Like many pre-teens, Rowan Squires loves princesses, drawing on her iPad and watching cartoons — but she also requires around-the-clock care in nearly all aspects of her life.

Rowan is autistic and has severe sensory issues, obsessive-compulsive disorder and the functional language skills of a toddler, said her mother and full-time caregiver Elizabeth Mason-Squires. 

"She has limited daily functional ability in this neurotypical environment that we live in, which inhibits that beautiful, special,…