and start the recording. My name is Christy Angel. I'm the president of the city white council for district 75 and in this space I am the chair for outreach. Very happy that you guys are here today. We do know that there's a lot of great information for you. We
have Maggie Lebron here from Hope and Cherish. So for our lunch and learn, we're going to be working through a few items, but before we get started, we want to go ahead and have language equity. We do have Mandarin, Spanish, and Bangla in this space with us today.
So, we'll go ahead and have the Spanish interpreter please give your instructions. Is our Spanish interpreter able to unmute? Sorry. interpret the conferenc. IAC
uno conferenc Thank you so much. Mandarin, you now have the floor to give your instructions. We've been mandaring. Thank you. Thank you so much. Bangla, you now have
the floor to give your instructions. >> Thank you. ID number. Thank you. >> Wonderful. So guys, before I hand it over to Maggie, I want you to know that we do have a website on YouTube, uh, which is CCD75 outreach. That is where
you can find this recording and many others. If you miss a meeting, you never miss a meeting. So with that being said, Maggie Lebron, happy to introduce you. Happy to have you here. The floor is now yours. >> Hi, good afternoon. Um, good morning. Uh, still morning everyone. It's a
pleasure to be here. My name is Maggie. Well, Magdalene Lebron, but you call me Maggie. I am from Hope and Cherish and basically I'm on here for a couple of reasons. Um first of all to introduce myself to district 75 parents as well as
to introduce to you the um services that we provide. So u I'm going to share my screen with you. Just let me know if you're able to see it. Okay. Okay. Is everybody able to see my screen?
>> Yes. >> Perfect. Uh so basically we were part of the district 75 um event at the Jacob Javit Center in on September 6th and a lot of parents were there and one of the things that parents
were having a difficult difficulty with was the OPWD process. Now, OPWD is the office for people with de uh developmental disabilities for children, right? So, if your child has any type of
a developmental disability, um, autism, there they have a physical, um, you know, disability, they are there's a program out there that is able to help in getting the resources that your child needs in order for them to get the
services, right, that they need so that they could maximize their potential. So a lot of families were not aware of this and a lot of families have actually become very discouraged with the process. So I am here not only as a a person that brings information but as an
advocate for you through this process. Okay. So one of the things that we do is um I help parents initiate the process. Right? a lot of parents. I've spoken to about six parents just last week that
said, "Well, I spoke to the school and the school said they were going to help me." Right? So, what happens is before you could even jumpstart the process, you have to do an intake and the intake is done through the front door offices
in each burrow. Now, I've listed the number. Please take a snapshot of this or write down the number for the burrow in which you reside. So, how the process works is this. You call this intake department. The intake department gets
some information from you. It's a quick call. It's not a 30 minute call. I would say it's maybe like 10 15 minutes. They're going to ask you what is your child's disability, um the school that they go to, and what is does it say on their IEP.
Basically, they just want to see if you're eligible for these services and for this program. So you call, they take the information. From there what they do is they then refer you to a care coordination organization.
If you have an affiliation with any of these three um companies, that means that you are already in the process of an OPWD application. If you are with Care Design New York, if you are with
Advanced Care Alliance or with Tri County Care, any of these three, then that means that you have already done the intake and you have moved into the second phase. If you do not have an
affiliation with these any of these companies, that means that you need to do the intake process. call the number, do the intake, and they will then direct you to one of these three companies. Okay.
Now, what do you want to have together? So, the reason why this process is so delayed for some families, now just FYI, this process does take about two to three months. The reason why a lot of parents are waiting for such a long
time. Some parents have told me, "I'm waiting six months. It's been a year." It could be because there are documents that are missing and they're waiting for you to submit those documents or it could be that they're waiting for
information from your child's doctor. Either or, right? You want to be on top of this because the process is not a year process or a three-year process. Okay. So, what do you want to have available?
You want to have a psychological evaluation within the last three years. Now, it is my understanding that district 75 schools do provide this um these services, right? um a psychological evaluation.
