Autism Spectrum Disorder or ASD is the medical term for autism. There is much we still need to know about it. It is very difficult but not impossible to live with. Even more challenging is having to live with it through a divorce and a child custody case.
Click here to watch the video on Handling A Custody Case That Involves An Autistic Child In Michigan
In a normal child custody case, the parents can engage in a tug-of-war in physical and sole custody. With custody involving a child with ASD, parents will have to be less adversarial, more interest-oriented, and embrace the uncommon commitment to invest in the best interest of the child.
The Truth About Child Autism People Should Know
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), ASD has been diagnosed in 1 in 68 children in different regions around the United States. You’re talking about 14.7 children per 1,000 eight-year-olds.
This latest estimate is nearly 30% higher than earlier estimates from 2012, which indicated that 1 in 88 kids, meaning 11.3 children per 1,000 eight-year-olds had an ASD.
The study also demonstrates that, despite the fact ASD can be identified as early as age 2, the majority of children with it are diagnosed beyond the age of 4. Increase the percentage of young children with ASD and other developmental delays who are promptly assessed, diagnosed, and enrolled in early intervention services, according to Healthy People 2020, the country’s 10-year health goals.
Children with autism have a wide range of intellectual abilities, from severe intellectual problems to ordinary or above average intelligence. The study indicated that compared to a third of children ten years ago, nearly half of children classified with ASD have average or above average intellectual abilities (with IQ above 85).
Since there is no specific medical test for the diagnosis of ASD, such as a blood test, it might be challenging to make the diagnosis. In order to determine a diagnosis, doctors consider the child’s behavior and developmental history.
ASD can occasionally be identified in children as young as 18 months. Current knowledge and practice indicates at the age of 2, a qualified professional’s diagnosis can already be trusted.
In many of these cases, kids don’t get a definitive diagnosis until they’re much older. Some patients don’t receive a diagnosis until they are teenagers or adults. People with ASD may not receive the early assistance they require as a result of this delay.
The Important Implications of Autism That Will Really Impact Child Custody
Most often the care of children with ASD are left with women. A research examining the lived experiences of female primary carers of children with ASD revealed the cost of care is not primarily monetary.
Results of the study showed, a child’s diagnosis with ASD has an impact on every family member inside the family unit, as shown by the expenses provided by moms. The sub themes of the study were developed from the theme of costs: financial and employment costs, costs to family health, social costs, and costs to family life as a whole. The findings of this study demonstrate the difficulties involved in raising a child with ASD.
Individually, parents will have to reflect on what it means to live with a child with ASD. They would have to answer the same questions courts will have to sort through. The parents involved must use an “interest approach” to working with each other to reach an agreement as to how to go about taking care of their child.
When deciding together the residency of the child, the best interest of the child should be in the center of discussions and negotiations.
A special needs child’s residence is decided in part by a number of variables, and determined by a series of probing questions:
- Since the child’s impairment was discovered, who among the parents has been the main caregiver?
- Has the youngster formed a bond with one parent in particular?
- How has each parent reacted to the diagnosis of the child? Some parents might not be capable of providing long-term care for a child with special needs.
- How supportive of the child’s treatment has each parent been?
- What is the everyday routine for each parent? Children with special needs frequently miss school and take more sick days than normal kids.
Mammoth Challenges You Need To Know About ASD
Child support
We’ve come to expect child care expenses when we marry. It’s been part of married lives. If you’re one of those who have discovered ASD early in your child, you know there are additional expenses on top of what you have already accepted as your normal budget.
When family members or other caregivers worry that a child is not progressing along the expected developmental path, they seek advice from specialists, such as psychologists, educators, and medical professionals for a diagnosis.
Children with ASD are children with special needs. It requires special medical care in the diagnosis, treatment care, and even education.
The diagnosis of autism may become more difficult if some persons with autism initially seem to have an intellectual handicap, sensory processing disorders, or difficulty with hearing or vision.
The process of discovering the possibility of ASD already entails cost. If you’re one of the lucky ones to avail of state services, make sure you use it expeditiously.
When families receive several diagnoses, it can be perplexing for them. These disorders can co-occur with autism. However, it is crucial to recognize autism since a precise and prompt diagnosis of the disorder can serve as the foundation for the delivery of supportive services at home and in the classroom.
