News article: "The human anguish of state's budget cuts"

From an article on azcentral.com

"A cut that eliminated services to developmentally disabled children from birth to age 3 was especially harsh, many said.

"It's just a blatant message: They're not important enough," Garcia said after she received one week's notice that daughter Mariah's therapy services would end.

Although Wednesday's court ruling means the services will continue for now, they're likely to be cut again as lawmakers deal with next year's budget and its deep deficit.

DES officials say they decided to spread the cuts broadly to avoid hitting one area harder than others. Although "gut-wrenching," agency officials said the cuts are necessary to contribute to balancing the state budget.

At the Garcia home in Maricopa, cheers broke out when Mariah, age 15 months, pulled herself up from her blanket into a push-up pose.

"If she's able to bear weight on her arms and legs, it shows she's getting strength," said Trudy Kopas, Mariah's occupational therapist.

Although most children her age are walking by now, Mariah hasn't yet started to crawl.

Yet Kopas said there has been progress. When she met Mariah in August, the baby was four to six months delayed in development for children with Down syndrome. Now, she's only one or two months behind.

Mariah has recently started to hold her baby bottle, another milestone.

If the specialized treatment Mariah gets is eliminated, Garcia said she'll try to do it herself. But it won't be the same.

"They're trained to see things in these kids that we don't see," she said of the therapists who have worked with Mariah.

Her private insurance isn't much help; Garcia said it would pay 42 cents per therapy session; sessions run at least $65 an hour. She and her husband say they could pay out of pocket, but it would make everything else tight on their one-income, two-child budget."