Out-of-Home Placement of Children with Intellectual Disabilities: The Need for a Family Support Policy

Abstract

Abstract Families of children with severe intellectual disabilities are at highest risk for out-of-home placement. Despite policies discouraging institutional placement of children with severe disabilities and dramatic reductions in the number of children in institutions, admissions to large state facilities is growing faster than discharges from them. Although most of the children with severe intellectual disabilities will spend their childhoods in their own homes, many will not. According to Meyer, up to 40% of children with severe and profound intellectual disabilities in the United States may no longer be living out-of-home. Parents of these children are caught in the dilemma of whether to place them out-of-home or rear them at home until they reach adulthood.