Schumer Pushes Civil Rights Bill

State Senator Charles Schumer was in Utica today pushing for a new piece of legislation that would give individuals with disabilities the option to live at home so they can live more independently.  Eyewitness News reporter Nicole Todd visited Schumer at Upstate Cerebral Palsy and has more

Senator Schumer was in town today. He's proposed legislation that he says would help put an end to civil rights problems for with people with long-term disabilities.

Californians Gain More Protection

An additional layer of protection for individuals with developmental disabilities has been added to the Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act, a 1969 California law that guarantees equal access to services and rights for persons with developmental disabilities.

AB 1687, also known as the Persons with Developmental Disabilities Bill of Rights, went into effect Jan. 1 and adds a fundamental right to the Lanterman Act: a prompt investigation. It applies to any alleged abuse perpetrated against persons with autism, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, and various other developmental disabilities.

Justice Dept.: Segregation in R.I. Programs Violates Civil Rights

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Thousands of Rhode Islanders with disabilities are “unnecessarily segregated” in state-licensed day programs and so-called sheltered workshops — some for decades — in violation of federal civil rights laws, a U.S. Department of Justice investigation has found.

Opinon: Disability No Excuse to Deprive Person of Civil Rights

Post from Susan Mizner, Director of Disability Rights Project of the ACLU.

The guardianship system in this country raises serious concerns. That's why the guardianship trial of Jenny Hatch, a vibrant and active 29-year-old in a battle over who controls her life, struck such a chord. Jenny spoke for many other

Jenny Hatch

people with disabilities when she said clearly in her trial: "I don't need guardianship. I don't want it."

Residents Question NYS Officials About Who Will Be Living in Group Home

NIMBY reaches an extreme in New York State.

FORT EDWARD, N.Y. -- Residents of Bascom Drive and Hillview Avenue have a better idea about the new residents of a 7 Bascom Ave. group home and also have a way to contact state officials with their concerns.But residents, some of whom have lived in the neighborhood for more than five decades, are still uneasy about how a home for people with developmental disabilities was opened up to clients with both developmental issues and criminal backgrounds.One resident asked for the names of those living in the home and was told that information was protected by privacy laws.

Brain-Injured Suffer Major Treatment Gap

Larry Boswell sat slumped in a wheelchair. His sweatpants were soiled, his T-shirt soaked in saliva. Flies buzzed around his head.

He was able to walk when he arrived at Illinois’ Cobden Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in 2008, government records show, something he can’t manage now. Speech therapy for the 57- year-old ended shortly after he was admitted, according to a lawyer trying to persuade Medicaid to transfer him.
While much of what Boswell says is incomprehensible, he managed a clear “no” when asked if he wanted to stay where he was. Cobden officials didn’t respond to telephone calls.
Boswell is one of nearly 244,000 brain-injured people consigned to nursing homes, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from U.S. Medicare and Medicaid statistics. He’s also on the front line in a national battle to get people like him out of facilities that aren’t equipped to care for them.

Editorial: Florida's Children Deserve Better

TAMPA, Fla. -- Call it official neglect. Florida is accused by the Obama administration and the parents of sick and disabled children of warehousing hundreds of those children in large nursing homes rather than helping them stay home with their families. Disabled children have a right to the support services that would allow them to live safely at home or in community settings. But the state has been fulfilling its duty for some children and not others, leaving it to the courts to set things right for the rest.

Emotions Run High as Group Home Denied

Seems as if NIMBY is alive and well. Despite the slowing of group home development, the attitudes and fears continue at full speed.

HERRIN, Ill. -- More than 80 people — including about 20 who were standing — packed the Herrin City Council meeting Monday, the topic drawing high emotions.
The council had to decide whether to overrule the city’s zoning appeals board and grant a special use permit to The H Group to use a house it purchased as a group home for four developmentally disabled residents.
Speakers on behalf of the group home included Mayor Vic Ritter, Alderman Elizabeth Issler and even a resident of the subdivision where the home is located. She said she and most of her neighbors would not have signed petitions against the group home if a meeting had been held first so they would have known the facts.
A disabled veteran from Marion asked if he could be refused the right to live in his own subdivision because he suffers from service-related stress. His impassioned speech brought the crowd to its feet in tribute.
But in the end, only Issler and Alderman Robert Craig voted for the special use permit; the other six aldermen voted against allowing the home.

