1) What’s Happening in the Nation’s Capital?
President Obama Releases Healthcare Proposal
2) National News
Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion in Schools Act Passes the House Education and Labor Committee
Nation Debates R-Slur in All Seriousness while Neglecting the Voice of Americans with Disabilities
Defending Our Freedom: ADAPT’s Call to Action for Home and Community in America
3) State News
Virginia Lawmaker: Children with Disabilities Are God's Punishment
Downsizing to Begin at “Hospitals” for Kansans with Developmental Disabilities
4) Announcements and Additional Resources
Share, Brag or Complain About One-Call Services in Your Community, State or Region!
2010 Through the Looking Glass Scholarships for Students Who Have Parents with Disabilities: March 1 Application Deadline
President Obama Releases Healthcare Proposal
Today President Obama laid out a specific plan for healthcare reform legislation, a step many have been encouraging since his inauguration.
The effort to reform our nation’s broken healthcare system has been consuming Washington for over a year. In that time, the House and the Senate both passed their own versions of reform legislation. While in the process of merging their proposals, Democrats lost their 60th vote in the Senate with the election of Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts
That victory changed the Democrats’ game plan and sapped energy out of the majority party’s will to continue the process. Thanks to advocates, including NCIL members who made calls over the last few weeks to support reform, leaders in Congress regrouped to determine next steps and push toward the finish line.
The loss of a supermajority in the Senate leaves three options for reform:
- The House passes the Senate bill and makes necessary changes through the budget reconciliation process.
- Leadership uses a formal conference process to negotiate a final bill that can pass both Chambers. This would require substantial compromise to garner support from Republicans and moderate Democrats in the Senate.
- Start the process over. A new process would be bipartisan and would create a non-comprehensive bill that would not likely include any long-term care reform.
The White House and Leadership in Congress are moving toward the first two options. To try and bring the minority party into the effort, beyond what has been done already in the House and Senate Committee process, the White House will convene a summit this Thursday to discuss ideas and reach consensus. To set the tone, the President today released a summary of proposed reform. Since it was only a summary, we do not have enough details to evaluate it formally.
However, we were pleased to see that it includes NCIL’s two biggest priorities: The Community First Choice Option (CFC) and the CLASS Act. In addition to the CFC and the CLASS language, the President’s proposal also supports the following provisions that affect people with disabilities:
- Tax Credits to offset the costs of health insurance premiums, as well as assistance for out-of-pocket costs
- Investment in Community Health Centers
- Investment in Community Mental Health Centers
- Elimination of discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions
- Removal of yearly limits and caps or coverage
- Prevention of the practice of rescission
- Limits on out-of-pocket costs that insurance companies can charge
- Increased Medicaid eligibility to 133% of the federal poverty level
- Extension of the Money Follows the Person grants
- Increased funding of Aging and Disability Resource Centers (ADRCs)
- Efforts to close the Medicare Part D “Doughnut Hole”
- Enhanced community-based care for Americans with disabilities opportunities for States to expand home care services to people with long-term care needs
The outcomes of the summit will determine the path of reform. Because the President used the Senate bill as the basis of his proposal, many experts believe that Democrats will attempt to pass the Senate bill in the House and make changes through the Budget Reconciliation process. Some people feel that the summit is mere political posturing, while others hold out hope that some bipartisan support can be gained. NCIL will keep its membership posted on developments.
If you have questions about the healthcare reform legislation proposed by the President, or about the process itself, contact NCIL Policy Analyst Jason Beloungy at 202-207-0334 (toll-free 1-877-535-3400), ext. 1008 or at jason@ncil.org.
Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion in Schools Act Passes the House Education and Labor Committee
On February 4, 2010, the Education and Labor Committee passed the bipartisan legislation Preventing Harmful Restraint Act by a vote of 34 to 10. Representative George Miller (D-CA), Chairman of the Committee said, “The egregious abuse of a child should not be considered less criminal because it happens in a classroom -- it should be the opposite. I’m proud that this bill has bipartisan support and I hope the full House will vote on it soon.” If this important legislation is signed into law, safety standards will be in place to prevent abusive restraint and seclusion in schools for the first time. The law would specifically affect public schools, private schools, and preschools that receive federal support.
