GENOA – An innocent query at a family gathering four or five years ago gave Deanna Thornton a swift reality check regarding the future of her daughter Grace Atwater, who has Down syndrome.

“At a Christmas dinner we were asked, ‘What’s Grace going to do after high school?’” Thornton recalled.

Like all other people with disabilities, Grace, 20, is legally entitled to adaptive education, physical therapy and occupational therapy through the school system until her 22nd birthday. After she turns 22 in January 2014, the school-based support network disappears.