“The support we have gotten from La Crosse County and others in our community has been phenomenal."
Five-year-old Bo Bakke is a happy kid who likes riding his bike, participating in tee-ball, and playing school with his two older sisters, Amelia and Isabel, at their home in Holmen. Bo is also legally blind, having been diagnosed with Optic Nerve Hypoplasia at two months old.
Mom and Dad Nick and Katie Bakke noticed early on that Bo wasn’t visually tracking things like his sisters, so they went to see their primary care physician in Holmen. Within a day, they found themselves staying overnight at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester while Bo underwent multiple tests, including an MRI, to determine his diagnosis.
“It hit us like a bag of bricks, immediately feeling a loss of control, not knowing how we were going to navigate this new life without having any personal experience with anybody who has visual impairments,” Nick said.
A social worker at Mayo told Nick and Katie about the Birth to 3 program, provided locally by La Crosse County. When a child is enrolled in Birth to 3, the family can access a team of specialists to support their child and family. The team, which includes a service coordinator and early intervention specialist, visits the family, often in their home. La Crosse County contracts with the Parenting Place to staff the program. The team includes a teacher and infant mental health specialist if needed. In Bo’s case, his team also included a teacher of the visually impaired, an orientation and mobility specialist, an occupational therapist, a physical therapist, and a speech therapist.
“This network that we didn’t even know existed within this community was there waiting to take us on; it was a beautiful feeling,” Nick said.
When a family receives a diagnosis like this, it comes with many questions and unknowns. Families need to learn how to navigate medical providers, financial hurdles, and much more. The Birth to 3 team walks alongside families to help support them through the maze.
Last year, 292 children were served in La Crosse County through the program, which recognizes the first three years of a child’s life as crucial building blocks for the future. Most costs associated with the Birth to 3 program are covered through federal and state funding, although there is a parental cost-share system based on family income. The total budget for Birth to 3 in La Crosse County in 2023 was $725,000, which includes county and state funds, parental cost share, and private insurance.
“We got immediate access to resources to support Bo’s growth and development and people trained to step in and help,” Nick says. “But what was just as important was having somebody else you could cry with, talk to, ask questions, come into your home, and be vulnerable with on your journey.”
Birth to 3 complements another program called the Children’s Long-Term Support Waiver (CLTS), also administered locally by La Crosse County. About 650 children in La Crosse County are enrolled in CLTS, including Bo, who has now aged out of the Birth to 3 program. CLTS helps parents of children with disabilities cover costs like respite, personal supports, daily living skills, home modifications, and many other services. It also keeps families like the Bakkes connected to service coordinators throughout their journey.
“Kids can be in both programs simultaneously, there are no long-term wait lists like years past, and we are getting referrals much earlier than we used to, which is great,” said La Crosse County’s Shelly Tollefson, who coordinates the programs.
"We are just one story out of hundreds"
Birth to 3 is designed for children with disabilities or language, physical, cognitive, or motor development delays. While the program helps children access needed health care, it also focuses on social and emotional development. The county receives many referrals to the program from healthcare providers, which is how the Bakke family became connected after Bo’s diagnosis at Mayo.
Parenting Bo was a very different experience compared to his two older sisters. However, within a few weeks of his diagnosis, the Birth to 3 team visited his home and set Bo up with a vision teacher and an orientation and mobility teacher to help him and his parents navigate a new world.
“You really have to rethink when you have a child with a visual impairment,” Nick said. “How do you motivate a child who can’t see anything to crawl on all fours? We needed help to do things we hadn’t before, and the support we received was life-changing for Bo.”
Bo (pictured reading braille) is doing exceptionally well, thanks to his own energy for life and the dedication of his parents. Nick and Katie say the continued support they receive through CLTS is pivotal to Bo’s continued success.
“Bo is just blowing milestones out of the water,” Nick said. “He just finished 4K, and he can braille every letter of the alphabet, read and spell his name and short sentences.”
Nick and Katie both have good jobs, but the complexity and costs associated with Bo’s diagnosis meant they needed the help offered through Birth to 3 and CLTS in La Crosse County. Many other families from different backgrounds and income levels are united by similar needs the programs address.
“We are just one story out of hundreds that are all experiencing this in different ways,” Nick said. “The support we have gotten from La Crosse County and others in our community has been phenomenal, and it’s truly appreciated.”
The Bakkes, who shared their story at a recent La Crosse County Health and Human Services Committee meeting, left that meeting with a challenge to the county and the broader community.
“Bo is going to be ready for La Crosse County, and for the world, I’m sure of that,” said Nick. “But the world might not be ready for Bo and so many other kids, so continue to work to make the world a place where all our kids can be successful.”
Learn more about Birth to 3 at dhs.wisconsin.gov/birthto3