Discovery of ASD is not really straightforward because certain disorders do co-occur and it stretches resources.
A medical diagnosis and an educational determination, or school evaluation, of a handicap, differ significantly in many ways. All of these entails costs and should be considered in negotiating child support.
Parenting time
One of the major concerns for parents going through a divorce or separation is this. Change of routine is extremely challenging for many kids on the autism spectrum. Make sure your youngster is ready for the transition, just as you would with any other, and whenever feasible, utilize visuals.
You need to see what your child sees and this could be very literal with ASD. The child’s room in each of the parents’ houses may have to literally be almost identical. Stability in this respect ensures a sense of normalcy for the child.
With your child’s ASD, juggling your time in parenting time will not be the only challenge you will have to embrace. The quality of the moments with your child takes a lot of planning, structure, and creativity. Forget commitment because it’s now a given with ASD child care.
Alimony
Discussions about spousal support will be crucial in extending child support for children with ASD. If there was early diagnosis, parents involved would have already known the tremendous amount of commitment not only in time but money in the care of children with ASD. Costs are not just monetary but it is the easiest to determine when it comes to approximating the degree of commitment required from both parents.
Parents must factor in the cost of not just the direct costs but costs related to managing the stress for both parents, the structured parenting time required, the special environment to be created at home in both households, the mobility issues, communication issues, the cost of educating themselves, school, therapy, and the checklists will have few more etcetera in every tick box.
In looking at your alimony package, you need to anticipate how you are going to fund the quality of life of your child after the child turns 18. Parents must check with their lawyer if certain state statutes prescribe certain forms of assistance for ASD.
Child mental health
Your child could benefit from counseling to aid in adjusting to the changes brought on by separation and divorce, depending on their age and cognitive ability. You might wish to seek assistance from your child’s school or a private psychologist or other counselor. The mental/behavioral health system may also offer counseling. This will mean serious planning of parenting time and will come at a cost.
Michigan may have some programs that may apply to your situation, specially when child gets to be 18 years old.
A post-18 year old life for a child with ASD can be plagued with child support challenges whether such support is coming from the parent or from the state. When someone is 18, they cease to be a child in the eyes of the law hence no longer covered by child support.
Despite the fact that there are legislative reforms, it’s crucial to understand child support legislation does not mandate financial support for a child with special needs once they reach adulthood (18 to 19.5 years old).
It appears that after the child reaches the legal adult age, the parent will not be entitled to child support. An adult with Down syndrome for example often has the IQ of a toddler, therefore they still require care in their adult years. So do most children with ASD.
The Best Effort For The Best Interest Is Compromise
If you believe divorce is imminent, and you have suspicions about possible ASD with your child, it may be in the best interest of the child, and even more so the parents to confirm it. It will allow you to include the child’s condition in child custody negotiations.
Take this to heart. Your family is no different from others. You are aware of the primary challenges underlying your divorce. The obstacles you will all need to overcome in order to achieve shared objectives should be clear. Your end game is to provide for your child’s needs.
Get Educated
There is still a lot to understand about ASD. The better educated parents are, the better they can talk about ASD in the context of child care and custody.
There are diagnosis, testing, monitoring, and development programs available for ASD.
Find out what are the best practices in health care for children with ASD.
Find out the kind of professionals with a special focus on ASD. Pediatricians (particularly developmental pediatricians), neurologists, psychiatrists, and psychologists are among the medical specialists who may have knowledge of ASD and other neurodevelopmental disorders. You should ask for referrals of knowledgeable professionals in your region.
Your lawyer might have already worked with some of them. Not all of these professionals have experience with autism.
Check out if there are such things as insurance, assessment, therapy, and other services. Contact your local Community Mental Health to receive Applied Behavior Analysis, speech therapy, psychological, or other treatments.
Join the local support group for autism. Don’t forget to take care of both your family and yourself. You can do this by researching sibling support groups or parent education programs.
Have you availed of Michigan’s Applied Behavior Analysis?
Children with ASD who are Medicaid-eligible and meet the medical necessity requirements are covered for Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy. Behavioral health treatment (BHT) is a Medicaid-covered service under the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment (EPSDT) benefit.
Children with ASD are advised to receive Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) treatment. The Surgeon General has approved it after more than 30 years of investigation. Skills and behaviors important to children with autism spectrum disorder can be addressed with ABA treatments.
