Letting Go, Holding On: Life After Raising an Autistic Son

• By: Karen B. Mariscal, Esq. Mariscal Special Needs Law
• January 5th, 2026
• caregiver stress, emotional resilience, family caregiving, intellectual disabilities, parenting, PTSD symptoms, sensory regulation, special education, Winter 2026 Issue
• 739    1

My war is mostly over, and I miss it terribly. Raising Billy, my son who has autism, was like going through a war, every day a battle. And now he is 33 and he is gone. Not completely gone -- he lives in a group home 10 miles away, and it only takes me 22 minutes to get there. But I no longer...

A Place of Their Own: Residential Services for Soon-to-Be Adults with Autism

• By: Marina Sarris Interactive Autism Network, Kennedy Krieger Institute
• July 1st, 2013
• adult autism services, family caregiving, housing support, independent living, Medicaid waivers, planning, service shortages, transition to adulthood, waiting lists
• 2568    0

An unprecedented number of families will soon watch their children with autism leave school and flood the adult disability system. Up to a half million children with autism will reach adulthood in the next decade, according to estimates.1, 2 These children, the first wave of the so-called...