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Lives, and that s been a big change. a frightening one. reporter: with no more teachers and friends to stimulate his language skills, eric is already losing some of the speech he gained in school. so she can t sit in a sofa. she can t sit in a he is sleeping 12 to 13 hours. kind of drifting in and out of his world. singing to himself a lot. talking to himself a lot. really regressing into his own world. a lot of withdrawal. reporter: eric s mother has explored free day programs offered by the state known as day-habs. she doesn t like what she s seen. what did you see? i saw rooms full of people with their heads on the tables, wandering around. just being in storage. they re just sitting in a room. dateline took hidden cameras ....
Manual, right? depended who you got on the other end of the phone. i have been calling 30 agencies and just taking notes like crazy, and i look back at the notes and, god, it was chaos. there is one particular program lenor has been desperate to get nick enrolled in before he ages out. the government will allocate a certain amount of money for nick and let his family pick and choose how to spend it on services for him at home. with graduation a few weeks ago lenor finds out he has been wait listed. he has no program to transition to because the funding is not there, and he is stuck on a waiting list. reporter: eric s mother, mary, is deeply concerned about her son s transition too. she s been looking for adult programs for him for years. my short list of things i thought probably would come through. i m working my way through them, and i m getting a lot of shut doors. reporter: mary is finding ....
Weekend? reporter: and instead of weekly dinner dates with his mom, eric meets with a language coach his own age paid for by his parents. and their conversation sounds like any other dinner date. thank you for asking! good morning, pam! good morning! how are you today? reporter: but the best news is eric s mom has traded the dayhab for something even better. he s been selected for a selective art program for adults with developmental disabilities. it s called pure vision arts and is a program of the shield institute, a non-profit organization. eric shows us some of his artwork. and is that milk or juice? milk! reporter: breakfast! eric has also displayed his work in several art exhibits around new york city. at his first show, old friends come to celebrate with him. his mother, who s finally finding time to get back to her own artwork, is thrilled. ....
so the federal government can t say to florida you ve got to do the same thing. at this point under the law no. what s more, lewis says states split their medicaid dollars between the poor and people with disabilities. it all adds up to a system that can t take that much weight. back in new york nick s family decides he is better off staying put so they make a difficult decision. they re breaking up the family. mike will move to florida for his job alone. what does it mean to the family? it will be long distance, and it leaves nick and my daughter and i here to try to figure out how we re going to be three-quarters of a family. and keep dad connected. and eric s family is also settling for a situation that s not perfect, but better than him sitting at home. six months after he graduated from the rebecca school, eric ....
Where agents help keep you protected from mayhem. .like me. mayhem is everywhere. are you in good hands? welcome back to this edition of dateline. examining the struggle two families face when their special needs sons were about to reach their 21st birthdays. it was the able when their schooling had to come to an end, worrying their parents about the next stage in their son s lives. continuing our report, here is kate snow. reporter: eric s parents are sitting in an emergency meeting with the principal at his school. what are the options for him for next year. eric is not in trouble. he has autism, and by law he must leave school when he turns 21 in a few months, but his dad, richard sedowski, says eric is not done learning, and he and ....