My name is Juneth Lopez Ramirez, I am the mother of two special needs children both diagnosed with severe autism. The reason for me reaching out for help is that I want everyone to come together in order to stop the denial of therapies for special needs children, along with the ever growing waiting list for those who wish to receive these services. To elaborate, my children receive a variety of therapies such as ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis), Speech, and OT (Occupational Therapy) which are medically necessary in order to improve their overall quality of life. However, every 6 months my children along with other children in the special needs community are in danger of losing their hours for approved therapy sessions. Im hoping that my cries for help will not fall upon deaf ears, this is an extremely serious issue. It is absolutely despicable that biannually our children are measured for improvements by a board of so called experts which are so far removed from the reality of the situation happening in our homes, in order to determine if the therapy services are considered necessary. How could removal of services be a consideration when it is the services themselves that have allowed our children to improve and have the possibility of integrating themselves into society. These children are living with an impairment that is permanent, therefore the need for therapy should remain; families should no longer be tormented with the thought of losing the therapies that have helped their children thrive.