Inclusive playground opens in Talladega
The grand opening of the Unity Playground at Veterans Park was held Monday. It's the city's first fully inclusive public playground and is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Alabama food banks bracing for impact as Congress moves on 'big, beautiful bill'
Several groups contributed to the park. For some, it was a personal cause.
'Our granddaughter was born with Down syndrome, so that put a huge light in our family that we wanted to make sure that our Merrin would have somewhere she could play,' said Kay Jennings, executive director of TCR Child Care Corporation.
City manager Derrick Swanson said the city is still accepting donations for the park, so it can be expanded and updated for future children.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Miami Herald
2 days ago
- Miami Herald
Why Florida is missing out on $200 million a year in Medicaid funding for schools
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He was hired in part to improve the system but said he was later instructed to stop. 'It's really unconscionable. Nobody should be OK with this.' A spokesperson for the agency said it did not have sufficient funding to update its reimbursement method until this year's legislative session, and it is committed to getting it done next year. Kniepmann said the agency had not asked the Legislature for permission to draw down the federal dollars needed to enact the changes until this year. The Hillsborough County school board held a workshop in April to address the Medicaid funding gap. Hillsborough received about $6 million in Medicaid reimbursements a year ago for the services it provided, specialist Deneen Gorassini told her board, but would have gotten about $10 million more if the state agency followed federal guidelines. It's money that could have expanded medical and mental health services in schools. Other districts experienced similar-sized gaps, according to Kniepmann's calculations. 'If we can get (the agency) to do their job and submit a (state plan amendment), we could start getting reimbursed based on our expenses, which are way more than what we are getting reimbursed now,' Gorassini told the board. Since 1997, the state has been reimbursing school districts for services — such as counseling or speech therapy — based on a flat rate. In 2014, the federal government required states to reimburse school districts based on the actual costs of those services, which is much higher. Five years ago, federal officials wrote Florida telling them it hadn't adopted the change, and the state had 90 days to comply. 'Please note that you may not pay a rate from a fee schedule and use this as a certification of cost,' Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services acting director Todd McMillion wrote Florida officials in March 2020. 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But Kniepmann, who worked as associate director for health at the Florida Conference for Catholic Bishops before moving to the health agency, argued the state is stalling for reasons that remain unclear to him. He said the 2023 guidance was not intended to be a way for Florida to further delay implementing rules put in place more than a decade ago. Every holdup, he and others said, means less money available to pay for medical and related services. 'Eleven years and $2.2 billion is not a little thing,' he said. Hillsborough district officials, also leery of the state's ability to pull off a new rule by mid-2026, said they are looking into a different approach to bring in more Medicaid money. Gorassini told the board that her department would conduct a rate study for each service it provides and submit the updated amounts to the state for inclusion on the existing reimbursement schedule. Kniepmann said it's a long-shot effort that requires a lot of work at the district level, adding that the agency has discouraged such an approach. It's worth a shot, though, Gorassini told the Hillsborough school board. 'We'll never get what we spend,' she said. 'But in the meantime we're going to try to maximize our reimbursement.' What's really at stake is student health, said Thomas, the Leon County Medicaid specialist who also serves on the National Alliance for Medicaid in Education leadership team. Her district stands to reap about $2 million more per year if the change is made. 'That is the difference between being able to hire actual medical professionals who have the ability to recognize actual medical issues, and purchase medical equipment, actual things that could help the children that are most medically needy in this county,' she said. 'When I can't afford to pay for a nurse, all kids suffer.'