If you have any questions about this legislation, please contact Lacy Pittman at 202.207.0334 ext. 1015 or lacy@ncil.org.
Nation Debates R-Slur in All Seriousness while Neglecting the Voice of Americans with Disabilities
The contents of the public debate over the last few weeks about use of the R-Word could fill several editions of the Weekly Advocacy Monitor. We’re sure you’ve been following it, so we will start at the point that the debate should have begun: with the voice of people with disabilities themselves. At the end of the day the question that still needs answering is why a vicious public debate is being so heavily covered in the media without any inclusion of the voice of people with disabilities. This omission is the reason the discussion has descended into such disrespectful nonsense.
If you haven’t been following the course of events, the following articles will bring you up to speed:
How to Talk About Disabilities: Washington Post Op-Ed
By Bob Williams
What is glaringly missing from the debate over the epithet "retard" in The Post is the voice of anyone with a disability who spent a lifetime enduring such garbage.
Since I was a child, growing up with cerebral palsy, I have put up with and, worse yet, witnessed others putting up with derision from schoolyard bullies, so-called satirists and politicians. Is such speech protected by the First Amendment? Certainly it is. Free speech, however, is a two-way street. If you are going to claim the right to utter the word, don't pretend to be foggy about its meaning.
The R-word is a slur based on the rankest forms of prejudice, fear and stereotyping, and everyone from kindergartners to those in high positions knows it. If you want to use the word, use it. But if you are an adult, don't try to shield yourself from criticism by claiming that those who challenge your words and your intent are just being "politically correct" when they call you out for being what you are -- a bigot.
The First Amendment does not discriminate between those who are entitled to its protections.
Defending Our Freedom: ADAPT’s Call to Action for Home and Community in America
Source: ADAPT
As the 20th Anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act draws near, the disability community is not busy celebrating because we are literally in a fight for our lives and our most basic freedoms.
Eleven years ago, in the Olmstead decision, the Supreme Court said that Americans with disabilities have the right to live in the most integrated setting. Yet today, states are responding to budget shortfalls by drastically cutting home and community-based services. These draconian cuts are forcing seniors and people with disabilities into nursing facilities and other institutional settings because they don’t have the services they need to remain independent.
As states cut vital services, the federal government, which is charged with protecting our civil rights and enforcing the law, is simply standing by – silent – while Americans with disabilities have their most basic freedoms taken away by the states.
The disability community cannot sit by as our freedom is negotiated away in back room budget deals. We must take action! Defending Our Freedom is a three-prong national campaign initiated by ADAPT to organize the disability community to:
- Demand that the Obama administration fulfill its duty to aggressively protect the civil rights of disabled Americans and enforce the Americans with Disabilities Act/Olmstead decision;
- File complaints with the Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights and the U.S. Department of Justice that document the violation of rights of individuals who have been forced into institutional settings, denied community services, or have had their community services reduced as well as complaints that document the state policies and budget cuts that violate our rights; and
- Document the disability community’s efforts to fight back against state cuts so that we can learn from each other’s efforts, rally others to join our fight, and hold public officials accountable when they do not support our freedom.
Learn more and join the fight!
Virginia Lawmaker: Children with Disabilities Are God's Punishment
Source: The Gainesville Times, by Kelsey Radcliffe
Western Prince William Delegate Bob Marshall, R-13th, says [children with disabilities] are God’s punishment to women who have aborted their first pregnancy.
He made that statement last Thursday at a press conference to oppose state funding for Planned Parenthood. “The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children,” said Marshall, a Republican. “In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord. There’s a special punishment Christians would suggest.”
