Daycare Center Settles With Autistic Child’s Family

OLD SAYBROOK, Conn. -- The Justice Department has reached a settlement agreement with Beach Babies Learning Center LLC, in Old Saybrook, to resolve allegations that the center ended the enrollment of a 2-year-old child because the child has autism.

The center will pay $7,341 to the child’s parents and will also implement policies so children with disabilities have equal opportunities to participate in from the center’s programs and it will post a nondiscrimination policy at its facility and its website, according to a news release from the Department of Justice.

When this happened, the child was 2 years old, officials said.

“Ensuring that children with disabilities, and their families, have equal access to early education and child care centers goes to the heart of the ADA’s promises and protections,” Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, said. “Beach Babies Learning Center cooperated with the department to address this matter through this agreement, and we hope that this agreement serves as a reminder to other education and child care providers about their responsibilities under the ADA.”

Opinion: Don't Close Doors to Employment

Came across a guest column in The Seattle Times by Karen Williams, a board member for the Washington State Initiative for Supported Employment, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding employment opportunities for people with developmental disabilities. Unfortunately, it could be written for virtually any state. Government needs to hear everyone's story about how budget cuts will result in the loss of critical services for individuals with disabilities. It's not too late to speak up!

SEATTLE -- A crisis, goes the widely used political adage, is a terrible thing to waste. But a crisis can also result in drastic decisions and ill-considered reversals in public policy.
This is part of state budget deliberations, in which the House has proposed a $54 million cut from employment programs for people with developmental disabilities. That amounts to a 40 percent reduction in current programs, which isn't even the worst of it.