She wishes they could both be at the developmental center.

The developmental center, opened in the early 1960's, has been vacant since 1995.

After the developmental center closed, the site became the focus of intense local debate about what should be done with the property.

The 1,200 are now living in other large state-operated developmental centers.

In 1967, nearly 28,000 people lived in its 20 developmental centers.

There's a developmental center in town, and they can answer your questions better than I can.

Five states have closed all their developmental centers; 17 have 200 people or fewer in them.

Ms. Pitz had to appear before the local community board, give the developmental center a precis of how he would spend his days.

A proposal now under legislative review would gradually place the other 4,600 people from the waiting list, and would close three more developmental centers.

"I was having nightmares that Ro would someday die alone in one of those developmental centers," she said.