about Denise Arland pioneer parents in indiana By Angela Arlington
Denise Arland was working as an administrative assistant for the superintendent of Greenfield-Central Community Schools when she got pregnant with quadruplets. Denise reflects, “Little did I know all my interactions and relationships with school staff would play a BIG part in my future! It definitely helped as we got started in school.” It was 1994 and First Steps was not required to provide services in the children’s natural environment. There were only 16 kids in the program in Hancock County, so Denise’s sons made up 1/4 of the population being served. “We got developmental therapy for all four boys at home but had to take them to a center operated by Shares for their other therapies. Shares also ran a developmental preschool for the First Steps kids, so they attended that from about 18 months until they were 3.” Parents passed each other on the way in or out of the building, but didn’t really meet. “We did not get a chance to talk because we were in the therapies with our kids trying to learn from the therapists,” Denise recalled. It was at this time she became friends with another mother, Amy Borgmann. Denise and Amy sat on the local First Steps Council as parent representatives. “In those meetings, they talked about how nice it would be to have a group where families could actually meet and talk with each other. Amy and I both agreed this would be great, not realizing they wanted us to run it!” It was the beginning of a new role for Denise that would last for over 20 years. Her sons had different needs and diagnoses, and it was a challenge to balance life with four busy toddlers. “A couple of them got PT and OT. Eventually, they all got speech therapy for a while, but I believe that was not until they got to preschool. I remember having a speech therapist or two in First Steps, but it was very hard to find so we didn’t get a lot of that. Lucas’s needs were not as intense as the others, so his therapies dropped off the fastest. Diagnoses came at different times. Zach’s and Matt’s cerebral palsy was diagnosed around age 3. When they transitioned to public preschool, Jacob and Lucas had developmental disability diagnoses, but back then when they turned 5, they needed another eligibility category to keep an individual education plan (IEP). It was at that point that Jacob got his autism diagnosis, and Lucas had significant ADHD, so he qualified under ‘other health impaired’. So they all had IEPs throughout their school years.” “We started out as an organization focused on connecting families of young children to other families for support and encouragement,” Denise said. “That actually created our name,
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Families United for Support and Encouragement – FUSE.” It was 1996, and the support group had help from First Steps providers and the public school special education co-op. Between the two groups, they provided free space to meet, snacks, childcare, and even newsletter mailing. Denise took on the role of running the group meetings, and Amy provided support services and started the newsletter. Soon Denise would have another son, Nick, who was born in 1997 when the quadruplets were 3 years and 9 months old. Nick never needed any services.
