Autism and the Army

You should look into what they call the exceptional family member program, that is the program that when your son is registered with it will not only make sure the family member with special needs only move to places where he will get the medical care he needs, but they will also be your advocate for appropriate housing if you choose to take advantage of on post housing, they do all sorts of other things.
Here is the link for the website with info: https://www.myarmyonesource.com/familyprogramsandservices...

You might also find more info and other military wives in similar situations on cinchouse.com

Tell your husband thank you in advance for me and to you and your children, from one military family to another, welcome to the family!

A.

If your child is receiving SSI when your spouse joins the military there will be no change. I do believe that you will need to inform Social Security as to how much your spouse will be making but other than that, the two groups do not affect each other.

My husband retired about 10 years ago so I am not really up to date on pay regulations etc for active duty personnel but I do not think that there are special "payments' for disabled dependants of miltiary servicemen....other than the things that civilians also qualify for.
You have a LOT of benefits that are going to be very helpful to you. (This is assuming that your husband is going to be joining the Active Duty Army and not National Guards or Reserves). The commissary ( the grocery store on post) is FANTASTIC...we go to the commissary whenever we are on an Army post because the prices are SO much cheaper than they are in the local grocery stores....medical coverage has changed a lot since my husband retired, and there are restrictions and different ways of doing things but it is still an enormous help to you, especially with a special needs child. I do not think you will become eligible for on post housing until your husband reaches a certain rank....(again that may have changed since we lived on post years and years ago!) but when you do qualify...you will get housing based not only on your husbands rank but based on the size of your family....the military will then discontinue the housing allowance part of your husbands pay, while you are living on post, but believe me, the value of the housing will be FAR and above what the housing allowance is!!!
My husband served for 30 years in the Army and it was a wonderful life...full of great opportunities, wonderful friends and an irreplaceable sense of pride in the work that my husband was doing for our country.
Congratulations to your husband and please tell him that I said Thank You for his willingness to serve. And thank you to YOU too..being an Army wife is a full time job !!!!

I would also want to add. Wherever you end up being stationed, try to find a local parent support organization, mom's groups either on or off base so that they can give you the real scoop on what's available. It is most important that you don't feel isolated. You may be away from the primary support system of your extended family but you should try to cultivate a new "family" to belong to while you are at the post. If you get to know other moms they will surely know other families who have children with special needs.
You will also need to contact the local school system because they can be significant providers of education and therapies like speech therapy and OT for a child with autism. Local schools are required to serve children from the age of 3.
A child under the age of 18 does not generally receive SSI payments. I think the military's health insurance system TriCare does provide coverage for some autism therapy like ABA and will certainly cover traditional medical issues.
Good luck

No idea about specific disabilities... however... the way military pay works is like this:

Base pay (by RANK, e1s make the least and o10's the most)

Married

Housing Allowance

Each child

Extra schtuff (danger pay, hardship pay, clothing allowance, etc.)

Incentives (the military pays doctors, pilots, Jag, and some other specialites extra money in order to keep them. Nowhere NEAR the amount they could make as a civilian doctor, pilot, etc. At a glance it's looks to be around 30k a year on top of their base pay, but they could make 100k - 300k more as a civilian.)

When you have a spouse you make more than someone of the same rank who doesn't, but not a lot more. Ditto if you have 2 kids, you make more than someone who has one... and less than someone who has 3... and your housing allowance also goes up with each child. In addition to allowances, one ALSO receives free MEDICAL. Including early intervention. Which saves thousands out of pocket.

I know your H will receive extra money in his check because you HAVE a son, but as far as for his specific disability? I really don't know.

Here are 2 quick links: the first is a simple pay by grade chart, the 2nd has all the allowances and etc listed out by the Defense Finance Accounting Service

http://www.militaryfactory.com/military_pay_scale.asp

http://www.dfas.mil/militarypay/militarypaytables/2010Web...

Here is the army's policy on treatment for autistic children.
http://www.brookings.edu/comm/events/autism/autism_campbe...

"Most importantly, it increased the monthly reimbursement
cap for Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy for military children with autism and mental retardation from $1000 to $2500."

Ok all I know is that if you have a child with disabilities the army puts you on a base that has the proper medical treatments and things the child will need. Now what Riley J said somethings are true some somethings they have stopped. Like the military doesn't pay you more if you have more children, its the same. If you live on base all you get base pay and BAS (Which is Separate rations) and any incentive or special pay your hubby may get (ie..jump pay, over seas pay etc) if you live off base you get base pay, BAS, BAH (what they give you to pay for apartment/ house and utilities) and any special incentive pay. And your husband will receive a clothing every single year on the anniversary he joined the army, and he gets a pay raise every jan 1, and once a year once on the anniversary of the day he joined service for the first four years, after that its every other year. The only reason I know is my hubby has been in for four years and knows a lot of ppl and has been overseas and to different bases.