A psychosocial two different things. A psychosocial evaluation is basically the background of the child, their diagnosis, any medical problems during the pregnancy, um first time the child was diagnosed, what did you notice, right? When the
child was born, any delays, right? That's what you want to submit. A physical, right? A physical. We do our children's physical once a year. You want to submit the most recent physical. Okay. Then you want to get the IEP and
any assessments that have been performed by your school by the child's school. Now, once you have all these documentation, then the process should be very smooth because they're not waiting for anything. What I do is I help you gather
this information. I make sure that before the care um coordination um organization actually starts to do a plan for you that you have all this information because the last thing you want is number one to delay the process
or number two not to get all of the services your child needs. Okay? So we basically advocate for you and make sure that you get the maximum that this that the organization that OPWD has to offer.
Now on that note, I do want to say this. OPWD is a Medicaid funded program. Okay? It is it is funded by Medicaid which means that when the process gets when
you're through the process once you're getting to the eligibility whatever health insurance your child has needs to now be converted to straight Medicaid. Okay. Now, if you're going
through the process or you're interested in getting OPWD for your child, you may want to start finding out if your doctors take straight Medicaid, okay? Because that's the only way that the
child is going to be able to get the services is through straight Medicaid. Okay? Just wanted to let you know that because a couple of parents were a bit confused about that process. What do I do? I assist you with the OPWD process
in the advocacy, making sure that the front door interview is done. Um following up with the care um coordination organization that you're with to see who's uh who's missing, what's missing, what's going on. um who
is your care manager, your case manager because I like to communicate with them to make sure that there's no delays, right? So this way they know that you are not alone in this process. Okay? I assist in getting you home health care services immediately. So before you even
apply for OPWZD, before you even get approved for OPWZD, we make sure that we have some home health care services already in place for you, right? We do understand that when you have special children with special needs, um it's it could get a
little overwhelming. Um the parents are trying to work, right? They're trying to do, you know, what they need to do for the best interest of their family, but they don't have that extra support. So, we want to make sure that you get that extra support so that if you're
interested in going back to work or if you're currently working um and you need um someone to help you with a child that you have that support, okay? I provide direction and support during
this entire process. Okay? We want to make sure families that you and your children have everything that they need in order for the for your child to reach their potential. Listen, I am a mom of five children. I have five children um
in all stages of life, right? I have adults. I have one that's going to be be an adult tomorrow, right? She's going to be 18 tomorrow. And then I have two that are um you know still in at home um that are the ages of 15 and 13. So I
understand the struggles that parents have. However, the struggles um that you have are more, right? Because you want to get your child as many services cuz you want them to in the future be able
to have some type of of normaly and to be able to to function right to the best of their ability. We want to make sure we see that happen for you and your and your child. Okay. One of the other resources that we provide is we provide assistance in
financial planning, right? Um I understand that a lot of families right now have that you know that well listen for for families right now it's difficult right things are getting more costly things are getting more expensive
right but you want to make sure that your child your family is in the best position possible we help with budgeting we help you we show you how to budget we show you how to you know put everything in place that needs to be put in place right we show you how to how to save for
your retirement, how to invest for your child, right? If you want to, you know, god forbid anything happens, you want your child to have some type of money that's coming in, we we help you understand how that happens and put plans in place for that to happen for
your child. We assist you with um understanding life insurance, right? Why is it important, right? Um, one of the things that I thought of firsthand was my children were younger. If something were to happen to me, what would happen
to my children, right? My income stops. Somebody's going to help take care of them. I didn't want my children to be um, you know, I didn't want to think of my children as a burden on someone else. I wanted to be able to provide for them even if they even if I was no longer
here, right? Um, with that being said, we also teach families how to put together wills, how to put together um trust funds, right? Trusts for their children, um, how to purchase a home, how to be able to maneuver the system in
in um, purchasing a home. We teach families how to get out of debt, right? How to get out of debt so that they're able to um, you know, put more into savings because now they're um, eliminating their debt. they're fixing their credit. So, we we I I help
families just advocate for families so that their family is in a better position today than they were probably next year and that they're in an even better position next year than they are right now. Right? Those are the things that we do, right? And if anyone also is
interested, we have actually collaborated with a company that is training people to work from home, flexible hours, right? working from home, generating income from their home where they're with their children, right? Um may I like to be in a in a flexible I like to be very flexible
because my children have, you know, things come up from at one moment to the next, right? So, we want to have that um those resources. So, those are the resources that we offer families. I'm going to go back to the intake office so that way you guys have time to to um
write down the phone numbers. But families, I want to let you know that one of the things that we want to make sure is that you know coming up in this new year that everything in your that has to do with your child is in order,
