age 4, and was hospitalized with minor injuries -- but they said she is better off with them than in a residential program.
Twice they have tried group homes. They say she was poorly cared for in them.
In addition, they said, she reacted badly -- injuring herself by rubbing the skin on her face raw, scratching her hands, and tearing her underwear and shoes -- during a recent eight-month stay at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, which runs a hospital for children with neurological problems.
In court, Segal said Caleb Chang had agreed to place the girl at the Rockville center for the autistic when she was admitted to Kennedy Krieger. When the family did not take her there Monday, child welfare officials stepped in and issued an authorization for emergency shelter care, which led to yesterday's hearing.
Caleb Chang said he did not agree to placing his daughter in the 24-hour residential program. In court, he said, years of bad experiences have led him to not trust the county bureaucracy in making good decisions about his daughter.
"They want to keep their family together," Astrove told the court.
The Changs would like Jessica to attend a private or public school for the disabled and be able to stay home with her family. Ideally, they would like the county to provide her with in-home caretakers.
Before the hearing, Astrove said the county stands to save money by placing Jessica in the residential facility, rather than paying for a private day school and aides at her home. School officials said the live-in facility was more expensive than the day school, but did not include the cost of at-home aides, which the county provided the Changs for years.
Officials said the girl did not show progress with the at-home services and continued to show signs of injurious behavior. The aides were dropped in 1999, and school officials said Jessica's developmental needs would best be met in a residential program so she could receive constant treatment.
Agnes Leshner, the manager of Montgomery County's Child Welfare Services, declined to comment on the case. But, generally, she said, the agency bases its decisions on whether to pursue out-of-home placements on safety. "Is the child going to be safe in that home? That's the guiding principle," Leshner said.
Tom Urban, founder of the Fairfax-based Parents for Autistic Children's Education, said yesterday that such removals are unusual and need to be weighed carefully.
"The problem is professionals don't give parents enough credit in knowing what their child needs," said Urban, who has a 7-year-old autistic son. "Too often, judges give way too much deference to professionals and don't really listen enough to parents."
Staff writer Michael E. Ruane contributed to this report.