Hello and welcome to Day in Washington, your disability policy podcast. I’m your host Day Al-Mohamed working to make sure you stay informed.  This is your Disability Report for the week of January 7, 2019.
Healthcare
The Missouri Legislative session starts on January 9. Legislation has been pre-filed for the upcoming session that would expand insurance coverage for developmentally disabled individuals.

Therapy for most developmental disabilities can cost up to $100 an hour with individuals sometimes needing multiple sessions a week; sometimes for months or even years. Think about speech therapy or occupational therapy or physical therapy…these are just not one-and-done types of activities. And Insurance plans tend to cap coverage at 20 visits. To make up for that, some families are trying to pay out of pocket and that can total up to more than $15,000 a year.

In 2010, Missouri lawmakers passed a law that provided insurance coverage for therapy for those on the Autism spectrum. The new bill expands that coverage to include those with any developmental disability so would cover conditions such as cerebral palsy and Down Syndrome.

https://www.missourinet.com/2019/01/02/missouri-group-backs-legislation-to-cover-kids-developmental-disabilities/
Education
Mental Health and Schools. Over and over we are told that mental health is as critical as physical health. Nowhere is this as critical as in our school systems. Federal funding in Title IV, Part A of the Every School Succeeds Act (ESSA) passed in 2015 includes a flexible block grant program known as Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants (SSAEG). These grants would cover activities in three areas:

Programs such as college and career counseling, STEM, arts, civics and International Baccalaureate/Advanced Placement.
Mental health, drug and violence prevention, training on trauma-informed practices, and health and physical education.
Supporting the effective use of technology that is backed by professional development, blended learning and ed tech devices

Roland-Story students in Iowa will now have access to mental health services with Okerberg and Associates, which will provide the services to the district for a 22-week period. The school board also voted to request funds for at-risk and dropout prevention. Roland-Story is requesting $246,000 from the state to support this program.

What is sad to me is that Roland-Story has requested these funds for over a decade.

https://www.amestrib.com/news/20190101/roland-story-approves-agreement-for-mental-health-services
Technology
As a part of the CVAA (the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010) starting from January 1, 2019, any video and computer games in the US must ensure they are accessible to people with disabilities in regards to communications. Failure to comply will allow complaints to be made to the FCC and possible fines. The International Game Developers Association has just put out some information about how games are affected based on their development progress.

In addition to making sure that games are accessible those with disabilities, the creation of the game must have these conditions in mind early in development and involve disabled people in the design or testing process.

Should the game not meet the standards and fail to comply, if a customer complains to the Federal Communications Commission or FCC, then it is possible the developer may be fined. (Of course not all games can be made fully accessible, but the FCC’s job is to mediate and look into efforts to fix the issues).

https://www.dualshockers.com/cvaa-2019-games-to-be-made-accessible-for-disabilities/
Housing
Since the 1970s, in return for access to federal flood insurance,