Medically Dependent Children’s Program (MDCP)

The Medically Dependent Children Program (MDCP) provides services to support families caring for children who are medically dependent and encourages the transition of children in nursing homes back to the community.

What services are provided?

  • Adaptive aids
    Items necessary to treat, rehabilitate, prevent or compensate for conditions resulting in disability or loss of function. Adaptive aids also may be devices enabling a person to perform the activities of daily living or control the environment in which they live.
  • Employment assistance
    Assistance to help a person find paid employment in the community.
  • Flexible family support services
    Individualized and disability-related services, including personal care supports for basic activities of daily living (ADL), instrumental ADL, skilled care and delegated care supports, to assist a child to participate in child care, assist a person to participate in post-secondary education, or increase a person’s independence.
  • Minor home modifications
    Necessary physical modifications of a person’s home to prevent institutionalization or support de-institutionalization. The modifications must be necessary to ensure health, welfare and safety or to enable greater independence in the home.
  • Financial management services
    Assistance delivered by a consumer directed services agency.
  • Respite services
    Temporary relief for the primary caregiver from their caregiving role during times when the caregiver would normally provide care.
  • Supported employment
    Assistance to sustain competitive employment for a person who, because of a disability, requires intensive, ongoing support to be self-employed, work from home or perform work in a setting at which people without disabilities are employed.
  • Transition assistance services
    A one-time service to help Medicaid-eligible Texans transition from the nursing home to the community.

Who is eligible for services?

  • You must be under 21. If under 18, you must live with an adult family member (such as a parent, guardian or sibling) or with a foster family that includes no more than four children unrelated to you.
  • You must be a U.S. citizen or an alien with approved status who lives in Texas.
  • You must meet Medicaid eligibility guidelines including:
    • Be a low-income family with children, as provided in §1931 of the Social Security Act;
    • Be receiving Supplemental Security Income;
    • Be eligible for Medical Assistance Only; or
    • Meet eligibility for all other mandatory and optional Temporary Assistance for Needy Families criteria in the Texas Medicaid State Plan.
  • You must meet the medical necessity determination for nursing home care.
  • You cannot be enrolled in another waiver program.

For more information visit Medically Dependent Children Program.

For frequently asked questions view our MDCP FAQs.