JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 As the federal government shutdown stretches into its 22nd day, local organizations are feeling the strain. Now, one Jacksonville nonprofit school for autistic children has temporarily closed its doors.<\/p>\n
The Jericho School for Children with Autism<\/b><\/a> in Arlington, which has relied on state and federal funding for the past 30 years, has been forced to pause operations because federal payments, particularly from insurance provider Tricare, have dried up. <\/p>\n >>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <\/b><\/a><\/p>\n While the school has received some support from the state\u2019s Family Empowerment Scholarship<\/b><\/a>, the bulk of its funding comes from the federal level.<\/p>\n Jacqueline James, a local mom, said the impact has been immediate and devastating for her 5-year-old daughter, Shanay, who was born a month early with cerebral palsy, a cleft lip, and a cleft palate. Traditional schools weren\u2019t meeting Shanay\u2019s needs, and after a school injury, Jacqueline turned to Jericho.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have had such an impact in my daughter\u2019s life in the short time that they\u2019ve been in her life,\u201d James said. \u201cAny parent to a neurodivergent child knows how important routine is for them, and it has affected my family big time.\u201d<\/p>\n James said she only found out that school would be closed when she arrived Monday morning to drop her daughter off. <\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: <\/b>Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/b><\/a>]<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cWe woke up that morning, I got my daughter ready for school, and we get to the school. Nobody\u2019s there but a woman, the administrator, with that letter saying we\u2019re closed,\u201d James said. <\/p>\n The letter explained that operations would be suspended until federal payments resume.<\/p>\n The school\u2019s board of directors is exploring the possibility of permanent closure, a decision that has not yet been finalized. James said the impacts of the shutdown are far-reaching. <\/p>\n [SIGN UP: <\/b>Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/b><\/a>] <\/b><\/p>\n \u201cIt may not hit you directly. It may not affect you directly, but we should at least have the empathy for our fellow humans \u2026 You should have that empathy for other people and be able to put yourself in their shoes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n School officials say they cannot predict when federal funding will resume, leaving families like James\u2019 in limbo. <\/p>\n Even with the uncertainty, she said she is determined to stay positive.<\/p>\n Click here<\/b><\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/b><\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 As the federal government shutdown stretches into its 22nd day, local organizations are feeling the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":324957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[7320,5229,7323,3188,723,7324,49089,7310,7327,101482,162013,162014,162015,7325,7326,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,7322,7321],"class_list":{"0":"post-324956","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-action-news-jax","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-cbs47","11":"tag-fl","12":"tag-florida","13":"tag-fox30","14":"tag-government-shutdown","15":"tag-jacksonville","16":"tag-jacksonville-fl","17":"tag-jericho-school","18":"tag-jericho-school-for-children-with-autism","19":"tag-jericho-school-for-children-with-autism-jacksonville-fl","20":"tag-jericho-school-jacksonville-fl","21":"tag-northeast-florida","22":"tag-southeast-georgia","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-united-states-of-america","25":"tag-unitedstates","26":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","27":"tag-us","28":"tag-usa","29":"tag-wfox","30":"tag-wjax"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}