When Gov. Tim Walz pledged to champion legislation to make Minnesota “the best state in the nation to raise kids,” he didn’t leave out children with special needs.
In a recent interview, the governor sat down with News Talk 830 WCCO’s Sheletta Brundidge for her podcast “Taking Authority over Autism.”
A mother of three children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, Brundidge zeroed in on education, with questions about how recent measures passed by the legislature will have a positive impact on families like hers.
“It can be really difficult to navigate the system,” Walz said. “Frustration navigating the system is real. We need to make it simpler.”
Walz pointed to a just-established state agency that his administration called is having cut down on red tape.
The new Department of Children, Youth and Families will support key initiatives and streamline state bureaucracy. The new agency will take over some of the responsibilities previously handled by the Department of Health and Human Services, one of the state’s largest agencies.
The governor promised it will offer families “more personalized care” for special needs students.
“We will be pulling out resources and putting them in one place for families. It starts with prenatal care for women,” Walz said. “And then making sure families are empowered that their special needs child is getting everything they deserve. We know we need to do more. Our children come with their own challenges but their own special gifts.”
Brundidge shared how she and her family moved from Texas in search of better educational options and resources for her children, with Minnesota looking like “the promised land.”
In her home state, Brundidge had been told “…the best they could do for my children was put them in a group home when they were fourteen.”
She told the governor, a former teacher himself, how her children are now thriving in mainstreamed classrooms and exceeding earlier expectations.
“We here in the state need to make sure we understand they each have unique needs. We are learning so much about autism and the special talents they all bring,” Walz said. “It takes a community. Morally, it’s the right thing but economically too. There’s a lot these kids are going to give back to the state. The sky is the limit for them.”
Gov. Walz also told Brundidge that lower income families will benefit from what he called “the biggest investment in state history,” a new child tax credit aimed at cutting childhood poverty.
“We are a caring state. We are committed to this,” he said. “Families out there struggling financially, you’re going to see the nation’s leading child tax credit that will start returning up to $1750 per child to your family every single year.”
Despite the drop in test scores and the setbacks in achievement that followed the disruptions of the pandemic, Gov. Walz insisted to Sheletta that he remains optimistic about Minnesota’s youth.
“This is a resilient generation. They’re caring. I’m very hopeful,” he said. “If we can get our children what they need, they can thrive and be the best they can be.”
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