Harrisburg, PA – This year, Governor Josh Shapiro followed through on his commitment to Pennsylvania’s intellectual disability and autism (ID/A) community by securing historic investments in the 2024-25 bipartisan budget that have delivered real results. These efforts include increased service funding, higher reimbursement rates, and meaningful progress in beginning to eliminate waiting lists for individuals in need.
Governor Shapiro’s leadership marks a transformative step forward for the ID/A community and their families. By prioritizing home and community-based care and supporting caregivers, the Shapiro Administration is ensuring that Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable residents have access to the essential services and resources they need to lead fulfilling lives.
Supporting the ID/A Community and Addressing Systemic Challenges
This year’s bipartisan budget invests in Pennsylvanians with ID/A and the direct support professionals (DSPs) who care for them by securing $354.8 million in federal and state funding to provide more resources for home and community-based service providers. The funding includes $280 million to help raise wages for DSPs and $74.8 million to begin the process of clearing the emergency waiting list. This investment in provider rates will support recruitment, retention, and wages for DSPs who care for people with intellectual disabilities and autism.
This budget also sets a transformative course to eliminate the emergency waiting list for services for adults over the next several years. This system change will also make Pennsylvania one of only a handful of states to end its emergency waiting list and help ID/A community members access vital services to live independently, pursue education and job opportunities, and participate in the everyday lives they deserve.
Read more about the services and resources available through the Department of Human Service’s Office of Developmental Programs.
Click here to watch Governor Shapiro’s video on his Administration’s efforts to advocate for and invest in the ID/A community; read the transcript below.
TRANSCRIPT
"The wonderful people in the ID/A community all across Pennsylvania — they haven't had that opportunity. They haven't had it sometimes because we haven't funded things. They haven't had it sometimes because we've set them aside, not said: ‘You're part of the crew. Let's do this together.’ We've tried very hard to change that, and this budget is an incredibly important step in that process.
When the Jennings family came to visit, they're here right now — mom, grandma and their son — they came to tell me the story of so many in Pennsylvania. About how an adult child needed more and more supports that the Commonwealth wasn't able to provide, and it was falling to the family. A family where mom was doing her best but was hit with cancer and had her own battle to deal with, and thank god she's doing well. Where grandma was doing her best, but her best year after year after year was just getting a little harder each time.
The Jennings family, to me, is indicative of the broader challenges in Pennsylvania. We value the ID/A community, and we're here to invest in the ID/A community. I want you to know that you matter, I want you to know that you have been heard, and I want you to know that you will always be in the front of the line when we go forward in our work here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Thank you for teaching me so much over the years. Thank you for being here for us. I'm proud to stand with all of you. And with that I want to sign this in the law."
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