Educational services for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities end when the young person turns 21 and ages out.
Educational services for children withintellectual and developmental disabilitiesend when the young person turns 21 and ages out.
My family is fortunate to have found a place where Nate, now 27, can live and thrive.
He shares a roomy, three-story house with five young men his age.
Each has his own bedroom and bathroom.
They share a kitchen, common room and fitness room.
Nate spends a lot of time in the kitchen helping with meal prep, a favorite activity.
He does his own laundry, cleans his room and assists with the household chores.
He feeds the donkeys, rabbits and goats.
He plants, waters and harvests vegetables and herbs.
He helps build birdhouses.
He gathers maple syrup and picks apples.
He also takes classes at the community college.
Nates Social Security and Medicaid benefits help cover the cost of his housing, therapies and education.
During one of our thrice-weekly conversations, I asked Nate what he was up to.
Reading the poem Ozymandias by Percy Shelley, he answered.
(Nate is verbal, a gift I have never taken for granted.
Things like his iPad(s).
Swap green garbage bags for clear, see-through ones.
Nate also likes to keep objects hes fond of within reach.
He once tried to pack a large lamp in his suitcase for his visit home.
Keep favorite items that dont belong to him under lock and key.
Nate arrived at The Center for Discovery when he was 17.
A spot in the adult program means Nate can remain at The Center for Discovery for life.
It is an indescribable relief to know he’ll be taken care of when Im gone.
I wish every parent with a Nate could have that same assurance.
Amy Lennard Goehner is a former reporter forTimeandSports Illustratedmagazines and a writer forSports Illustrated Kids.
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Page published November 2021 | Related links box updated March 2025