is in place. They're getting the speech therapy that they need. They're getting the physical therapy that they need. They're getting the the specialty treatments that they need. OPWD offers so many programs. They even offer
vouchers for summer camp. A lot of people didn't know that they offer um assistance and getting them into different types of um extracurricular activities that are also going to benefit them in their development. Um I
have families that take swimming classes, right? I have families that are taking dance classes. I have families that are doing a musical music therapy, right? Because the program does understand and although it is a very
rigid process, right, and that's why we're trying to we want to help you. We um the program understands that each child, right, with special needs has, you know, they're they're they're triggered or interested in different things. So, they want to provide these
services for your child, right? Um I have children that are medically uh that are um musically inclined. They like music, right? Um they like art and so basically the program does provide for those art therapy um like I said music
therapy uh summer camp for the children things that are not out of pocket for the families but that are funded through the Medicaid program. Okay. Now, basically that is the entire presentation and I do want to know if
anybody um I don't know if there you're able to put questions into the Q&A um but we definitely want to make sure that you're getting all of the answers to your questions. Okay, >> we can help you out this way. Um, Maggie, people are able to raise their
hands just so we can keep order and then we can go uh one by one with your hands raised and if there's questions in the chat already um I can lead off with reading. Let's see. Nope, I see yourself about music. This has been very informative and they love what you're
presenting so far. So, if anyone in our audience does have a question, if you would kindly raise your hand, we will allow you to come off mute to ask. Someone said, "My OPD OPWD process with Advanced Care Alliance hasn't been very
good." Do you want to come off of um mute and talk about that a little bit more? >> Yes. Good morning, ladies. So, um I started my process and my son's developmental pediatrician has been helping me. I'm sorry, I didn't even
introduce myself. My name is Ni Johnson. Um, and the individuals or the care managers from Advanced Care Alliance, it just seems like that they were copying and pasting and they weren't really
advocating for specific uh services and specific things for my son to receive. I paid for him to go to swimming. Um, I'm currently looking for him to, you know, get more acclimated to being around more
kids without, um, having a over sensory situation happening. So, like kind of small groups and these things actually cost, but it just seems like whoever the care manager was or the broker was, they
were just copying and pasting from someone else's kid, placing it on mine and had nothing to do with my child. And then it just went flat. I haven't heard from them ever since until they they'll call and say, "Oh, hey, yeah, we want to
come do a visit." And I told them, "Most certainly not. You're not coming to do a visit cuz you're not doing your job and helping my child or me." >> Right. >> Okay. >> You know what I would say not to cut you off? And Magdalene, you may say the same thing. I um am not scared to let
somebody go. If you're not serving me appropriately, I will talk to your supervisor all day, every day to make sure you're doing what you are supposed to do for our children. Um don't just sit back and wait for them to do their job. Demand that they do it. And if they don't switch, they should be um they're
supposed to be serving us, right? So, we shouldn't be micromanaging and chasing um care managers and brokers or if you see something where it is incorrect on your paperwork, you have to speak up on that. I'll say I have a pretty good broker from Advanced Care Alliance, but I've also had terrible um care
coordinators along the way. So, I hear you. Magdalene, how do you feel? What say you? So, um, Ni, thank you so much for that. I'm sure a lot of parents um that may be going through the same process. So, advanced care has been going through
some um changes, right? Um has been going through some um you know, turnaround, not an excuse, right? Definitely not an excuse because somebody should be on top of this. These are children of special needs. These are, you know, that they're like should be a priority. Um, so, uh, what I would
do is Ni, I think you registered and I know that Christie is going to send me over the information. I would call myself advanced and see what's going on and who is, you know, assigned to your case and see if we could get that that,
you know, something moving right. Um I actually do have a meeting with these CCOs um in the upcoming weeks and so I definitely want to connect with you NI and just you know see how we could push this along and get you everything that you need. Um but like I said a lot of
these um companies are going through employee turnarounds okay at this moment. So, we do want to um you know, jump in there and and advocate for you and see cuz once they know that wait, somebody else is advocating and they know me pretty well cuz I'm you know,
but when they know somebody else is advocating, then they're like, "Okay, we got to like put like a 911 on this one, right?" So, um Christiey's just send me over the registrations. I will communicate. I will contact you each individually and see what your concerns
are. Um, but if you have any questions, it might help somebody else on the on the Zoom, you know, to to clarify. >> Yes. And I see a few people in here jumping in and helping. So, thank you guys. This is all about >> Thank you, lady. >> And helping each other. So, um, Maggie, I do see someone else who said Advanced
Care Alliance and you've had four case managers in one year. We should probably talk about that, Caroline, because that's pretty bad. But I I am very glad that you are moving along to try to find something that fits. Um, we'll circle back there. Valerie Williams said, "I want to start the process for my
nine-year-old, but he does but he is not eligible for Medicaid at this time due to my salary. Where can I take him for the evaluations?" That's kind of two-piece, right, Magdalene? First, Medicaid waiver and then you'll talk about evaluations. >> Yeah. So, excellent, great questions because I'm sure you're not the only one
that has that question. I get that question a lot. Now, just FYI, um, OPWD is more focused the medic is the okay the OPWD because it's Medicaid funded for special children. It
is not so interested in your income. So there's a it's called a Medicaid waiver. Okay, which means that they don't take such a deep look into your income. They're more concerned about the ch the child's special needs.
