In 2013, Matthew’s high school and IEP team told me that for me to continue to be involved, I needed to get guardianship of him… I didn’t. Unfortunately, I wasn’t as knowledgeable as I am now, so I fell into the trap.
What trap you ask? The Kansas pipeline that sees kids with disabilities go from high school to unneeded guardianship.
Honestly, I don’t necessarily blame the teachers. There are so many “regular education” teachers currently teaching “special education” in Kansas because the Kansas Legislature does not fund special education at the level it should. As of this writing, Kansas Special Education is underfunded by $155,000,000… that’s right millions!
Regular education teachers are not given the education a teacher needs to provide special education and write appropriate Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) so how can we be mad at them when they are just trying to do their best with what they are given. Sadly, most administrators also are not given the training they need to support special education teachers, so how can they support regular education teachers doing the role of special education>
Okay, I am digressing from the reason for this blog post… guardianship.
I was given guardianship rights over Matthew in 2013, he never needed it, as we have always practiced Supported Decision Making (SDM) skills since he was a toddler. Don’t we all need support when making decisions? Do you buy a car, make a medical decision, or remodel your home without a little support? Most people don’t. They have a team that assists them in gaining the knowledge they need to make the appropriate decisions in their lives.
Do you know guardianship can take away an individual’s right to marry who they want, vote, drive, and choose who to be friends with? Well, they can, of course, although I never did this.
Since 2013, trust me when I say Matthew still came to me to help him make all kinds of decisions, however he was able to navigate college without me and found a new team to support him there. As I have learned more being in the disability community, I realized… he did not need a guardianship.
I decided, once he graduated from college, I would petition the court to remove guardianship. Some asked why wait, my response I wanted to be able to show the judge that he was able to take on his biggest challenge yet in life and not only did it, but did it successfully. He graduated in December 2022, with a bachelor’s degree in communications! Woot Woot!
Fast forward to 2023, every year you must complete a yearly report for the court telling the court how things are going. I wrote that I believed he no longer needed guardianship, I received an email back not long after that asked why. I responded and the Johnson County District Court Judge asked if I would like him to schedule a hearing to remove. Um, yes please. It was scheduled for June 8th, we had to collect a few letters from his doctors in support of this, which they agreed.
The result of the hearing… the judge agreed with me and BAM just like that Matthew is now his own guardian.
This, this milestone is reason to celebrate!
I had many who told me that it is very hard to have guardianship, I have seen the cases they are not lying. I don’t know why we are lucky enough to have it easy, this was a long journey, but as our family motto goes “don’t tell me it’s impossible until after I’m finished!” it’s not impossible for other families either.
To learn more about Supported Decision making please visit: https://supporteddecisionmaking.org/