October, 2019
Veto
Despite unanimous approval in the California Senate and Assembly and hundreds of letters and over 1000 petition signatures from all of you and your organizations, our autism treatment insurance bill to ensure funding for ALL evidence-based treatment approaches including DIR/Floortime, Luca's Law SB 163 was vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom at the last possible second. Our legislative advocate, Jim Lantry, is making progress in working with the Governor's staff and Senator Portantino to devise a new strategy for 2020 to ensure families can access the right treatment for their child and get funding for whichever approach to treatment their doctor recommends. We will be joining forces with ICDL through the new ICDL Advisory Council on Advocacy, Awareness, and Outreach to have a larger advocacy impact in California and other states and provinces in North America.
Veto
Despite unanimous approval in the California Senate and Assembly and hundreds of letters and over 1000 petition signatures from all of you and your organizations, our autism treatment insurance bill to ensure funding for ALL evidence-based treatment approaches including DIR/Floortime, Luca's Law SB 163 was vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom at the last possible second. Our legislative advocate, Jim Lantry, is making progress in working with the Governor's staff and Senator Portantino to devise a new strategy for 2020 to ensure families can access the right treatment for their child and get funding for whichever approach to treatment their doctor recommends. We will be joining forces with ICDL through the new ICDL Advisory Council on Advocacy, Awareness, and Outreach to have a larger advocacy impact in California and other states and provinces in North America.
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July 11, 2019
Great progress on our new 2019 autism insurance funding bill, Luca's Law! Our new 2019 autism insurance funding bill, SB 163, has been making progress and we wanted you all to be the first to know! All your individual and organizational letters of support to Senator Portantino really helped! NOW we need your new letters to the Governor to sign the bill!! Click on Sample Letter Above - email your organization or individual letter to Jim Lantry callegadvo@gmail.com. Republican Senator Jeff Stone momentously reversed his position to vote for our bill in honor of his granddaughter with autism. Senator Stone testified how this bill would fix a big problem, as his own son has had to pay out of pocket for many of Luca's effective therapies. He was moved to tears to hear Luca address him for the first time in six years on the phone the night before: "Hi, Poppa!" Our bill's author, Senator Portantino, changed the bill name to Luca's Law! Parent and educational therapist, Caitlin Welsh, testified at the Senate Health Committee about her experience of doing everything she could to try to get insurance funding for an effective (developmental, relationship-based) approach to their son's autism .... see video. The Chair and the members were persuaded by her story and voted in favor of our new bill. One committee member reached out about needing similar information on how to get the best treatment for his own family member. Now, the Senate AND Assembly Health Committees and Human Services Committees, Senate Appropriations Committee, and Senate and Assembly Floors have all voted in favor of SB 163! Now it sits on Governor's desk for him to sign or veto, and CalABA has been soliciting letters with mistaken information asking him to veto this important bill.... so we need your support letters to Governor Gavin Newsom! |
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November 2, 2018
As we approach next week’s election, many have asked us about the candidate’s stance on Autism and parent choice. As a non-profit, we cannot endorse a candidate, but we can relay a candidate’s views on a subject. To that end we reached out to the candidates. Unfortunately, we have not received a response specific to Autism and parent choice. But, in the case of Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom, we can report on his position on Mental Health which mirrors in many ways our hopes for Parent Choice.
These views are found on his campaign website at (https://medium.com/@GavinNewsom/getting-serious-about-mental-health-8c09ad95a5ae) and I encourage you to read them.
But in short, Lt. Gov. Newsom believes that California is falling short on enforcing Mental Health Parity Laws. We are failing to treat mental health to the degree that we treat physical health and has pledged to correct this.
Among his many proposals are to:
ü Address the limitations in insurance coverage for mental health conditions
ü More funding for prevention and early intervention
ü Expansion of treatments and systems to bring best practices from around the world to Californians
ü Eliminate overlapping lines of authority in state government that hamper the ability to address problems impacting mental health services.
While this does not specifically address Autism, and Parent Choice, these positions give us hope that a Newsom Administration will work with the Autism community to solve many of the problems that the Brown Administration ignored.
As we approach next week’s election, many have asked us about the candidate’s stance on Autism and parent choice. As a non-profit, we cannot endorse a candidate, but we can relay a candidate’s views on a subject. To that end we reached out to the candidates. Unfortunately, we have not received a response specific to Autism and parent choice. But, in the case of Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom, we can report on his position on Mental Health which mirrors in many ways our hopes for Parent Choice.
These views are found on his campaign website at (https://medium.com/@GavinNewsom/getting-serious-about-mental-health-8c09ad95a5ae) and I encourage you to read them.
But in short, Lt. Gov. Newsom believes that California is falling short on enforcing Mental Health Parity Laws. We are failing to treat mental health to the degree that we treat physical health and has pledged to correct this.
Among his many proposals are to:
ü Address the limitations in insurance coverage for mental health conditions
ü More funding for prevention and early intervention
ü Expansion of treatments and systems to bring best practices from around the world to Californians
ü Eliminate overlapping lines of authority in state government that hamper the ability to address problems impacting mental health services.
While this does not specifically address Autism, and Parent Choice, these positions give us hope that a Newsom Administration will work with the Autism community to solve many of the problems that the Brown Administration ignored.
October 5, 2018
SB 399 Went Almost All the Way....
THANK you for all your calls, letters, and signatures over the past 24 months!! Our bill passed the The House and Assembly by large margins! We had over 1300 signatures on our petition to the Governor on Change.org. This is a huge achievement for parent choice.