Okay? And that's also something that we help you with. Wonderful. Do you want to I know you have your specific um organization, but I do see that we have C and Y. Thank you. Uh that you guys are here. Additionally, um parents are asking
about places that they can go. I know we have adapt NYC include NYC. And as Magdalene says, everyone that has signed up for this particular workshop, we will be giving your information to Hope and Cherish so that they can continue Magdalene LeBron can continue um helping
us in the space that we are in now because we want you to know that you guys are not alone. So let's move back to the chat here. Um someone said to call Y AI for evaluation. Sometimes they have free grants offered at this time. Magdalene, do you have any other uh
bulletointed places where they may be able to go for evaluations? >> So, um there are some evaluation. It depends on the burrow. It depends on the burrow that you're in. Um but there are um state funded um
centers that do do the evaluations. However, I'm going to find out because I believe district 75 has that as part of their is supposed to have that as part of their IEP or annual assessments right there. >> They they actually do, but I think let me look while you're speaking. I'm going
to look I think I have a list um from someone else who actually gave me a few places by burrow that I might be able to include to help you guys. >> Yeah, include that because I'm in Brooklyn, right? I could talk about Brooklyn, but I know we have Queens, we have Bronx, Staten Island, um we have
Queens and so, you know, you don't want to, you know, I don't know if you you're driving or you're training it would, you know, it's it's it's a lot, right? But I do know because my oldest son was in District 75, they did all this for me. So, let me um let's connect the dots and get this process, you know, moving along
for all you for all of you. >> And let me ask you this, another person uh Mr. Chowry says, "My son has health first. He's is five years old. How do I start the process? >> Excellent. So, Health First, with Health First, you could actually just call the
Front Door. So, once you call Front Door for the intake, you won't need to switch to straight Medicaid until you're you're eligible. you do have to apply for it in in the process, but with health first, he would keep his insurance up until
they convert it to a um to a straight Medicaid um uh program. All righty, we have one person. Um let's see if we can bring this in for a couple of people who might have been late. um how do we get self-direction and what
does it take to get this and how long is the wait I don't know if things have changed but it took me about a good year in the process of mine so it did take some time to go through all of the steps what say you Magdalene >> yes so we um I know that uh there's a
lot going on right now with um the state the funding the the the health insurance a lot of things happens right now Your process should not take a year. Okay? It should not take a year.
Um, what happens in the interim, like you guys have said, your case manager, you're this, you're that. There's a lot of things going on. Now, that's why you want to have an advocate. You want to have somebody that annoys them, right? That they know somebody's on top of
this. Okay? If it takes more than six months, right, to at least get through a to close to a decision, there's a problem, right? Something's missing. Your case managers, you know, may have a workload, but once they know that you're on top of it, let's, you know, I, like I
said, I'm going to reach out to each and every one of you and we'll get you through this process, okay? You just have to make the initial phone call to the front door just to jumpstart the program, okay? The application process.