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Canadian wildfires prompt New York air quality alert
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Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Los Angeles Times
The Americans With Disabilities Act changed my life. Now my generation needs to fight for it
When the Americans With Disabilities Act was signed into law on this day in July 1990, my parents didn't yet know how much the landmark civil rights law would soon shape my life — and theirs. I was born profoundly deaf, but my parents didn't even know this part yet. I was 6 months old that summer, and hearing screenings for newborns weren't universal medical practice in those days. My parents had brought me home from the hospital thinking I was just like them — that is, hearing, someone who also lived amid sound and speech. But that August, just a few weeks after President George H.W. Bush signed the ADA on the White House's South Lawn, they learned otherwise. My sensory and linguistic world was fundamentally different from theirs. And thus my life would be too. My diagnosis came as a surprise for my parents. At first, they felt like they had no road map to follow. They didn't yet know American Sign Language. They knew nearly nothing about deafness, and they lived in a culture where disability was still too often classified as tragedy. But they jumped into their steep learning curve — and found the ADA waiting for us. Now, 35 years later, I am a member of the 'ADA generation,' which means I know what accessibility can be: an invitation into greater human community, as well as a precious right we must preserve for future generations. This truth is hitting me hard this summer. The ADA and I have come of age together, but modern life — and the future — now look different than I once thought it would. First, the good part: Thanks to the ADA, many more doors have opened to me than my parents could ever have imagined in 1990. From my youngest years, I had access to early intervention services. I had an Individualized Education Program in school, where I was the only deaf student, and I enjoyed learning from my teachers and peers through watching my ASL interpreters. I went to after-school sleepovers with my friends, where we all watched TV with the captions on. My closest friends learned ASL, and as an adult I've felt astonished at how much they still remember. Now they, too, know wider ways to communicate. The ADA has helped me figure out how to belong. Ever since I was a bookish kid, I knew that I wanted to travel, to write, to stay in school as long as I could, to have meaningful conversations with new friends and strangers. I just didn't know how I'd do some of these things — unless I somehow became hearing, too, when I grew up. News flash: I am still not hearing, but because of the power of accessibility, I've continued finding my way. I've lived abroad, completed my doctoral degree, written a book. I live a charmed life, and belonging to the ADA generation is one major reason why. Now the not-so-good part: The ADA is still the law of the land, but these are terrifying times for deaf and disabled people in America. Our lives are under threat in ways I never imagined when I was growing up. Our current president overtly scapegoats disabled people, as we've seen on numerous occasions, from mocking a disabled journalist in 2015 to baselessly blaming people with disabilities for the tragic plane crash in the Potomac River in January. This spring, his administration withdrew 11 pieces of federal accessibility guidelines intended to help businesses comply with the ADA. The budget bill signed on July 4 makes huge cuts to Medicaid, on which many disabled people rely to access healthcare and essential support services. Ongoing federal cuts, including to the Department of Education, threaten everything from special education to antidiscrimination policies for students with disabilities. The examples tumble on. It's time for the ADA generation to step up as we never have before. This means pressing into the legal and legislative fights ahead, calling representatives and engaging in protests. But it also means bringing our native-born knowledge to all our interactions, while pulling in others we know, people like my childhood classmates, who have witnessed the power of inclusion. We can support each other's access needs, even in the most everyday ways. We can speak out about what access has done for us. When I was growing up, I always took the ADA for granted. I thought of it as my birthright, when I thought of it at all. It was only 10 years ago that I began to see otherwise: During the 25th anniversary of the ADA in 2015, I watched the White House celebrations online and saw members of my generation, surrounded by disability activists who had been present for the law's passing. I saw how everyone in that room had their own distinctive ways of being and communicating, from wheelchairs to crutches to braille to ASL. And I also saw how they'd gathered with such vibrancy and joy. At age 25, I'd only just started to identify with the broader disability community, beyond the deaf culture that was much more familiar to me — but I recognized the deep resourcefulness of the people in that room, the communal spirit it takes to build more inclusive worlds. And I wanted everyone else to see it too. As the ADA and I are now 35, I see that we should not only celebrate those past disability activists but also embrace their approaches and bring the same doggedness and ingenuity to a new generation of challenges. We must keep providing care for each other, something that is always a political act in itself. I don't take the ADA for granted anymore. Instead, living in the world that it has made possible, here's what I know: Deaf and disabled Americans already belong. And accessibility already belongs to all of us, especially once we recognize how transformative it can truly be. Rachel Kolb is the author of the forthcoming memoir 'Articulate: A Deaf Memoir of Voice.'
