In the 2000s, an oil bust and a recession resulted in budget shortfalls prompting state agencies to strip services from some of the most vulnerable Oklahomans.
Court orders following a 2008 lawsuit alleging the state failed to protect children in state custody led the Department of Human Services to cut elsewhere. One casualty was disability care.
Services for Oklahomans with autism, cerebral palsy, Down Syndrome, brain injuries and intellectual disabilities faced even deeper cuts when federal contributions, which are determined by state funding, plummeted.
In 2016, the agency threatened to stop funding in-home care for adults. The American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma sued over the proposed cuts.
The move made national news and rallied distraught families who put pressure on the Department of Human Services. Lawmakers took notice and launched a bipartisan caucus focused on disability services.
In-home services remained and the lawsuit was dismissed.
New waivers relied on attrition leaving nearly 8,000 Oklahomans waiting in 2018 – the longest waitlist in state history.
Yearly allocations of $1 or $2 million chipped away at the list until last year when lawmakers appropriated enough money to eliminate the list, according to estimates from the Department of Human Services.
Celebration ensued. A television commercial lauded future promises to serve vulnerable Oklahomans. Agency leaders joined Gov. Kevin Stitt, lawmakers and a family recently approved for services to praise the progress.
Meanwhile, as OK Watch’s Whitney Bryen reports in this week’s Long Story Short, thousands of families remain desperate for help.
