The story of what is at stake in Connecticut’s Birth to Three system begins, as so many do, with a family facing the unimaginable.
One family we serve welcomed their son, Maveryk, seven weeks early. Weighing under three pounds, he spent his first days in the NICU, surrounded by monitors, tubes, and uncertainty. Before they could even bring him home, he qualified Birth to Three services, offering his parents something they desperately needed: hope.
Like thousands of families across our state each year, they were living hour by hour, unsure what the future would hold. They were doing everything they could, but they needed guidance. They needed someone to explain what came next. Birth to Three provided it.
An early intervention specialist began visiting regularly, modeling exercises that supported his neurological development and coaching his parents on how to continue that work each day. Slowly, steadily, their son grew stronger. Milestones that once felt out of reach became possible. This winter, after a comprehensive developmental evaluation, he had fully caught up for his age. A future that once felt fragile is now wide open.
This is what Birth to Three does. It turns fear into direction. It gives families a roadmap when life takes an unexpected turn. It changes outcomes during the most critical window of brain growth, when intervention has the greatest and most lasting impact.
And yet, the same system that made this transformation possible is now at risk of breaking.
Across the state, demand for early intervention has surged. Since 2017, referrals have increased by 36 percent. Families are seeking help earlier and more often, driven by improved screenings and growing awareness of developmental delays. But while demand has grown, the workforce has shrunk. Providers struggle to hire and retain licensed clinicians who can earn significantly higher wages in hospitals, schools, or private practice. Two programs have already closed, leaving only 17 statewide to serve thousands of children.
The consequences are already visible. In 2017, children with autism received an average of 37 hours of service each month. Today, that average is just 11 — a 70 percent reduction during the most critical years of development. A toddler’s brain cannot wait for budget cycles or administrative delays. What a child misses at one, two, or three cannot simply be made up later.
As the new legislative session begins, lawmakers are debating housing, childcare, healthcare, and other basic support for families. Birth to Three must be part of that conversation. Early intervention is not optional or supplemental; it is foundational infrastructure for healthy children and long-term educational success. If we are serious about meeting basic human needs, we must start at the very beginning of life.
Providers understand what is needed to stabilize the system but cannot do it alone. Reimbursement rates have not increased in nearly a decade and no longer cover the true cost of care. Programs are stretching every dollar simply to maintain staff. At the same time, the modest administrative payment that helps cover evaluations, coordination, and travel faces uncertainty. Without this support, programs will shrink and more families will wait.
Adding new bureaucracy or complicated payment structures now would only drive more clinicians away. Families need stability and access, not red tape.
Birth to Three is federally mandated, and investing early saves money later by reducing special education, healthcare, and long-term service costs. Underfunding it is not fiscally responsible — it is fiscally reckless.
The question before lawmakers in this session is simple: can we afford not to act?
Children like Maveryk thrive when the system works. Thousands of others are still waiting. Connecticut must increase reimbursement rates, protect administrative funding, and strengthen the providers of families to depend on.
Protecting Birth to Three means protecting futures — children’s futures, families’ futures, and our state’s future. If we fail, the cost will not just be financial but measured in lost potential that can never be recovered.
Now is the time to act, before the system breaks — and before more children lose what they can never regain.
Denise Daviau is Chief Executive Officer of Lumibility and a longtime behavioral clinician; Lumibility is an affiliate of The Arc Connecticut (lumibility.org | thearcct.org).