Marshall was among more than 20 people, mostly Christian pastors and clergy, who gathered for the press conference in the General Assembly Building. They called on Virginia officials to eliminate state funding for Planned Parenthood because the organization provides abortions. Read More.
Downsizing to Begin at “Hospitals” for Kansans with Developmental Disabilities
Source: Kansas Health Institute
Admissions to Kansas Neurological Institute will be halted this summer and restricted at Parsons State Hospital, the state's top welfare agency official said today. Don Jordan, secretary of the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, announced those decisions Monday before the House Social Services Budget Committee.
Last year, the state’s two hospitals for people with developmental disabilities recorded 20 admissions – two at KNI; 18 at Parsons. Admissions to Parsons will be restricted – but not closed – because the facility specializes in caring for people with severe behavior disorders, Jordan said. KNI specializes in care for the medically fragile.
Last month, Gov. Mark Parkinson issued an executive order directing SRS to figure out which of the hospitals’ residents could be safely moved to community settings and begin downsizing the two facilities with the eventual goal of closing one of them.
Jordan said he expects the moves to take about three years. A committee made up of hospital officials and advocates for the developmentally disabled will spend the summer developing new admission standards for the hospitals. Jordan said he expected the committee to be in place by “June or July.”
“It doesn’t make a lot of sense to be wanting to move people out and then at the same time letting them move in,” Jordan said. “You need to close the front door.” Today, KNI has about 160 residents; Parsons State Hospital about 190. The two hospitals employs about 510 and 460 workers, respectively.
Asked to respond family members’ concerns that many medically fragile residents would not survive in community settings, Jordan noted that community programs already care for residents whose conditions are as fragile as those in the hospitals. “My concern is not so much whether we can do it – it’s more what can we do to assure the residents’ families that we can,” Jordan said. Read More.
Share, Brag or Complain About One-Call Services in Your Community, State or Region!
Source: Community Transportation Association of America
Do you operate a one-call service? Do you have a single point of contact for customers on the web, or via telephone or other technology? Are you in the planning phase for developing a one-call service?
Please share your experience and knowledge with others who are considering one-call services for their community. The survey will remain open until midnight on March 2.
As part of a project funded by the Office of Disability Employment Policy and the Federal Transit Administration, The Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA) will use the survey results to prepare a guide to one-call services. We want to know how one-call services function in different communities and the variety of ways communities and regions can establish one-call services.
Your participation in the survey will help many communities and individuals across the country. For more information, contact Sheryl Gross-Glaser at grossglaser@ctaa.org or 202-386-1669.
2010 Through the Looking Glass Scholarships for Students Who Have Parents with Disabilities: March 1 Application Deadline
Through the Looking Glass and its National Center for Parents with Disabilities and their Families are pleased to announce new scholarships specifically for high school seniors and college students who have parents with disabilities. A total of ten $1000 scholarships will be given out Fall 2010. These scholarships are part of Through the Looking Glass’ National Center for Parents with Disabilities and their Families. Please note that the 2010 awards have different application procedures than previous years. There are separate scholarship awards for high school seniors and for college students, and each has separate eligibility requirements:
- High School Seniors. To be eligible, a student must be a high school graduate (or graduating senior) by Summer 2010, planning to attend a two-year or four-year college in Fall 2010 in pursuit of an AA, BA or BS degree, and have at least one parent with a disability.
- College Students. To be eligible, a student must be currently enrolled in a two-year or four-year college in Fall 2010 in pursuit of an AA, BA or BS degree, be 21 years of age or younger as of March 1, 2010, and have at least one parent with a disability.
All application materials must be postmarked by March 1, 2010. Individuals may submit only one application per award period. Selection criteria for all scholarships include academic performance, community activities and service, letter of recommendation and an essay describing the experience of growing up with a parent with a disability.
Please go to our website: www.lookingglass.org for more information, including the application form, complete application directions and an FAQ page that answers many common questions as well as offers helpful suggestions.
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February 22, 2010