Parents Want Dinolfo To Keep Promise to Kids

BY NATASHA ACRIE

Advocates are demanding Monroe County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo to keep her promise to thousands of children in the county in need of Pre-school Special Education Services.

They spoke out at Tuesday’s Monroe County Legislature meeting.

They said a lack of funding in Monroe County and across the state put hundreds of children with disabilities and special needs on a waiting list for a variety of critical services. Parents, service providers and early childhood care advocates rallied together at the meeting calling on the County Executive to fulfill her promise of a 15 percent reimbursement rate increase across the board.

Parents said the bi-partisan promise Dinolfo made in March doesn’t cover certain service providers, and they want change now.

“These are 3-5 year old children who maybe have a speech issue that need a few months of speech therapy and will then be ready to go for kindergarten,” said Brigit Hurley, advocacy director at the Children’s Agenda. “It could be a child with multiple disabilities who needs therapy.”

“From a mom’s perspective that almost lost their child if I did not have the support of that system; there’s 198 children that could potentially not be here,” said parent Brittany Jencik. “It’s scary to me as a parent. On a much broader level it does make the difference for these children.”

Dinolfo was in attendance, however she didn’t provide a statement as of yet in response to the advocates’ concerns.