Inclined to Help

For the past four months, Jerry and Sally Freeman have waged a battle against the county Department of Children and Family Services bureaucracy to keep their severely disabled 3-year-old foster son, Manny, in the only home he has ever known.

They have called, e-mailed and and faxed agency officials in an effort to get them to pay for a wheelchair ramp for Manny, who suffers from cerebral palsy--a result of his mother’s heavy drug use and a stroke she suffered during pregnancy, case workers said.

The couple have a wheelchair ramp at their Haynes Street home, but it doesn’t meet specifications set by the city Fire Department, state Department of Social Services’ Community Licensing Division or the federal Americans With Disabilities Act.

“Sally is usually a pussycat,” Jerry Freeman, 64, said of his wife. “But mess with her kids and she becomes a tiger.”

Sally Freeman’s ferocity was evident during the past four months as she aggressively pressed bureaucrats to come up with an estimated $12,000 to pay for the specialized ramp.

State licensing officials warned the Freemans in August that if the ramp was not installed by Jan. 8, Manny would be taken from them and placed in a facility with an appropriate ramp.

“[Manny] has been with us for nearly three years,” said Sally Freeman, 61. “He has bonded with us and we have bonded with him. His mother sends me letters from prison saying ‘Please keep Manny.’ ”

Late last week, Sally Freeman learned her persistence had paid off: A Department of Children and Family Services official telephoned and told her that the money would come from the department’s special needs fund.

“We have money available for special needs cases,” said Schuyler Sprowles, a department spokesman. “All [Sally Freeman] has to do is provide us with three bids from contractors and then we can process the money for her. This is a done deal.”

Freeman said she has mixed feelings about the allocation.

“I feel relieved,” she said, “but I resent the fact that I have been put through the stress of trying to meet a deadline that is only a week away.

“I understand things were being done on my behalf behind the scenes at DCFS,” she continued, “but it would have been a great weight off of me if I had been kept informed.”

If the couple had been named Manny’s legal guardians before he turned 3--the age when the wheelchair ramp requirement goes into effect--they would not have been required to install a specialized ramp, Sally Freeman said.

As legal guardians, she said, the couple alone would be responsible for his health and safety, relieving the state social services department and the county Department of Children and Family Services from liability.

Even though the wheelchair ramp matter has been settled, the Freemans said they will continue to petition to become Manny’s legal guardians, an effort they began more than a year ago.

Legal guardianship would give the Freemans greater authority over his education and medical care, which they expect will include several orthopedic surgeries to lengthen his hamstrings and reposition his feet so he can eventually walk. A court hearing on the guardianship request is set for Feb. 25.

Seeking a solution to the wheelchair ramp issue consumed much of their time, and the Freemans said they are ready to return their full attention to Manny and the three other disabled children they are now caring for.

“We hope that eventually Manny will be able to walk and feed himself,” Sally Freeman said. “We are trying to do everything we can so that he can reach his highest potential.”

The Freemans have cared for about 245 children since becoming foster parents in 1967. They have seen children with severe mental and physical disabilities who were given little hope for survival by medical experts learn to walk, feed themselves and go to school.

Jerry Freeman said he and his wife care for severely disabled children for a simple reason: “Success is measured not by dollars or possessions, but if the world is better when you leave it, and caring for children is our contribution.”