Earlier this year, our founder Annette Hines introduced the sister company of Special Needs Law Group of Massachusetts, Special Needs Family Services.

As part of this launch, we brought on new staff members to help us hit the ground running in 2021. One of these additions to the team is Kerri Whalen, our new Practice Administrator and the guest for this episode of Parenting Impossible.

The subject of this episode is one that we get asked about a lot: What happens when you move your family from one state to the next?

While states' rights can be liberating, they also present challenges as there is no uniformity of laws and benefits. This can cause a lot of problems for families who move to a different state and end up receiving disparate treatment from what they have gotten used to and relied on.

Kerri knows this circumstance all too well as she recently moved from Maryland to Massachusetts with her family, including one of her teenage sons who is on the autism spectrum.

Kerri shares her experiences of trusting her gut to know what was best for her son, learning from her mistakes along the way, and navigating the different systems and rights between states that so many parents struggle with as they relocate their families.

Annette Hines has been practicing in the areas of Special Needs, Elder Law, and Estate Planning for more than 20 years. Ms. Hines brings personal experience with special needs to her practice and podcasts as the mother of two daughters, one of whom passed away from Mitochondrial disease in November 2013. This deep, personal understanding of special needs fuels her passion for quality special needs planning and drives her dedication to help others within the special needs community.