Raising a Child With a Disability in New Hampshire: Why Costs Rise as Income Falls
It costs substantially more to raise a child with a disability — and the same caregiving those higher costs demand is the caregiving that pulls a parent out of work. More money required, less ability to earn it, closing on one household at the same moment. A family that should be stable lands below the line: too much income to qualify for help, nowhere near enough to cover what care actually costs.
The Founder’s Question
I have children with disabilities. It costs more to support and raise them. As single parent supporting and raising them restricts my ability to earn a living - an impossible situation. The suggested solution is to put them into state funded residential facilities. I love my children; I want them home. So why is there so little help available for caregivers who want to parent their own children?
— Mark, founder of 603 Circle
Why do the costs of raising a disabled child rise as the parent’s income falls?
Because the caregiving those higher costs demand is the same caregiving that takes a parent out of work. Therapies, evaluations and assistive technology push the bills up, while missed shifts and care that cannot be found push earnings down — two forces pulling against each other, on one household, at the same time.
I wasn’t the only one in it. When I started looking, I found the same trap holding other families — the same gap, the same width, the same outcome.
Blade one: the cost goes up
Therapies, evaluations, and assistive technology are routinely uncovered or waitlisted, so families pay out of pocket — and the bills land on a household that didn’t choose them.
Blade two: the income goes down
The caregiving those higher costs demand is the same caregiving that takes a parent out of work — missed shifts for appointments, school calls, and crises, and care that fits is hard to find, so the parent absorbs it.
Who pays for special education and disability services in New Hampshire?
Overwhelmingly, local property taxpayers do — they carry 83% of the state’s special-education costs, while the state and federal government together cover 17%. The rest of the state’s own record runs the same direction.
- Local property taxpayers carry 83% of New Hampshire’s special-education costs; the state and federal government together cover just 17%.NH School Funding Fairness Project, 2023–24
- New Hampshire eliminated its developmental-disability waitlist in 2019 — a real achievement, but a fragile one. In 2025 a state budget proposal carried a $31.4M cut that would have hit services for 270+ people, reversed only after intensive advocacy.NH Fiscal Policy Institute, 2025
- The Choices for Independence waiver — in-home care for seniors and adults with physical disabilities — is the subject of a federal class action alleging that eligible people cannot actually access the services they qualify for. The state reports no waiting list for the program. What happens instead is its own crack.Fitzmorris v. NHDHHS; NH DHHS, DLTSS Budget Briefing Book, March 10, 2025
- Nationally, people with intellectual and developmental disabilities wait an average of ~50 months for home- and community-based services.KFF, 2024
- A University of New Hampshire Law Review study documents the state’s “return to the institutionalization of children with disabilities.”UNH Law Review, 2023
Why does a family that should be stable end up below the line?
Because the math is fixed before the family starts. The cost of care rises at the exact moment the caregiver’s earning power falls — two blades closing on one household at once — and the contradiction between “too well-off for help” and “nowhere near able to pay” is the crack itself.
The outcome was never in doubt. Run the math and the result comes out the same every time.
When you wound one, you take two down. The child goes unsupported, and the parent goes down with them.
This is the same family the lowest-poverty ranking never counts — see The Ruler. And it’s the family every crack converges on at once: The 'Healthy' Children.
Sources
- NH School Funding Fairness Project (2023–24); local property taxpayers carry 83% of New Hampshire special-education costs, state and federal share 17%.
- NH Fiscal Policy Institute (2025); developmental-disability waitlist eliminated 2019, 2025 budget proposal carried a $31.4M cut affecting services for 270+ people, reversed after advocacy.
- Fitzmorris v. NHDHHS (federal class action alleging eligible people cannot access the Choices for Independence services they qualify for); NH Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Long-Term Supports and Services, Budget Briefing Book, March 10, 2025, p.12 (DHHS reports no waiting list for CFI waiver services).
- KFF (2024); national average wait of ~50 months for home- and community-based services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
- University of New Hampshire Law Review (2023); documentation of the state’s return to institutionalization of children with disabilities.
- NOTE (not published): the 41.6% vs 30.6% food-insufficiency comparison, the ~95% miss-work figure, and the 2–3× cost multiplier are held pending verification of source and methodology.