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Advocates press for children’s mental‑health investments, cross‑disability waiver inclusion and reinstatement of FASD diagnostic funding
Summary
Disability and children’s mental‑health advocates asked the House human resources appropriations committee to restore funding for the UND FASD diagnostic center, to fully fund the Cross Disability Advisory Council (CDAC) work and to include children with serious emotional disorders in a cross‑disability waiver design.
Multiple witnesses asked the committee to strengthen state supports for children’s mental health and clarify the design and funding of a proposed cross‑disability waiver.
Carl Young, executive director of the Family Services Network, urged restoration of a prior legislative appropriation for the University of North Dakota’s Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) Center and asked that funding be increased beyond the prior appropriation he cited ($350,458 in the last biennium). Young said UND’s center is the only consistent in‑state diagnostic clinic he relies on to obtain FASD diagnoses; he said wait times were roughly two months and that practitioners in other states frequently do not accept North Dakota Medicaid.
Carlotta (last name on the transcript: Mental Health Advocacy Network) and Kirsten Dvorak (The Arc of North Dakota) urged major investments in children’s mental‑health services: high‑fidelity wraparound for children with serious emotional disorders; family support and peer‑support expansion; mobile crisis teams and children’s crisis stabilization beds; and inclusion of children with mental‑health needs in the cross‑disability waiver (the Cross Disability Advisory Council, CDAC, and legislation from interim work items were referenced). Dvorak said the CDAC’s work and proposed changes (Senate bills referenced during testimony) aim to refine level‑of‑care criteria and build a waiver that covers children with complex needs.
Witnesses noted gaps in the autism waiver (decreases and waiting lists), recommended paid family caregiving as part of waiver design, and urged support for family‑run organizations that provide training and case navigation. Carlotta asked the legislature to support a new state hospital separate from any prison complex and emphasized crisis‑response systems that include a calling line, mobile response and a place to go for stabilization.
Why it matters: Witnesses argued that without specialized children’s mental‑health services, families face out‑of‑state placements or inappropriate institutional care and that a cross‑disability waiver that includes children with mental‑health needs would fill gaps and reduce costly placements.
What’s next: Advocates asked the committee to reinstate the UND FASD appropriation, fully fund CDAC implementation work and move the cross‑disability waiver design forward so children with serious emotional disorders can access home- and community‑based services.