Alrighty. I have another person. I am in district 75 and no one did anything for me. We're going to say sorry there. They told me to go to Ahava and when we went they double booked appointments and made us wait for over an hour. Whoa. This is
unacceptable for an autistic child. I had to call Yi last year to get on a waiting list. I'm really sorry. That is not how we would hope um this process should go. You should know we do have the council here to advocate. We advocate for people
on all different areas and places. If we have to help you expedite or figure something out or Maggie, put your superhero cape on so we can help um Mr. Eman or Miss Emanuela, we would love to be able to assist in this process. We know what it means to have help and to
be able to breathe um and have somebody else in the fight with us. So, Maggie, we're gonna uh make sure to flag Miss Corellis um so that you can be able to assist her um when we send you over the emails for the parents that are um
joining. >> Perfect. >> Someone else said, "What are the steps for self-direction?" I took the class they asked you to take. I have a copy of the email. Um and then it says they were with Tri County. Then there was a pause. their information was forwarded to ACA
and they have their information. So I think that let's see who's speaking here. Miss Ruez, are you able to come off mute to give us a little bit more information and insight about what's happening in your process? >> Hi, can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Yes.
>> Yeah. So, um I think my son was with OPWD since I think 2020. Wait, 2020 2024. He I mean he was with OP 2023, but then
there was um a wait with Tri County Care because they needed to find a case manager and I had to do the Medicaid and I was working with the Medicaid specialist. So in 2024 of November, I was um appointed a case manager and Tri
County transferred all my information to Advanced Care and I did the self-direction when I was you know prior to that and so I had the email and everything and so they transferred everything to Advanced Care. So Advanced Care has all that
information. So then come I think like February I get a call and it's not the same case manager I had. They appointed another case manager. So, first I had a male and then I had a female. But then
me and this female, we worked for like I don't know like a good few months. But then her and I got into it because she was take she was offended or she was getting defensive because I I was telling her to change his life plan and
she didn't she didn't um pick up the information correctly. She had incorrect information. So I had to So her and I were going back and forth with the emails. So I spoke to her supervisor and I was like, "Listen, I don't think I can move forward with her because the way she
talked to me and everything. I I I'm just not going to have a good relationship with her." So they appointed me someone else. But the person I spoke to her like once and she was sending me emails, but she was very like um she she didn't have her stuff
together. like she was she was like she called me and left me a message and she would say like another child's name and not my son's name. She she she she um scheduled a meeting with another child's name. I was in the I was on the email or
the invitation by accident and she would send another email and she introduced herself and she would put my son's name like I don't know I don't know if her case load was like too much but I told the supervisor I said you know I don't
know who this person is but I was supposed to meet her like I'm sending her emails and she hasn't like responded and her emails I don't know I don't know her case load but she I think she's getting like the kids confused. I said, "It doesn't make me feel um
>> good >> that someone is is the case manager and she can't even get my son's name right." So, so then I found out I got a new case manager. Um but they don't tell you this. They just have people call you. So, um so I
got finally met this woman last week and she seems pretty good. She she's new. So, I'm hoping that um that she stays and I can at least work with somebody
because that's all I've been asking all of them to follow up with the self-direction and and nobody's telling me anything. So, it's already been since the end of 2024 and here we are ending 2025 and no one has a status of what's going
on with the self-direction. Okay. So, Carolyn, um, thank you so much for sharing that with me. I am going to reach out to you personally. However, I do know that with self-direction, um, the initiative falls on you, right? The the the
finding the providers and finding the resources and stuff falls on you because basically you're it's self-direction. You're directing, you know, your your managing. >> Yeah. But they said that hasn't been approved yet. I said, but I have the email. They said, "Oh, it doesn't you you just don't need the email. Like, I
think they have to do something else." So, I was like, "So, am I supposed to find like a broker or something?" And they were like, "Well, don't do that yet because it hasn't been like approved." >> Okay, let let's let's touch base. Let's touch base because your Yeah, your your
case seems it seems like a a little um more It seems a little difficult as far as like let's find out who who, what, where, when, why, and how, right? So this way we could get to the bottom of it and see um where we move forward from there because it's it's a lot.
