062. Resource: Developmental Disabilities (DD) Agency Locator

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Hosts Meghan (Smallwood) and Patrick (Cadigan) had challenges around their school schedules, so a full discussion is still forth coming. Not wanting to leave listeners without new content, they have a quick chat about a resource from the National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services that is linked to their parent website, www.postsecondarytransition.com. They discuss the importance of developmental disability (DD) agencies and highlight that each state has their own agency, typically provide services like case management, housing, vocational training, and employment services. Listen up!

Episode Keywords:
transition process, developmental disabilities, state agencies, personal growth, independence, inclusion, case management, residential options, vocational training, employment services, respite care, eligibility criteria, waiting lists, future planning, resource guide, share

Links:
Developmental Disability (DD) Agencies (page)
National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services (site)

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To download a copy of a transcript for this episode or any of our previous conversations, click here.
Also visit our Podcast webpage to find links to all of our other discussions; go to www.p2transition.com.
Additional information about post-secondary transition can be found at our website.
The Post-Secondary Transition Podcast Facebook page.
Visit our YouTube Channel to find additional video resources.
Intro/Outro music by AudioCoffee from Pixabay.
Transition music by Joseph McDade from Transistor.

Episode Transcript

Patrick Cadigan (00:00):
Welcome; this is the Post Secondary Transition
podcast where we haveconversations around the ins and
outs and everything in betweenof the transition process for
families of students withdisabilities. I am one of the
hosts. My name is PatrickCadigan. I am a public school
transition coordinator. I have aco-host. Who would that be?

Meghan Smallwood (00:18):
Yes, you do.
I'm Meghan Smallwood, and I amalso a public school transition
coordinator.

Patrick Cadigan (00:22):
All right, so here we are. We had fully
intended on having our finishingconversation around what
families can expect from senioryear. However, we ran into a
scheduling snag, but we didn'twant to do nothing, so Meghan
and I decided to have a quickconversation around a resource

(00:43):
that we think families can finduseful and valuable. Meghan, you
want to clue us in?

Meghan Smallwood (00:49):
Absolutely, I know we've had many
conversations around ourdevelopmental disability agency
for Maryland, DDA, and we wantedto just shine some more light on
the developmental disabilityagencies in general, because
remember, every state has one,and they work to provide
services and supports to thoseindividuals with developmental

(01:10):
disabilities and their families.
They are a huge source offunding for after 21 but the
primary goal is just to ensurethat the necessary resources and
opportunities for personalgrowth, independence and
inclusion are there for ourfriends with disabilities. They
do range from state to state,but overall, the general idea of
these agencies is that they canprovide different things, such

(01:34):
as case management, residentialand housing options, vocational
training, employment servicesand respite care, just to name a
few, it's important to checkevery state and the local
jurisdiction jurisdictions fortheir eligibility determination,
but they are there, and they area great resource to access. They

(01:55):
also collaborate with a numberof different agencies and
service providers, and they allwork together to ensure that
each individual is receivingthat individualized support that
they need for after transitionor post secondary transition. So
I know that we always refer backto our lovely website,

(02:15):
www.postsecondarytransition andat the top you'll see the
different icons where you willfind resources. And if you
scroll down to developmentaldisabilities agencies, you'll
find a nice little summary ofthis information, as well as a
link that will actually bringyou to the website for the
National Association of StateDirectors, which actually lists

(02:39):
all the different developmentaldisabilities agencies per state
that are out there in ourcountry.

Patrick Cadigan (02:47):
Yeah, they give you the option to surf it in a
couple of different ways. Onceyou open that link and you get
to the resource, they have avisual map of the United States,
and you can just scroll andhover over the state that you're
interested in, and click on it,it will give you that
information, or you can continueto scroll down the page, and it

(03:07):
will list each statealphabetically. Or right near
the top of the page, there is abutton for a download that will
give you a printable PDF thatlists all the agencies
alphabetically, and that willgive you something that you can
take with you. But the point is,is that this is a great resource

(03:31):
for families, for anyone,anywhere, as they are looking to
do their research, and thiscould be a valuable tool in that
research process.

Meghan Smallwood (03:44):
Yeah, and I think you know a few things to
remember is we talk a lot abouteligibility versus entitlement.
After you leave the schoolsystem, all of these agencies
are based off of eligibility. Soeach one has their own
application process, their owncriteria. So it's important to
do the research. If you do plan,or you are planning for the
future, for after 21 if you'redon't plan on residing in the

(04:08):
same state, every state hastheir own waiting list, which is
something else to remember. Soeven if you are on a waiting
list, or you are eligible forservices in the state of
Maryland, if you were to leavethe state of Maryland and go to
a different state, it would bestarting over. I know I have a
lot of conversations withfamilies that plan on retiring
in a different state down theroad, so it's something to

(04:29):
consider and just start lookingat as you plan for the future.

Patrick Cadigan (04:34):
All right. And so with that, once again, we are
looking forward to getting backto our regularly scheduled
programming, but we did want toleave you with something new, so
we will talk with you soon.

Meghan Smallwood (04:46):
Thanks for tuning in.
As always, you'll find links tothe information from our
conversations in our show.
Notes. We would love for theinformation from this and all
our other discussions to reachas many families as possible,
and we need your help to dothat. You can find our

(05:08):
conversations atwww.p2transition.com like,
follow, share out the podcast.
Our conversations are posted toall the major platforms,
including Apple podcasts,Spotify, YouTube music, and
that's just naming a few. Soplease share and share often.

Patrick Cadigan (05:28):
Please check out our YouTube channel. We've
done some of the legwork for youby curating videos of topics
that revolve around transition.
We have playlists forguardianship, alternatives to
guardianship ABLE accounts, andthere's more to come, so please
be sure to subscribe there aswell. And finally, check out our
website, which is full ofinformation and links to
resources around the transitionprocess. Open your web browser

(05:49):
of choice and surf to www dotpost secondarytransition.com we
thank you so much for the timethat you've spent with us, and
look forward to talking againsoon.