Plan Parenting Time Around the Child
Inform your child of the arrangement for sharing custody. To provide the child a visual reminder of the times he or she will be with each parent, you might wish to hang a sizable calendar in each of your residence.
Your child’s regularly planned activities should be noted on the calendar, and the youngster should be informed of which parent will be taking them there. On the day of a custody exchange, remind your youngster of the schedule. The parenting schedule must not come as a surprise to your child, so discuss it in advance.
Remember stability and a sense of normalcy makes for a great environment for children with ASD.
Think about including provisions in the final decree of divorce custody arrangement allowing the child to speak with the other parent who isn’t currently in charge of the child throughout each period of residency. You can propose to have it via phone, Skype, or FaceTime. This can be an enabling environment for the child to keep in touch with both parents even when they are no longer children.
These can be wonderful arrangements because your autistic child will be better able to understand the co-parenting character of your family rather than feeling like they are being shuttled between homes.
Alimony Must Accommodate Special Needs of Child
The Michigan Court of Appeals (COA) has made it very plain that a party’s “needs” play a crucial role in spousal support calculations. When a child with special needs reaches adulthood, the court cannot grant child support, but it can still grant spousal support to help the custodial parent with the costs associated with caring for the child.
The divorced parents of a child with ASD must collaborate to formulate a financial plan they can both live with. This is the most crucial step. This is in contrast to a “position based” strategy where the parties withhold information and have an indifferent attitude towards others’ interests. An “interest based” approach to the divorce resolution fosters disclosure and greater understanding among parties.
Find a family law attorney who understands an approach focused on interests. You will come to appreciate that such an attorney will generate a higher total value for all concerned parties.
Be Creative and Collaborative in Child Support
You will not always be able to pool resources every time, all the time in your lifetime. You have to be creative in finding other sources for funding child care.
More Americans will have access to health insurance and free preventative care, such as autism screening for kids at 18 and 24 months, thanks to the Affordable Care Act. The majority of health insurance policies can no longer refuse, restrict, or eliminate coverage for anyone due to a pre-existing condition, including those who have autism spectrum disorder.
The state of Michigan regulates for-profit, commercial, HMO, and non-profit health insurance companies. These organizations are required to offer their insured members an autism benefit that covers services related to the diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) up to the age of 18.
Both parents must be well educated about ASD. Michigan has resources to help you in this task. There are current state laws covering health care, diagnosis, monitoring, development, and post-majority care.
Certain government offices are mandated by these statutes to dispense services specifically designed for parents taking care of children with ASD.
Check with your lawyer if the current statutes apply to your child here in Michigan.
Creative Financial Planning in Post-Majority Child Support
Both parents of children with ASD should be ready to look for alternative legal and non-legal solutions for child support, including leveraging consent agreements, spousal support, property division, estate planning, and public benefits planning, in the absence of exception to special needs in a post-majority child support.
The needs of each party should be taken into account when dividing property in a divorce, according to the Michigan Supreme Court. Therefore, one might surely argue for a bigger portion of the marital assets to reflect the increased responsibility that comes with being a parent to a child with special needs. Parents should consider this in calculating and negotiating support for extended child care.
If internal marital resources are wanting, the parents can get creative and find other sources of support for child care.
Is your child a Medicaid Insurance beneficiary?
Choose an attorney who can work in accomplishing your goals for the most cost-effective child support.
The focus always should be on the child and in this particular case, one with ASD.
With that in mind, you can direct your attention and energy toward approaching your case from the perspective of acting in your child’s best interests first and foremost while putting some of your own demands on the back burner.
We are not suggesting you should fully disregard your own interests in favor of those of your child. Your personal aspirations and the desired outcome in your custody case may actually be intertwined.
You need to consult your attorney to guide you through the maze of statutes either restricting your access to health care or finding new funding for healthcare covering ASD. Parents must already be in a cooperative and collaborative mindset before they talk to their attorney.
In this case, your attorney may also be thinking of the best interest of your child before yours. Choose an attorney who knows the legal lay of the land in terms of child care for children with ASD and who is in sync with your goal of providing extended care for your child.
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Goldman & Associates Law Firm is here to with information about Child Custody and Divorce in the State of Michigan.