Special Needs Resource Directory

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Day Care and Respite

Types of Day Care for Children with Special Needs

Finding reliable, quality child care can be a difficult and stressful task for any parent -- especially those who have children with special health care needs. Types of special-needs child care include:

Chronically Ill Day Care

Chronically Ill Day Care facilities provide for children with chronic medical and / or mental health conditions. Care for these children includes:

Medications and treatments
Developmental therapies
Tracheotomy and feeding tube care
Ventilator management
Enteral (by way of the intestine) feeds

Chronically Ill Day Care is mostly needed before and after school, on weekends, holidays and during the summer months. Therapies such as occupational, physical and speech therapies and / or counseling can often be provided. In addition, respiratory therapies, medication and feedings could also be administered.

They are usually separate for mental health versus medical health and various age groups. Occasionally, these facilities are also limited by the severity of the condition and / or level of care.

Acutely Ill Day Care

Acutely Ill Day Care facilities care for children with acute infectious illnesses who are otherwise well or chronically ill. There are usually some limitations to which infectious diseases each facility will care for.

They are mostly needed during weekday school hours since September through June is when infectious illnesses are most common.

Respite Care

Respite Care is usually periodic, overnight care to:

Give caregivers a break
Cover caregiver vacations
Help look after child when the caregivers are too ill to provide the care themselves

Respite Care is needed year-round to cover family illnesses, special events, vacations and stressful times when families need a break. Respite care should be able to provide the same services as Chronically Ill Day Cares.

It is not uncommon for a child to have multiple conditions that include all three of these categories.

Related Resources for Families of Children with Special Needs

To help locate a child care setting for your child with special health care needs, the Center for Infants and Children with Special Needs at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center recommends the following resources:

ChildCareAware™ provides a guide to choosing quality child care for a child with special needs:
You can download a copy of Choosing Quality Child Care for a Child with Special Needs on the Child Care Aware web site in portable document format (.pdf).
You must have Adobe Acrobat" Reader installed on your computer to read this file. You can download Adobe Acrobat" Reader at Adobe's Web site by selecting the version appropriate for your type of computer.
4C for Children provides information to families on how to choose quality child care, as well as offers free publications, links, resources and a child care eSearch feature.
The Arc Hamilton County has several programs to help with cover costs for respite services:

Family Resource Services Program can help families pay for respite services. A sliding fee scale is used to determine the percentage a family will pay for services. The program provides funds for families who are eligible to receive MRDD services.
Parents' Night Out can provide funds to hire a sitter for a child with a disability.

The Children's Home of Cincinnati offers a Child Care Program for day care and kindergarten readiness for children ages 3 months through 5 years of age. Children with special needs are accepted, but they must be able to function in their day care and preschool program settings.
Evening Stars is a program of Fellowship Baptist Church in Mainville, Ohio, that provides respite services once a month for families that have a child with a disability and their siblings. Families do not have to be church members to participate.
Max's House, a day care center for medically fragile children, is a division of Maxim Healthcare Services. It provides medical treatment, adaptive education and respite for families who have children with special health care needs. Infants and children ages 6 weeks through teenagers are eligible for treatment.
MRDD has respite services available for eligible families. Contact your Service Facilitator to begin the process.
National Child Care Information Center, developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, provides information and resources on child care and early childhoold education.
Ohio Department of Job and Family Services provides a daycare facility locator.
Redwood Rehabilitation Center offers quality programs that serve children with and without special needs, including:

Early intervention
Preschool education
School age child care
Summer Youth Program
Early childhood child care

Saint Joseph Home of Cincinnati offers a respite program with 24-hour personal and medical services for medically fragile and developmentally disabled infants and young adults.

Tips / Questions to Ask

Zero to Three", a national non-profit organization dedicated to helping promote the healthy development of our nation's infants and toddlers, offers various tips on child care. These child care tips include a special section on children with special needs, which outlines important questions to ask when interviewing / researching a particular facility.