FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE WITH A DISABILITY
For
ongoing financial support, stay in contact with your college or university’s
financial aid office and disability or accessibility office.
For
support with expenses related to personal care attendants, accessible housing,
and transportation, pursue Supplemental Social Security Income (SSI) and
Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) funds.
FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE WITH A DISABILITY
Work
with your high school counselor.
Most
high schools have access to college planning platforms that can help find
financial aid.
Use
the Swift Student Form to create a Disability Expenses Request Letter and
submit it to your college or university’s financial aid office.
Federal
law allows financial aid officers to consider disability-related expenses when
determining the amount of financial aid a student can receive.
FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE WITH A DISABILITY
Before
applying for college funding, understand each funding source’s requirements and
how much time you will need to meet them.
Many
scholarships require personal essays and letters of recommendation, which take
time to write.
Look for scholarships offered by organizations that support people with your diagnosis.
(For example, MDA’s scholarship for students with neuromuscular
diseases.)
FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE WITH A DISABILITY
Find links to webinars and other
information at Accessible College and the Muscular Dystrophy Association
(MDA): Working Together to Support Students.
FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE WITH A DISABILITY
According to MDA’s College Planning
Timeline, 10th grade is a good time to start making a college budget plan.
While researching schools, reach out
to their disability or accessibility officers to ask about scholarships
and financial aid options for students with disabilities.
College scholarship applications are
generally due in the fall or spring of a student’s 12th-grade year.
The deadline for the Free Application
for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), a program everyone should apply for, is
usually June 30 in the year you are applying for.
State deadlines may vary.
FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE WITH A DISABILITY
But with college tuition costs
continuing to spiral, according to U.S. News & World Report, you might be
wondering how you’ll afford it.
The key may be combining scholarships,
grants, and other financial aid programs and benefits.
Here, current college students and an
expert provide tips for finding funding to help you start and finish college.
YOU WERE VERY KIND TO A YOUNG JOURNALIST FOUR DECADES AGO
I certainly hold the opposite
political views of the late Lou Holtz.
But we shared a love of Kent State,
where we both got our career starts.
He was very kind, patient and
accommodating with me when I interviewed him in early 1985.
“I'm not the brightest guy, I have a
lisp and a body that looks like it has suffered from beriberi and scurvy, but
I've learned to build up my self esteem,”
Was Lou Holtz’s best quote in my Daily
Kent Stater interview published 2-5-85.
MUNICIPALITIES MUST GET CREATIVE TO FUND RESILIENCY IN A TIME OF BOTH GREATER NEED AND REDUCED FEDERAL FUNDING
The ground-mounted system will be
built and operated by Madison Energy through a power purchase agreement with
Fairfax County.
John Morrill, Fairfax County’s
director of the office of environmental and energy coordination, said the
county’s Department of Housing office building was made more efficient and
sustainable with rooftop solar panels.
The building retrofit adds a new life
to the structure and the energy savings — about $75,000 per year — will pay off
the total cost of its capital improvements in 15 to 20 years.
“Beyond cost savings, there are
environmental benefits. Reducing emissions at the power plant helps air quality
for everyone,” Morrill said.
The county replaced a gas boiler with
a heat pump plus solar at a large recreation center.
In addition to being more efficient,
the upgrade reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
The county is in its fifth and final
years of converting its streetlights to LED.
While the bulb investment is about $8
million total, Morrill said the more efficient bulbs allow the county to avoid
about $3 million per year in energy costs to operate the more than 50,000
streetlights.
As the price of energy continues to
soar, the cost avoidance could be even greater.
MUNICIPALITIES MUST GET CREATIVE TO FUND RESILIENCY IN A TIME OF BOTH GREATER NEED AND REDUCED FEDERAL FUNDING
Morrill said the goal in Fairfax
County, Va., is to make energy efficiency self-funding.
In June, the county broke ground for
the construction of a five-megawatt solar array on a closed landfill.
When operating in spring 2026, the
solar is expected to provide about five percent of the power needed to operate
more than 500 county buildings and over 50,000 streetlights in Fairfax.
The growing county of about 1.2
million has set ambitious goals of getting 25 percent of its electricity from
renewable sources by 2030 and 50 percent by 2040.
Making sure new facilities are built
energy efficient and spending capital dollars to improve efficiency is a way of
saving power expenses, Morrill said.
MUNICIPALITIES MUST GET CREATIVE TO FUND RESILIENCY IN A TIME OF BOTH GREATER NEED AND REDUCED FEDERAL FUNDING
In the center of the $42-million park,
a one-acre lake was created to retain stormwater.
A future phase will connect the
surrounding neighborhood’s drainage system to the park, providing extra
capacity during heavy rains.
Maurice Gibb Park was completely
rebuilt with a living shoreline of mangroves, raised seawall, native trees and
increasing drainage capacity.
Brittany Bay Park on the Intracoastal
Waterway uses a living shoreline to protect the community from storms and
sunny-day flooding.
In July, Miami Beach adopted a Sea
Level Rise Adaptation Plan.
It was funded by a $454,000 Resilient
Florida Grant and another $100,000 in matching city funds that were dedicated
to compound flood modeling.
MUNICIPALITIES MUST GET CREATIVE TO FUND RESILIENCY IN A TIME OF BOTH GREATER NEED AND REDUCED FEDERAL FUNDING
Though its land mass is less than
eight square miles, the densely populated luxury living and resort town has a
total taxable value of more than $56 billion.
All that valuable residential and
commercial real estate sits only four feet above sea level.
With Biscayne Bay on its west side and
the Atlantic Ocean on its east, the city is vulnerable to both sunny-day tidal
flooding and paralyzing flooding simply when it gets heavy rains.
Miami Beach is planning to invest
upwards of roughly $1 billion on resiliency.
A 2018 general obligation bond brought
in more than $439 million — with most of it earmarked for resiliency.
Using utility fees and other
resources, the city is adding water pumps, improving its stormwater network and
rebuilding parks that can control flooding.
MUNICIPALITIES MUST GET CREATIVE TO FUND RESILIENCY IN A TIME OF BOTH GREATER NEED AND REDUCED FEDERAL FUNDING
Since the devastation of Hurricane
Andrew in 1992, Florida has had the top disaster response capacity of any
state.
Perez noted that FEMA is widely
acknowledged as one of the world’s leading agencies in coordinating logistics
and immediate disaster response, particularly in situations that exceed the
capacity of individual states.
While FEMA will continue to play a
critical role in disaster response, states will likely need to assume greater
responsibility for longer-term recovery efforts.
MUNICIPALITIES MUST GET CREATIVE TO FUND RESILIENCY IN A TIME OF BOTH GREATER NEED AND REDUCED FEDERAL FUNDING
While that may be a difficult
adjustment for some states less accustomed to frequent disasters, it’s grounded
in the U.S. Constitution.
Perez explains that, under our system
of federalism, states hold primary responsibility for disaster response and
recovery.
“Think of Katrina in New Orleans and
Lahaina in Hawaii.
They were so severe and overwhelming,
the states had to request federal assistance, including from FEMA,” he said.
