Monthly Archives

October 2018

Judi’s Story: Helping my son Graduate from CSUF

By Educational Success, Finding Employment, Personal Stories No Comments

This is Judi Uttal, President of OCASG, with a new Blog.

This week’s blog is about my efforts to help my son complete his bachelors degree at California State University at Fullerton (CSUF). In particular, how to meet the important but difficult internship requirement. Many of OCASG members have children who either are attending or will attend CSUF, and I am hoping that my experience could be useful to you all.

Signing Up for Workability

Today, my son Joshua and I had a meeting with Yvonne Cordova, Senior Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor for Department of Rehabilitation. Yvonne is working on getting Josh admitted into the Workability Program as CSUF.  We are hoping that Workability can be of assistance in helping Josh find an internship. To graduate from CSUF with a BA in Cinema and Television requires completion of an internship (495 course). Josh is likely to graduate in December 2019. This internship is a critical step towards his receiving a diploma.

The Reel People Connection

We are also enrolling Josh in the Reel People program being offered at New Vista Academy. Through this program, Josh will be able to develop skills in After Effects. According to Jimmy Lifton, this training will be complemented by “real” employment. Hopefully this “real” job can meet Josh’s treasured internship requirement. To stay on schedule for a December 2019 graduation, we want to make this program an independent study (499 course). However, having never done this before, I am not sure what types of problems we may encounter. One difficult milestone will be finding a CSUF faculty member to act as the sponsor.

To help with the mitigation, I reached out to Jacqueline Gerali, Disability Management Specialist at CSUF. So far I have not heard back from her, but I am hopeful.

Team Josh

One of Josh’s old buddies, Josh B. is finishing up his degree in Art at CSUF with an eye towards video game development. Josh B. and his mother Diane are attempting to pursue a similar strategy. So we are working together as a team, as we try and navigate the ins-and-outs.

I will check back with you in the future to let you know our progress. Wish us all  luck.

How I Got SSI for My Son

By Government and Insurance Benefits, Personal Stories No Comments

As the president of the Orange County Asperger’s Support Group, I often hear of differing concerns from parents. One common issue is how to get their child on Supplemental Security Income (SSI). An SSI benefit, can help your child financially with a monthly stipend. It also can enable them to receive Med-Cal.  For a child with ASD, SSI is part of your child’s financial safety net. Now I am not an expert, but am happy to share my personal experience.

To Qualify For SSI You Must Have Less than $2000 and Have an Approved Disability

SSI is a means tested benefit. This means that the government requires that the individual have less than $2,000 of financial assets. Note that personal possessions — a car, home, or furniture — are not counted as assets. Some families are able to get on SSI, before their child turns 18. But in those cases, the parents must meet the strict financial guidelines as well as provide proof their child’s disability.

When Josh turned 18, he became an adult and was eligible to apply for SSI. Prior to applying, we had to do a little work. Josh had some money from his Bar Mitzvah and other family gifts. With the help of an attorney, we set up self-funded special needs trust. By moving his money into the trust, Josh was able to meet the financial requirements for SSI.

We Hired an Advocate to Help Over See the Process

We also hired an advisor to help with the process. We worked with Jim Huyck. The first step was to fill out the application for SSI. This was quite an extensive form and required many details from Josh’s medical history. In preparing the application, we also reached out to the original psychologist who diagnosed Josh when he was three years old and to Josh’s current therapist. We had Josh revisit the diagnosing therapist who wrote up a report. We also had his current therapist write a report. It was important that Social Security understand Josh’s disability and his limitations.

There is also financial information required related to Josh’s living expenses. Josh lived at home, and so we needed to pull together all our families living expenses including utilities, mortgage payments, insurance, groceries, etc. Josh needed to pay his fair share. If Josh was unable to pay his fair share, then he would lose a portion of his benefit.

Social Security also needs copies of all the banking accounts. Part of their process is to thoroughly review the funds Josh had available. They even counted savings bonds.

We then submitted the application. It took around nine months. There were occasional letters asking for additional information. At a certain point, Social Security sent a correspondence indicating that Josh would need to meet with one of their doctor’s to be evaluated. This doctor was located in a small clinic in Long Beach. I was nervous, because Josh is fairly high functioning, but the doctor told me that we had nothing to fear.

In the end Josh was approved. I was made his representative payee, which meant I was responsible for managing Josh’s money. The first payment was a lump sum that included back-pay dating back to the date that we applied for the benefit. This amount of money meant that Josh had more than $2000 in the bank. We were given a time frame to spend down the money, before Josh would be penalized for having this much cash on hand.

Josh was on SSI from the time he as 19 till he was 26 years old. I often hear that families get denied. My advice is get professional assistance. Don’t rush. Take your time and do this correctly.

Living with SSI

In my next blog, I will explain living with SSI. There are lots of reporting rules that can impact your child’s income. There are also strategies for how to manage the funds that I am happy to share.

They, the scientists from the Royal Children’s Hospital, point to the fact that the brain continues to mature beyond the age of 20, and many people’s wisdom teeth do not come through until the age of 25.

Sarah Kanapton