Moving to VT or VA - Thoughts?

[xenman]

My 2 year-old daughter has SB and we are currently living about 1.5 hours from Orlando where she is in the SB clinic. My wife and I like the clinic approach and are planning to move to a smaller city with a SB clinic in the near future so I would like to see if anyone out there has any experience with the SB Clinic or Schools in Burlington, VT or Charlottesville, VA.

It would seem to me that Vermont would be a better state for Special Needs services as they are very liberal state but reality sometimes is different. As for Virginia, I am not sure but I do remember seeing that Autistic kids where having issues in that state.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[eng188]

I can't really speak about Burlington. I used to live near Brattleboro, which is the major town in the southeast portion of the state. Frankly, even in Bratt itself, which is about 12,000 people, I never saw but two other disabled people. As well, we are part of a small metro area including Greenfield, Mass., and Keene, NH, and there was NO transit system during my years there. Now apparently there is a "Beeline" as seen here http://www.flickr.com/photos/david_coolbeth/525103766/

Burlington is quite a bit bigger than Brattleboro (40,000 or so in the city itself), and it has a proper transit authority with at least some semblance of paratransit. It is also home to UVM, the University of Vermont.

http://www.cctaride.org/
http://www.uvm.edu

As well, you'll be near Vermont's largest hospital, Fletcher Allen HealthCare. FAHC runs the children's hospital for the state as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fletcher_Allen_Health_Care
http://www.fletcherallen.org/

Vermont winters can be very severe, with lots of snowfall, but I quite liked it that way. Two problems, though:

1. SE VT has lots of black ice. Burlington may be better in that regard, but black ice is a no no for me.

2. Consult a doctor about a good stretching regimen. The cold weather was great for my endurance, but it tightened up my muscles pretty fast. Stretching is a chore, but it MUST. BE. DONE.

[LisaJoy]

My first thought was for you to contact the Spina Bifida Association in each of those states. It turns out that Vermont doesn't have one. There is one in Virginia, however -- it is called the Spina Bifida Association of Roanoke Valley, and their web site is www.sbarv.org.

I would suggest contacting them to get in touch with parents who can address your concerns, if no one on here is from those areas (and I don't recall seeing any).

You could contact the spina bifida clinic in Burlington to find out if they could put you in touch with some parents. Their contact info is at www.sbaa.org, under "find a clinic".