Still in Shadows with an Uncertain Future

Guest column from the Twin Cities Daily Planet by Tom Judd of Excelsior, who serves on the national board of The Arc, Tim Nelson, president of the board of The Arc Minnesota, and Steve Hayes, chair of the board of The Arc Greater Twin Cities. The Arc is the nation’s largest and oldest human rights organization for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families.

Five decades ago, Minnesota and the nation began to develop an awareness of members in our society who had been long out of public view. President Kennedy talked openly about his sister with intellectual disabilities and called on the nation to bring all citizens with intellectual disabilities “out of the shadows.”
In Minnesota, advocates opened the doors of our state institutions, made us aware of the horrendous living conditions there, and then worked to create a world where people with intellectual and developmental disabilities could live in and contribute to their communities.
Since then, we’ve seen progress in some areas. Legal protections have been passed. In Minnesota, we‘ve worked hard to create services that keep people with disabilities in the community and keep families who have children with disabilities together.
Despite these gains, we are concerned that progress is grinding to a halt, if not reversing.

Reforms to Safeguard Individuals with Developmental Disabilities

CHICAGO -- Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn on Tuesday signed into law sweeping reforms designed to safeguard thousands of children and adults with developmental disabilities who live in nursing facilities.

The new laws, sparked by a Tribune investigation, call for stiffer fines for poor care, fewer roadblocks to closing facilities, stricter rules on the use of psychotropic medications and increased reporting requirements in cases of death.

State officials and some advocates described the legislation, passed by the General Assembly in May, as the most significant effort in a generation to help the developmentally disabled in Illinois nursing homes.

In October, a Tribune series documented a 10-year pattern of death and neglect at a North Side nursing facility now called Alden Village North. The newspaper found that 13 children and young adults had died in cases that resulted in state citations for neglect or failure to investigate.

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.”

Emotion High Over NJ Plan to Close Disability Home

VINELAND, N.J. — Karen Lee Colletti has severe autism, speaks only a few words and needs a diaper. When she was 27 and her parents felt they couldn't care for her at home any longer, they moved her to the Vineland Developmental Center, which cares for women with developmental and intellectual disabilities.

That was 29 years ago. Now, her 80-year-old father, Vito Colletti, fears the state's plans to close the center by 2013 will happen, pushing his daughter out of a place that he thought she could live for the rest of her life. It's discomforting for a man who's come to rely on the care she gets at the state institution. After a hard time difficult adjustment from a move last month from one part of Vineland's campus to another, he fears a longer move to one of the state's remaining institutions would "drive her bananas."

He's joined the fight of the 1,300 developmental center employees who could lose their jobs — and officials around the southern New Jersey community of Vineland — in trying to persuade the state to leave the center open.

Official: Virginia-DOJ Agreement Possible

These are human lives we are talking about! How can states put a dollar value on providing a quality life for individuals with disabilities who have been warehoused and isolated? I recognize states are strapped for cash and tax payers are struggling. Hopefully an agreement can be struck.

RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia's top health official said Monday he thinks the state can reach an agreement with the Department of Justice over civil rights violations at homes for the mentally and physically disabled by the summer and begin making changes by the fall.
The Department of Justice threatened to sue in February because it said Virginia violates federal law by needlessly warehousing the intellectually and severely disabled and failing to provide adequate treatment in the community.

Opinion: Don't Warehouse People with Disabilities

Guest column in The Record of Bergen County, N.J., by Lowell Arye, executive director of the Alliance for the Betterment of Citizens with Disabilities in Hamilton.


The urging of some to halt plans to close Vineland Developmental Center would move New Jersey in the opposite direction of 30 years of public policy toward community living for people with developmental disabilities.
In his budget, Governor Christie boldly announced the closure of a state developmental center over the next two years. New Jersey has not closed a developmental center since 1998, when it shut down North Princeton. It is far behind the national trend of deinstitutionalization.

Court Rules New York State Facility Must Open Records to Advocates

The state must turn over records of developmentally disabled residents at a state facility in Wassaic, N.Y., who an advocacy group says have "languished" for years without being placed in community homes, a state appellate court has ruled.
In a unanimous decision, a four-judge panel ruled that Disability Advocates Inc. of Albany is entitled to review clinical and medical documents if attorneys "have probable cause to suspect abuse or neglect" — even without seeking the consent of family members who are not legal representatives, a point of contention between the parties.