When Your Special Needs Child Grows Up: Planning for “What’s Next?” with Mary McDirmid

We spent much of the last school year discussing the changes in education and the uncertainty surrounding the federal Department of Education. Beyond the policy debates and headlines are real families trying to navigate very real questions about their children’s futures. For families of children with special needs, those questions can feel especially overwhelming: What happens after high school? How do we plan for adulthood? What financial, legal, and practical decisions need to be made—and when? Today, we’re shifting the conversation from what is happening in education right now to what families need to plan for the years ahead. Mary McDirmid joins us to share both her professional expertise and her personal experience as a mother of a child with special needs.Mary McDirmid is a financial planner and the mother of two daughters, the youngest of whom is ten and has special needs. As her own family encountered the complexities of planning for their daughter’s future, Mary recognized how difficult it can be for families to know where to begin—and how much they need someone who understands both the financial and personal sides of special needs planning. That experience led her to focus her work on helping other families navigate these challenges through All Needs Planning, where she provides specialized planning and support for families at every stage of life.Show Highlights:Understanding how a diagnosis changes everything for a familyAfter simply surviving from birth to age 3, a family focuses on IEPs for the school years; next comes graduation, which is a big question mark. (“Now, what?”)Simply staying home all day is NOT the best choice.The one question that alerts you to the groups that are right for your special needs child in the post-education yearsFinding what benefits are available to pay for servicesThe importance of community and connection for families with the shared experience of a child with a rare diseaseMary’s work with families includes finding/applying for benefits and structuring special needs trusts, accounts, and estate planningHow to think about naming people who can replace you in the future (Think of a five-year plan. You can reset it later.)Simply creating a special needs trust is not enough.NOW is always the best time for planning.Immediate steps for parents to take now: figure out the years your child has left in school, take inventory of the planning you have in place, and determine what is missingMary’s easy trick to save digital documents related to your child and their care (Get them a Gmail account!)Resources:Connect with Mary McDirmid: Website and book, Care, Protect, Grow.Contact us on social media or through our website for more information on the IEP Learning Center: www.inclusiveeducationproject.org.Thank you for listening!Don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE to the show to receive every new episode delivered straight to your podcast player every Tuesday. If you enjoyed this episode and believe in our message, please help us get the word out about this podcast. Rate and review this show on Apple Podcasts, Pandora, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Your rating and review help other listeners find this show. Connect with us and reach out with any questions or concerns: Facebook, Instagram, X, IEP Website, and Email.