Parents seek way to keep center open
Tempers flared and tears flowed Thursday as desperate parents brainstormed for a strategy to keep the Charles Webb Center for special needs children open past Dec. 31.
Wade Spees
The Post and Courier
Rebecca Harwell leaves the Charles Webb Center Thursday night with her 2-year-old daughter Hailey Madison Woodard. Parents of special-needs children met to try to figure out a way to extend the life of the center whose funding from the state is scheduled to end soon.
All options were on the table during the freewheeling discussion, including fundraising and pressuring legislators and bureaucrats to restore $150,000 for the center that the state cut. Four other centers funded for special needs in other regions also were eliminated.
What worried the parents most is they have only about five weeks to come up with at least a temporary solution for the 30 kids who attend the Webb Center. If it closes, the parents said it will mean quitting their jobs to care for their children and possibly losing their homes and cars. It's impossible to find another day care that provides the specialized care the children need, they said. And if the center closes, it will mean more hospital stays, doctor visits and emergency room trips, parents said.
The parents described children who cannot sit in a chair without help. One woman who wants to adopt a special-needs child broke down in tears because she said the Department of Social Services said it would be a problem because the Webb Center is closing.
"The heroes in this place are the teachers who have not walked out on us yet," Maurice Heyward said.
He has twin girls at the center who were born five months premature at about 2 pounds each. He said the Webb Center has done a great job of working with his daughters to bring them up to speed so they have a chance at attending a public school.
Previous story
Families afraid Webb Center will close, published 11/15/08
The parents repeatedly said that the special-needs children at the Webb Center cannot be placed in other day care centers either because those places don't have the trained staff to handle the children or because they don't want special-needs kids.
The parents first received word last Thursday that the center would shutter because funds were cut.
An intensive fundraising campaign was discussed, but that didn't sit well with parent Johnny Phillips, who viewed it as little more than a temporary solution to a long-term problem. "Why should we have to beg? Each and every one of us are taxpayers," Phillips said.
Other parents said fundraising would at least buy the center some time while a longer-term solution is sought.
The Webb Center is a program of the Disabilities Board of Charleston County. Executive Director Rick Magner told the parents that the state Department of Disabilities and Special Needs cut funding for the Webb Center and the four other centers in the state that provide services for special-needs children.
Declining tax revenues in a dismal economy were blamed for the situation. "The money that has been cut never came in. It was not reallocated. It doesn't exist," Magner said.
He is working with the state to come up with a temporary solution to the Webb Center crisis that would buy the parents some time. He is "hopeful but not optimistic."
For now, the parents of children ranging from infants to 10-year-olds decided to focus on a petition campaign to gather as many signatures as possible in support of the center.
They will meet again in two weeks to decide where to go from there.
Reach Prentiss Findlay at pfindlay@postandcourier.com or 937-5711.
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Comments
This article has 11 comment(s)
Posted by lovemenot on November 21, 2008 at 8:14 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Could someone post the address or bank of where we could make donations? This truly is a travesty........
Posted by 2cents on November 21, 2008 at 8:27 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Also, how to find the petition
Posted by gingerisler on November 21, 2008 at 9:15 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Charles Webb Center
1611 Evergreen St
Charleston, SC 29407
(843) 852-5545
Posted by scienceguy on November 21, 2008 at 10:08 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Does anyone have an e-mail address for the Webb Center?
In a little while I will provide e-mail addresses for State Legislators so everyone can tell them how they feel about this.
Posted by scienceguy on November 21, 2008 at 10:15 a.m. (Suggest removal)
SC Senate e-mail addresses:
http://www.scstatehouse.net/html-pages/s...
Posted by lottcm on November 21, 2008 at 10:40 a.m. (Suggest removal)
As a former Assistant Director of a child care facility, I agree that it is hard (impossible in some cases) to meet the needs of these special needs children. We staffed according to the NAEYC standards (lowest teacher to children ratios) and still could not meet the needs of at least 3 special needs children. We could not find financial assistance for the parents to cover the cost of an additional resource (not to mention- trained). It was heart breaking to tell the parents, that we had exhausted all of our resources to unsuccessfully meet these needs. Each one of these children are precious and they have a right to the same benefits of socialization and preschool as children who do not have special needs. I have also emailed our legislators. There has to be other ways to make up budget deficits...
Posted by eyfigueroa on November 21, 2008 at 12:41 p.m. (Suggest removal)
What a shame.
Where are the regular posters when we need them?
This article isn't about race, gender or crime so I guess the rest of my fellow posters could care less.
This isn't an issue about handouts or helping those who CAN help themselves.
These parents are DESPERATE. They work everyday to support their families but will end up on the government dole all because they cannot find adequate care for children that no one else is willing or able to care for.
I say we all donate funds and BARRAGE our government with emails and letters.
Do we need to trim the fat off of our budget? OF COURSE!!!
Instead of supporting frivolous causes how about we assist hard working taxpayers in trying to keep their families together, their jobs and homes.
How about we take care of the TRULY helpless as opposed to those who can help themselves and are just too trifling to do so.
PLEASE WRITE, CALL, EMAIL your legislators.
SIGN THE PETITTION.
DONATE!
I am.
Posted by ColdBud on November 21, 2008 at 1:58 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I've said many times that we need to support people that cannot support themselves due to mental or physical disabilities. If we didn't spend so much money taking care of those that CAN and SHOULD be taking care of themselves, we'd be able to spend more money on things like this center. Does anyone know how much a family pays to send a child to this center?
Posted by eyfigueroa on November 21, 2008 at 4:04 p.m. (Suggest removal)
nope CB, trying to get in contact with personnel over there now.
Posted by keastvold on November 22, 2008 at 12:14 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I, too, would like to sign the petition, if someone knows where it is available or whom I should contact. I wonder if the pro-life activist community would be interested in taking up the cause of keeping the Center open, given that urging women not to abort fetuses who will probably be born with disabilities requires that there be resources available to them after the baby is born. I was especially struck, in that regard, by the paragraph about the woman hoping to adopt a special needs child, who was told that the closing of the Center would make it problematic for her to take care of the child and get needed services for him/her.
Kudos to the Post & Courier for covering this story. Keep up the good work!
- K. Pinckney Eastvold
Posted by exorcist_pencocky4u on November 22, 2008 at 12:46 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Perhaps the City of Charleston can take over the Webb Center and operate it. The tax increase required should be small enough to afford. You must admit with all that the City of Charleston wastes this would go for something good.
I'm sure the City of Charleston taxpayers won't mind.