Navy Hires Special Ed Lawyers

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the day-to-day challenges facing autistic people and their families.  As many posts have discussed, the challenges are especially great for military families.

Rose L. Thayer at Stars and Stripes:

The Navy has hired two special education lawyers as part of a three-year pilot program to expand support for service members enrolled in the Exceptional Family Member Program.

The two civilian attorneys, who have a background in special education law, began in November to assist families trying to get services for special needs children through federal laws put into practice differently in school districts across the country, said Lt. Cmdr. Nick Stampfli, legal assistance department head at the Legal Services Office for Mid-Atlantic Region. Navy families can find themselves at a disadvantage when it comes to special education because frequent moves mean they are regularly entering new school districts with different rules and resources.

“We just really want to level the playing field with what a family that doesn’t move often gets,” he said. “We do see a direct impact on readiness when a family is taken care of and sailors are not worrying about a problem at home, especially a problem with their kids. It’s much easier to deploy.”

The Defense Department’s Exceptional Family Member Program, known as EFMP, is a mandatory enrollment program run by the service branches for military members with an immediate family member, usually a child or spouse, who has special medical or educational needs. The program is meant to assist during the orders assignment process to make sure service members are sent to locations where they can access necessary resources.

Shortchanging Exceptional Families

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the day-to-day challenges facing autistic people and their families.  As many posts have discussed, the challenges are especially great for military families.

Rose Thayer at Stars and Stripes:

After accusing the government officials in charge of the military’s Exceptional Family Member Program of “happy talk,” but no action, Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., vowed Wednesday [2/5] to bring the six executives back to Capitol Hill every three months until they’ve met all the recommendations made for their programs by the Government Accountability Office nearly two years ago.

“We are going to be hawks on this,” said Speier, chairwoman of the subpanel on military personnel for the House Armed Services Committee.

Wednesday’s hearing was the first time in more than a decade that the committee had heard about the program, known as EFMP, which is a mandatory enrollment program for service members who have a family member with special needs requiring specialized medical care, treatment programs or educational services.

While EFMP is meant to ensure that those service members receive duty assignments to locations where those special needs can be met, testimony from two military spouses with children in the program and three representatives from military advocacy groups depicted the program is failing in several ways. About 135,000 military family members are enrolled in the program, as of April 2019.

Nikki Wentling at Stars and Stripes:

One of those family members was Shannon DeBlock, wife of Navy Cmdr. Jason DeBlock.

A few years ago, the DeBlocks were transferred from Annapolis, Md., to San Diego, where they fought with the school district for two years over the education of their son Wesley, 11, who has autism.

“They put up every single barrier they could think of to not educate him,” she said.

The legal battle ended in mediation, during which the DeBlocks agreed to move back to Annapolis, where they knew Wesley could receive an appropriate, special-needs education. While Shannon and their two sons live in Maryland, Jason DeBlock is stationed in Norfolk, Va., commanding the USS Truxton.

Though Wesley is now getting a good education, the move to San Diego had lasting effects. He went two years with little schooling, and his reading regressed from a second-grade level to that of a kindergartner.

“We chose to separate our family to avoid the conflict of a legal battle that appeared to be never-ending,” Shannon DeBlock said. “We rely on these school districts and educators to help our kids become independent as much as they can be, and to be contributing members of society. When schools do this, the impact is so huge. It could affect the rest of their lives.”

Trump's budget would slash funding for Stars and Stripes.

TRICARE Reports

KHON-TV in Hawaii reports that recent TRICARE changes could hurt some military families:

“Because of ABA therapy, we had a lot of hope and now I feel like that’s being taken away,” [autism mother Zebonee] Bongiorno said.

One of the major issues is the required waiver application if treatment exceeds two years.

“Our biggest concern is if there is going to be an interruption in services because we need the continuity,” mother Jennifer Frazier said.

TRICARE says, “Although ABA is not limited to a set number of years, additional ABA beyond two years requires approval by the regional contractor medical director.”

“We don’t know what we are going to do. Really, we don’t know,” Bongiorno said.

Some lawmakers in our nation’s Capitol have called upon TRICARE to review their new rules.

Phone calls to TRICARE officials were not returned.

WTKR in Virginia reports that some parents plan on demonstrating against the new policy:


See the Facebook page of Navigation Behavioral Consulting.

Exceptional Family Member Program

The Air Force Times reports on the Exceptional Family Member Program:

EFMP, though, has major shortcomings, according to an Air Force inspector general report. The investigation, prompted by a complaint on behalf of 16 families, found installations do not have a full-time designated special-needs coordinator, installations are not providing access to special education services at new duty stations and the Air Force lags behind the other services in its support of families with special-needs children.

“The current level of support to these families is not consistent with the Air Force’s No. 2 priority: Develop Airmen and Take Care of Their Families,” concluded the investigating officer, a major whose name was redacted in public copies.

In response to the report, the Air Force said it intends to add full-time coordinators at 35 bases stateside who will help link families with information on medical, educational and social services, according to a service official who helps oversee the program. The plan, set to be put in motion in fiscal 2012, still needs the approval of Air Force Secretary Michael Donley.

“We hear the people, and we’re going in a direction their needs dictate,” said Linda Stephens-Jones, assistant deputy for family programs.

Lawmakers, too, are paying more attention to special-needs families. The House version of the fiscal 2011 defense bill calls for the Government Accountability Office to monitor the military’s handling of special-needs families.

The oversight came in the form of an amendment introduced by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., who is married to a retired Navy officer and has a son with Down syndrome.

“When a person joins the military, it’s not just the individual who joins,” said Rodgers, who is co-chair of the Congressional Military Family Caucus. “It’s also their family.”

• Rep. Rodgers's release.
• EFMP Facebook group.
• "A Pilot Navigates Autism"