Yeah. And the thing is like I don't really know exactly what to do, you know. I'm just hoping that there's somebody that can help me and guide me through it and um it just doesn't seem like I've been having good luck with the case managers and they haven't been really that helpful to me. So um you
know it's just like you know how's Jackson, that's my son's name. And then it's like oh okay and um you know getting his life plan but um you know and I have like respit but I'm not utilizing it because I work from
home. So, um, you know, I can pick up my son and he's fine. Like, I take care of him. Like, um, I'm just I'm concerned like maybe later on if I have to go back into the office, I may need the rest bit like, you know, when when someone can help
with my mom and that. And so, >> let's touch let's touch base. I'm going to get your information from Christie. Is that okay? >> Yeah. Yeah, that's fine. >> Perfect. And then we'll we'll definitely work. >> Wonderful. Guys, I'll make sure that we turn this around to Maggie um as soon as we're off. Gabrielle, let's if we can
now um in the background, Gab, if we can just go ahead and send a list of attendees um and registrance to Maggie, if you need the email, just text me. I'll send it on the back end. Uh Maggie, I do see a mom here that says they have a child with ADHD. Can they be
considered for OPWDD services? >> Yes. Do they have I mean is the ADHD just the only um diagnosis that they have? >> Miss Williams, would you like to come off uh mute and speak? >> Yes. Hi.
>> Uh yeah, at this point it's just on a GHD. >> Okay. And he's in a special program. >> No, he he has an IEP and he's getting pulled out, but that's about it. >> Okay. Um, so there are children that um
have been able to qualify um with the ADHD um if they're like under, you know, um medication, if they need a special services in school. Perfect. So, let's touch base. Okay. >> All right. Thank you. >> Excellent.
>> Wonderful. Let's see in this. Medicaid asked me to send a copy of my payubs. Will that affect my services for my kids? So Medicaid is that with OPWD Johnny Cardinas, I think. Um
Johnny, you there? >> Yeah, I'm here. >> Hi Johnny. So let me ask you a question. Do you have OPWD? >> No, I have OPWD. Is it This is the first time they're asking me for my pay stuff. They never asked me before. I mean, I'm just
wondering if that's something new. I don't know. I'm like really cuz I can't lose any services for my kids right now. You know, I'm raising my kid pretty much on my own. You know, I have their custody temporary. I mean, I have the residential custody for me. So, I
I don't know what advice you can give me. Um, you know, cuz they're sending me these letters that I got to send the payers, but I never had to. >> Did the child ever have Medicaid before? They had Medicaid before when they were born, but then when I started working,
they were went under my insurance. >> Okay. So, there is a Medicaid waiver. Okay. So, what the Medicaid waiver does is it overlooks your income. Now, what you want to do is with OPW, so for OPWD
to become activated, it needs Medicaid. So, you could have a PWD and not be able to do anything with it unless Medicaid is active. They work hand in hand. Okay. Um, what you want to do is you want to ask for the Medicaid waiver. Um, and we
could definitely help you with that. >> Yeah. Because right now they're asking me to send in the pay. I already send in the reertification, but they're not let me I don't know why asking me for my pay stuff. So I should should I submit the payouts?
>> So let's touch base first. >> Let's touch base first and then what we could do is um what we could do is uh ask for the waiver. >> Okay, >> I'll tell you. >> I have a question. Hello.
>> As a parent, >> I um I used to work at Sony and I made decent money and my son still had Medicaid waiver. So I would say don't feel scared or nervous. just go through the process, make sure that you have all the eyes, dots, tees crossed, and you'll
be perfectly fine. Um, I know that it could raise a red flag for you to feel like, whoa, what's happening? But I promise you, it's probably just something, as Maggie said, some paperwork or something that missed a place or a gap that's just there. But, um, we'll make sure to get back in touch with you, Mr. um, Cardinis, to make sure that you have the support that you need.
But, please don't let it put you in a space of panic or fear. Um, you absolutely will be okay. >> Okay. Thank you so much. >> I have a question. Hello. >> Hi. Yes. >> Is this about the ODW? What is this thing called? OWD. Something like that. >> The Office of People with Developmental
Disabilities. Yes, ma'am. >> All right. My son goes to 255 Q30. I met him about this program and my social worker was trying to help me get to it, but they asked me to bring him to a neurologist to get qualified, but I see his school
has information about it. What is it like? What does it does for? What is um OPWDD for? >> Yeah. >> Maggie, do you want to give a brief like there's they give a lot of resources and things for our children. Um Maggie, you
may be able to bullet point it quicker uh than I can. >> Thank you, Miss Lana, for the question. >> Thank you, Miss Lana. So, basically, um OPWD is for children with special needs, and basically what they do is they provide services outside of school as well, right? So you your child might get
services in school but they always need extra um extra services. They might need physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy. They might need um you know music therapy. They might need stuff that for them to develop extracurricular activities that's going to be for them. OPWD is a Medicaid
funded program that helps them get those um get those services. Okay. They're affiliated with a Medicaid. So to have OPWZD, you would need to also um apply for Medicaid and whatever insurance they have currently. So let's say they have health first Medicaid, it would just
become straight Medicaid. Right now to start the program, Lana, you have to call the front door. Did you do the front door interview? >> No. >> I'm now get I'm now getting the information off my email.
