The Arc, the nation’s largest community-based advocacy organization for people with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities is calling on Congress to develop policies that enable IDD persons to live their fullest lives and to provide adequate funding for home-based programs that make it possible:

A well-trained, fairly compensated, and respected direct support professional (DSP) workforce is essential to providing the necessary supports and services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) where they live and work.

Our direct support workforce is in crisis. With an average annual turnover rate of 45 percent, an average wage of $10.72 an hour, and an average vacancy rate of 9 percent, the needs of people with disabilities, their families, and the workers themselves are not being met.

There is an urgent need for more DSPs and Early Childhood educators in our field.

For more information check out a 2017 report by the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities on the growing national crisis among Direct Support Professionals.  The Committee has been a national tradition established by President John F. Kennedy in 1961.  While this report was submitted to President Trump, it contains a good description of the growing crisis among DSPs.