Roughly 45,000 disabled Ohioans are waiting for special funding to get the services they need, according to a report from the nonprofit Center for Community Solutions.

“Right now, we don’t have enough resources to meet the demand in the developmentally disabled system,” says Jon Honek, co-author of the report and director of public policy and advocacy for the center.

"We could be doing more at the state level to provide some more resources to help our local county boards," says Honek.

And more is being done, slowly. Ohio’s proposed state budget increases funding by more than $100 million - including money set aside to address that wait list and put 3,000 more people into community-based care such as small group homes or living in their own home with personal caregivers. 

Kelly Petty leads the Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities.

She says, “Somehow or another, our services will be less focused on coming to a sheltered employment center and more about either being out there competitively employed in a job or somehow receiving services and supports in the community.”

This latest report, Petty says, signals the new direction that disability care is headed.