>> Perfect. So the school cannot do the front door interview for you. That's something that you need to do. And I'm going to put the phone number for your burrow um for the burrows up on the screen so you can screenshot it and make the call. It's a quick >> I added it in the chat for you as well, Maggie.
>> Oh, excellent. Oh, wonderful. Wonderful. It's in the chat. >> I live in a story. >> You're in Queens. So, you want to if you look at this my screen, there's a um there's a number for the Queen's office. You may want you want to call them. That is the first that is the first step.
Okay. >> Okay. You got to call them. They do a quick 7 to 10 minute interview, see if he's eligible, if your child's eligible. And then from there, what they do is they send you to a care um a care coordination. >> Where is that at?
>> They will let you know which one that they assign your case to. >> Okay. >> Okay. They're going to tell you. So, it would be either Advanced Care Alliance or it would be um >> Care He been having services since he was 2
years old since he was doing sign languages to come communicate from PS88. Now he goes to 255 Q and he has he has um therapy, physical therapy, opalical therapy, speech therapy, stuff like that.
>> Okay. So they what they do is they put a plan together for him to get additional services. >> Okay. >> But we'll touch base. She's going to send me your information, Lanna, and I will be calling reaching out to you. Okay. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> All right. I have a question too.
>> We have Miss Lily Lopez whose hands up and then we can move to the next person who came off mic. We want to hear you all but out of fairness, Miss Lily has waited a couple questions. So, Miss Lopez, are you able to unmute? >> Hi Christie, how are you? >> I'm good. How are you? >> I'm Lily from Sydney. Just wanted to
make a quick comment regarding the person that asked uh the for the pay stops. >> Yes. So this is is new from HA. Um they are requiring anyone that has um Medicaid by end of or the waiver to submit the pay stops. I learned this in
um HA meeting. Uh and also if the person has the OPWD, you know, um letters, they need to send that in too. >> Perfect. >> It's new. I just learned this last month. Okay. Thank you.
>> Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Lily. Is there anything else that our parents need to know about this newness? Why they may be tracking it or anything like that? Or was just like button? >> I'm not sure, Christie. Um, all I know is um even for myself, I had to submit
proof of my disability and um and my pay stops as well. >> Okay. uh it shouldn't impact if the person has a case management and then they explain that the person is registered with OPWD or they have the letter with OPWD
from what I heard it shouldn't but don't take my word for it. >> Okay. >> Okay. Thank you so much, Lily. >> You're welcome. Uh the next person who had their hand up that I I don't see your hand anymore. You want to come back off mute again,
please? It's me. >> Hi. I applied for my daughter since last year. She's six years old. They asked me for all the document I sent in and I spoke to the lady. She never contact me back. I don't know what happened.
>> Who is your care? Who's your care um coordination? >> I think her name her name is I don't know Gabrielle or something. I don't remember. But I sent all the my daughter information to her. She was
telling me only when she's missing the physical. >> Are you with advance? >> Are you with advanced care or care design? >> I think the care designer OPDW. >> Okay. Okay. So, this seems to be a same issue
across the board um as far as case managers not calling, supervisors not on top of on top of it. the case manager. Yeah. >> So, what I want to do, if it's okay, Christie, I'm going to reach out to each and every one of you individually, you
know, this way when I when I meet with these um care coordination um organizations, I could bring these to the table and say, "Okay, how do we fix this?" Like what what needs to happen? Um so, if that's okay, I would reach out to you. Okay, Miss Mike.
