FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 25, 2025
Contact: [email protected]

AUSTIN, TX – Last week, the Time To Care TX coalition sent a letter to Texas Governor Greg Abbott urging him to add state funding for community-based services for Texans with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) to the current special session agenda, and to take immediate action through the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) to provide flexibility for community-based IDD service providers across the state, who are facing a steep financial shortfall at the beginning of the new fiscal year, which begins September 1st.

In the letter, the coalition members make clear that funds appropriated for community-based IDD services during 89th Legislative Session were woefully insufficient to address the ongoing workforce crisis impacting community-based IDD services, and that providers are already beginning to shut their doors, leaving families of Texans with IDD scrambling to find new care and support options in their communities.

In the letter, the Time To Care coalition members write:

“During the 89th Legislative Session, the Texas Legislature missed a critical opportunity to appropriate adequate new funding for community IDD services in Texas before the crisis entered the point of no return. Now, we are seeing additional IDD group homes cancel their contracts with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC), citing a lack of funding from the state, leaving families of Texans with IDD scrambling to find appropriate care options for their loved ones with complex medical and behavioral needs.

“This continues the downward spiral for community IDD services in Texas, accelerating the misalignment and reduced access to services, ultimately costing the taxpayer more money and increasing negative outcomes for this particularly vulnerable population. We respectfully request that this urgent issue be added to the current special session’s agenda to be addressed immediately, before it is too late and thousands of Texans with IDD and their families are left with no options to receive the care and support they need in their communities.

“…Without relief, we will see more Texans with IDD displaced, their families left with few or no options to seek adequate care for loved ones, Texans with IDD living on the streets and arrested, and even losing their lives. The untenable economics that the Texas Legislature and HHSC have forced upon IDD service providers have now resulted in a death spiral for the community IDD care system in Texas.”

To read the full letter to Governor Abbott, click here.

For more information, visit www.timetocaretx.org.