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Guardianship issues when children have special needs

Previous posts here have discussed how Massachusetts residents may be able to obtain a guardianship in order to give them legal authority over minor children in their care. Guardianships are particularly useful to grandparents in the Springfield area, as well as other adults who might be giving care to their younger loved ones. These people need the legal authority to take care of these children and provide for their needs by taking the doctor and enrolling them in school, among many other tasks.

Many of these caregivers might be providing for children who have special needs in terms of medical care or education, such as when a child has a documented physical or mental disability. A child with special needs may require a lot of additional medical appointments, therapy sessions and other services, all of which take time and money. These sorts of time commitments, important though they be, also add an extra layer of complication to the already difficult, but equally important, process of making sure that the child’s parents continue to have parenting time with their child.

In other cases, a special needs child may be receiving, or be eligible for, common government benefits, including Social Security Disability benefits or other benefits, such as Supplemental Security Income, which are available to those who have disabilities or other medical conditions.

In addition to obtaining the right authority to manage these benefits on their loved one’s behalf, a guardian will need to keep a careful accounting of how these benefits get spent and how much income is received overall. This is part of a guardian’s duty to carefully and faithfully manage the property placed in his or her care.

Guardianships involving special needs children require some extra attention to certain issues that might not be as prevalent in other types of cases. For this reason, it might be wise for a guardian in Massachusetts to get more information about the law pertaining to children with special needs.