Visionary Solutions Newsletter #15

Back-to-School: How families of students with disabilities prepare for the first day of school (KY3, August 13th 2026)

With back-to-school time being just around the corner, children are beginning to prepare themselves for the upcoming school year. However, it can be a stressful and uncertain time for disabled students and their parents, especially if they are unsure if any proper accommodations will be offered to them (therapies, transportation, et cetera). The following article lists three different ways parents can prepare their disabled children for the school year so that they can be sure their children are accommodated and taken care of by teachers in a safe manner.

The first piece of advice is that parents should be able to work close with teachers, making goals for their children and understanding how said teachers plan to meet those goals. The second piece of advice comes from director of Diagnostics and Counseling at Arc of the Ozarks, Lindsey Reichert, who says that parents should create a one-page profile about their disabled children, so that teachers are able to understand their condition as well as strengths and weaknesses to be aware of. The final piece of advice is recommended by Tracey Bloch, member of the Missouri Disability Empowerment Foundation, who says that visiting the school early can give parents and children an idea of how accessible the school, from the halls they move through to the supplies they can use.

Read full story here: https://www.ky3.com/2026/08/13/back-to-school-how-families-students-with-disabilities-prepare-first-day-school/

People With Disabilities Say Medicaid Income Limits Stifle Career Advancement (NPR, August 10th 2026)

Erica Carter is a 40-year old finance manager at the Omaha Nation school district in Nebraska, who happens to be paralyzed from the waist down and was on a Medicaid insurance plan for employed disabled people. She describes that even though she lives in Nebraska's neighboring state, Iowa, she is passionate about her position and how she's helped students gain access to gardening and playgrounds. Carter makes $110,000 per year, which according to a letter from Iowa's Department of Health and Human Services is too high for her to receive benefits. This has forced Erica Carter to drop out of the Medicaid plan as opposed to getting a lower-paid job.

Disability rights advocates argue that incidents like this prevent disabled people from accepting raises, saving money properly, or advancing their careers in risk of losing financial benefits. Buy-in programs, where a disabled insurer pays part of their income to the state, were made to help mitigate this, and some states have even passed bills that removed income limits from aid eligibility (not including Iowa). Still, situations like Erica Carter's have become difficult to deal with due to federal reductions caused by July 2025's controversial Big Beautiful Bill Act. "The premiums charged in buy-in programs are nowhere near close to the expected costs of covering people," says Alice Burns, associate director of The Kaiser Family Foundation on Medicaid.

Read full story here: https://www.npr.org/2026/08/10/nx-s1-5910791/disabilities-people-work-requirements-medicaid-income-caps-buy-in