>> Okay. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Okay. >> Wonderful. Miss uh Baston Jasmine. >> Yes. Um I have a son that's autistic. I was applying for um self-direction, but unfortunately I've been waiting for over
a year because they complained about that it was the state. Now I have a whole new broker and I have no idea why. If I was to stop the process, what what would happen? >> So, you want to stop the process of
which process? >> Of the self-direction? >> Um, the self-direction, but you already have OPWD. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um, same thing. We would need to reach out to who are you with? >> Um, right now, honestly, I really don't
know. >> Advanced Care or Care Design or Tri-State? Do you know? >> Oh, uh, Advanced Care. advanced care. So, we would have to definitely reach out to advanced care um for them to put you into regular but let's, you know, um this goes back to the same um issue with
Miss Ruez um where we I would need to contact you and just see who's who's working with you um and get get together with that person and you know see what's going on. What's the hold up with self-direction? >> Okay.
Yeah, because there seems to be a hold up with self-direction. >> Yeah, a lot. >> Alrighty, let's see. We have another hand raised. Hold on one moment. Let's see. Okay, Jasmine, you actually just answered a
question. You just asked your question. Let me go over to the chat. Um, I don't see any other questions. I do see one of our council members, uh, Jessica Rivera, has joined us. Welcome, Council Member Rivera. Uh, uh, I'm just giving you all
kinds of name. Rivera. Um, all right. So, I see Miss Jasmine, um, you have a couple of questions there. What I can do, Magdalene, I also, if it helps, we can go through possibly the transcript so you at least remember um, who has what um, when you're making the call so
that you know um, who you're responding to. >> No problem. Yeah, I've been making my notes. So, >> see, listen, this is this is what advocates do. They get on it. Uh, Lily says to CC her as well, guys. Lies from CNNY Manhattan and Bronx specialist. So,
let's use all of the help and resources that we have. Um, Miss Joseph has a question. I uh can OPWD help with behavioral therapy? I know Medicaid can, but Maggie, can OPWD help with that as
well? I believe the answer is yes, but things do change. >> Yes, that's part of the that's part of the process for the children. So when they do the care plan, they cover all bases, right? They're supposed to cover all bases. Everything that your child needs is supposed to be on that care plan. What are we going to do for with
his behavior? What are we going to do with this disability? What are we going to do with this that? So that's what the care plan is for. Right? So the answer to that would be yes. Alrighty. I am looking up guys. Have I missed any other questions? I know what
I did miss going over for um equity. Can we check in with our Spanish, Mandarin, and Bangla lines to see if we have any questions from the parents on those lines? >> There's no question on the Spanish line. >> There's no question. >> Wonderful. Do we have any other questions on the other lines?
>> There's no question in Bangla. No. Ma Maggie, do you have um will you be sending out the PDF with this information? Will we be able to share that as well? >> Absolutely. >> Wonderful. All right, guys. I want to ask one more time. Going once, going twice. I know this is on our lunch and
learn lunch breaks. Do we have any further questions or considerations before we move into adjourning this meeting? Again, we will allow um Miss Maggie to have everyone's information and to reach out so that we can close any kind of loops um that you guys may
need. I see that u Miss Valerie says your son is older and is after school respit and has a psychiatric NP and his behavior has improved greatly over the years. Yes. Good. Wonderful. So, we have a test thing. Listen guys, >> I'm so sorry. If you guys could uh
attach the links that you just put into the email because it's not letting me upload it as far as the respbit um application form and the the family reimbursement. >> Make sure I'll tell you this once we
send out the um your emails to Miss uh LeBron, we'll make sure to send all of those links as attachments to everyone that's registered as well. >> Thank you so much. I greatly appreciate it and I love you guys. Transparency and straightforwardness. Appreciate it. >> You're welcome. We listen, we all are
parents out here in the same struggle and it's always easier when other people can tell you what they're going through or at least say, "Hey, here's a route that I took or here's a person that can help you um with that." So once again, Maggie, thank you so much for stepping into this space and for staying in touch
with the council to make sure that you could get this information out to us and to our parents. Um, thank you guys once again for coming to our lunch and learn. Please do look out for your emails from Miss Lebron to get the items that you need from this meeting. Again, if you do need additional help, please always
reach out to D75 counsel.nyc.gov. At this point, we are going to move to adjourn the meeting and release the interpreters at 12:21 p.m. Thank you everyone and have an amazing afternoon. Stay warm. >> Thank you everyone. Happy holidays as
well. >> Yes, happy holidays as well.