Direct support professionals (DSPs) and frontline supervisors (FLSs) play an integral role in the lives of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and are often the individuals directly responsible for assisting people with IDD to live and fully participate in their communities. These two groups of workers have typically been employed at lower wages with limited access to fringe benefits, contributing to high rates of turnover compared to a similarly skilled worker in the United States. This article summarizes findings and is the first investigation in several years to systematically examine the wages, fringe benefits, and stability of the DSP and FLS workforces supporting individuals with IDD. Findings suggest that a typical DSP may expect to earn about $11.25 per hour, while FLSs may expect wages of about $15.45 hourly. Of concern, however, is that fringe benefit provision was quite limited in this sample. Implications, including relation to past reports of DSP workforce development, are discussed.

This study investigated parental perceptions of the early signs, age of initial concern, age of diagnosis, and age of initial intervention for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in mainland China. A sample of 146 Chinese parents of children with ASD responded to an online survey. The findings suggested that parents were concerned about their child’s development at a mean age of approximately three years, obtained an initial diagnosis at an average age of four years, and procured intervention for their child at an average age of four years-three months. The results also revealed that early indicators of ASD validated in the United States were among those used hy Chinese parents, though some early signs may gain particular salience in the Chinese context. Additionally, educational implications and areas of future research are discussed.

Self-directed home and community based services (HCBS) waiver services and supports for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) have become a viable and widely used method of service provision in the United States. Grounded in theories of self-determination, previous literature on self-direction has suggested high satisfaction and positive outcomes for people who use self-directed programs as well as cost savings for state IDD service systems. This study explored the ways in which state IDD service administrators think about how self-direction may be used as a method of achieving cost savings while providing opportunities for people with IDD and their families to exercise choice and control. Informed by 54 high-level IDD service administrators in 34 states, and guided by a thematic analysis approach to data interpretation, the study found evidence that administrators typically see strong potential for self-direction to have cost-savings benefits, while also fostering choice. In the current political climate, the need for cautious fiscal stewardship may become a stronger driving force behind self-direction for people with IDD in the United States.

Services and supports for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) have undergone a significant transformation in the past 40 years. The momentum for this transformation has been fueled by changing societal views of people with disabilities and advocacy by people with IDD and their families. Furthermore, systems changes have reformed the way in which supports are provided and funded to promote choice and control for people with disabilities and their families. One such apparatus for providing individual choice in the provision of services is self-directed supports (also known as consumer directed or participant directed).Self-directed supports are a program or service option in which people with IDD, their families, and their allies directly manage their supports. In this service option, people with IDD and their families use individually set and controlled budgets to select, purchase, and manage their own supports within an established framework of guidelines (Alliance for Self-Determination, 1999;Nerney & Shumway, 1996;Scala & Nerney, 2000). In this model, individuals and families typically recruit, hire, and manage their own direct support workers (Moseley, 2001).This service option is widely available across the United States. A recent study identified 34 states that currently offer some type of self-direction of individual budgets and/or increased individual control of financial benefits for people with IDD and their families (Walker, Hewitt, Bogenschutz, & Hall-Lande, 2009). Self-directed supports offer numerous benefits to people with disabilities, their families, communities, and society, perhaps the greatest of which is increased control and choice. However, these services also can present implementation challenges.