We examined racial and ethnic disparities in quality of care for children with autism and other developmental disabilities and whether disparities varied for children with autism compared to children with other developmental disabilities. Analyzing data from the National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs (N  =  4,414), we compared Black and Latino children to White children. We found racial and ethnic disparities on 5 of 6 quality outcomes. The interaction between race and disability status indicated that disparities in quality indicators were exacerbated among families of children with autism. These analyses suggest that children with autism, particularly those who are Latino and Black, face greater challenges in receiving high-quality health care.

Young children with disabilities are significantly more likely to live in poverty than their peers without disabilities. Exposure to poverty creates additional risk of adverse outcomes for these vulnerable children. In this article, the following key circumstances contributing to this increased risk of impoverishment are analyzed: elevated costs of raising children with disabilities, low levels of public income transfer benefits, difficulty balancing parental employment and caregiving responsibilities, unavailable or high-cost child care, and inadequate leave time to permit parents to meet their children's episodic care needs. The implications of these issues for social work practice and advocacy needs are discussed.

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Researchers analyzed the 2002 wave of the National Survey of America's Families, conducted by the Urban Institute and Child Trends, and examined material hardship in families raising children with disabilities. Measures of hardship included food insecurity, housing instability, health care access, and telephone disconnection. The research indicated that families of children with disabilities experienced significantly greater hardship than did other families. As family income rose above the federal poverty level, hardship declined sharply for families of children without disabilities but not for families raising children with disabilities. Thus, the U.S. federal poverty level was found to be a particularly poor predictor of hardship for families raising children with disabilities. Finally, among families of children with disabilities, single-mother and cohabiting-partner families particularly were at risk for experiencing severe hardship. This article also discusses policy and advocacy implications.

We compared the economic well-being and maternal employment of parents whose children did or did not have developmental disabilities. This prospective study is a secondary analysis of data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, collected when respondents were aged 18, 36, and 53, on average. Although the two groups were similar at age 18, income and savings differed markedly by age 53, but statistically significant differences were not found on other measures. Mothers of children with disabilities were less likely to have job spells lasting more than 5 years and had lower earnings when they were 36 years old. Further, there was a trend for them to be less likely to have full-time jobs as their children grew older.