Unfortunately, Governor Brown vetoed the bill, citing a reason that the requirements for providers had already been changed the year prior. (This objection does not reflect the actual nature or purpose of our bill and likely masks the last-minute heavy lobbying from self-protective professional guilds who fight for only one methodological approach to be covered.) We are strategizing now to take our fight all the way to completion with a new governor next year!
Unfortunately, Governor Brown vetoed the bill, citing a reason that the requirements for providers had already been changed the year prior. (This objection does not reflect the actual nature or purpose of our bill and likely masks the last-minute heavy lobbying from self-protective professional guilds who fight for only one methodological approach to be covered.) We are strategizing now to take our fight all the way to completion with a new governor next year!
JANUARY 29, 2018 our bill SB 399 PASSED THE SENATE!!
This bill allows coverage for all evidence-based, doctor-prescribed approaches to autism treatment and we have been working tirelessly to get it passed... Next, onward to the Assembly Health Committee in June and, if it passes, on to the Assembly floor!
CLICK HERE to SEE VIDEO
of the FIGHT IN ACTION!
We are David fighting Goliath (the insurance companies and lobbyists for ABA-only) and achieving this significant step is huge. Your action and support has made it possible and we need more of it... after watching the inspiring video above of the DIR/Floortime Coalition parent testimony at the Senate Health Committee, if you are inspired, please consider testifying at the next Committee hearing! Thanks to you, we have hundreds of letters from individuals.
Please ask your professional and educational organizations to place the sample letter below on institutional letterhead, sign, and email to Jim Lantry: callegadvo@gmail.com and he will deliver it to the legislators.
This bill allows coverage for all evidence-based, doctor-prescribed approaches to autism treatment and we have been working tirelessly to get it passed... Next, onward to the Assembly Health Committee in June and, if it passes, on to the Assembly floor!
CLICK HERE to SEE VIDEO
of the FIGHT IN ACTION!
We are David fighting Goliath (the insurance companies and lobbyists for ABA-only) and achieving this significant step is huge. Your action and support has made it possible and we need more of it... after watching the inspiring video above of the DIR/Floortime Coalition parent testimony at the Senate Health Committee, if you are inspired, please consider testifying at the next Committee hearing! Thanks to you, we have hundreds of letters from individuals.
Please ask your professional and educational organizations to place the sample letter below on institutional letterhead, sign, and email to Jim Lantry: callegadvo@gmail.com and he will deliver it to the legislators.
9/16 - DIR/Floortime Coalition's Bill AB 796 Signed into Law
Thanks to your letters over the past two years, AB 796 unanimously passed three Assembly committees and also passed the Assembly floor with no no-votes! Next, Floortime parents spoke at Committee hearings in Sacramento to stress the urgency of passing this law. The law did pass and the Governor signed it into law. It removes the autism insurance mandate sunset date (end date) of 2017, ensuring that insurance coverage for intensive treatment for autism with no age or dollar limits will continue on in California!
Unfortunately, at the last moment, the Senate Appropriations Committee chair removed all the key language about allowing all forms of evidence-based treatments to be covered. There are more battles to be fought and we will with your help continue!
Thanks to your letters over the past two years, AB 796 unanimously passed three Assembly committees and also passed the Assembly floor with no no-votes! Next, Floortime parents spoke at Committee hearings in Sacramento to stress the urgency of passing this law. The law did pass and the Governor signed it into law. It removes the autism insurance mandate sunset date (end date) of 2017, ensuring that insurance coverage for intensive treatment for autism with no age or dollar limits will continue on in California!
Unfortunately, at the last moment, the Senate Appropriations Committee chair removed all the key language about allowing all forms of evidence-based treatments to be covered. There are more battles to be fought and we will with your help continue!
Coalition Challenge Grant!!
Thanks to a generous donor, the Coalition received $5,000 from Cherry Crisp Foundation for reaching the goal of 50 new monthly donors! Thanks to each of you!! Cherry Crisp offered us one more challenge grant, so here we go starting down the path to 50 more....
RESOURCES
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GREAT Summary article of the research, "Evidence Base for the DIR/Floortime Approach", penned by our Coalition past president, Diane Cullinane, M.D. !!
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- UPDATES (Please Bear with us! Links to articles and news updates will be active shortly. Thank you.)
- Giving to Advance Floortime!
- PRINT 2014 CONFERENCE HANDOUTS HERE: http://www.pcdateam.org/dirfloortime/
- Fantastic Floortime Conference Lafayette October 10th!
- Filmmakers Screening Under the Stars: “Autistic-Like: Graham’s Story”
- 2013 DIR/Floortime Coalition of California Conference Videos Available Online!!
- Young Adult Panel Presentation 2013 DIR/Floortime Conference
- “Floortime Basics” by Dr. Diane Cullinane, Presenter at 2013 DIR/Floortime Conference
- “Regulation… Disregulation… Regulation… The On-Going Process to Support Appropriate Behaviors” by Cherisse Sherin, M.A., Presenter at 2013 DIR/Floortime Conference
- “DIR Approach to Feeding Issues” by Julie Miller, MOT, OTR/L, SWC, Presenter at 2013 DIR/Floortime Conference
- “DAISY’S STORY: A STORY OUT OF THE BOX” by Michal Piran, MS, OTR/L, Case Study Presenter at 2013 DIR/FLoortime Conference
- “PEELING BACK THE LAYERS OF THE ‘I’ FROM A NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE” – Dr. Jonine Biesman, 2013 DIR/Floortime Conference
- Research at York University Supports Developmental Treatment Approaches
- How to Advocate for Developmental Treatment for your child
- ADVOCACY UPDATE October 2012
