Education for Students With Disabilities in the Juvenile Justice System

/in , , , , , , /by The Arc

Students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) do not lose their right to public education, including all rights to special education, when they are adjudicated delinquent. Once in the juvenile justice system, young people with IDD may be placed in a variety of settings, ranging from home confinement to foster homes to group residential settings and so on, all the way down the continuum to secure detention and solitary confinement. Wherever they are, they have the same rights to access the coursework the state requires for all students, as well as the services and supports provided by their IEP and/or Section 504 plan. In a secure setting, the way in which some services are provided may be altered, but the services cannot be denied.

Speaker Bio: A litigator with more than 26 years of experience in juvenile and education law, Diane Smith Howard’s work at NDRN focuses on conditions for children, youth and adults with disabilities in institutional systems. Specifically, youth in the juvenile justice, child welfare, education, and refugee resettlement systems, and adults with disabilities in the criminal justice and mental health systems.

Diane holds a B.A. with honors from Colby College, Waterville, ME, and a J. D. from Wayne State University Law School, Detroit, MI. Diane’s passion for this work is rooted in a family connection to foster and adopted children with disabilities, and to adults who are at risk of institutionalization due to a lack of community supports.

Download the presentation here.

For further questions, please email school@thearc.org.

D.R. v. Redondo Beach Unified School District

/in , , /by Pam Katz

Filed: March 3, 2022

Court: Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

Overview: The District Court denied D.R., a student with a disability, a more inclusive placement because he failed to demonstrate “appropriate educational benefit” from inclusion in general education. The amicus brief argues that, by placing the onus on students to prove that they can benefit from general education, the District Court would overturn fifty years of Congressional and judicial consensus that students with disabilities should be educated in inclusive settings “whenever possible.”

Excerpt: “The IDEA’s language, legislative history, and judicial interpretation speak with one voice: ‘To the maximum extent appropriate,’ students with disabilities must be educated ‘with children who are not disabled.’ This robust presumption of inclusion is reflected in the IDEA’s procedural requirements, which require Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) to account affirmatively for ‘the extent, if any, to which the child will not participate with nondisabled children in the regular class.’ The IDEA codified an emerging consensus from landmark special education cases that schools must educate students with disabilities in integrated settings wherever possible. Congress later amended the IDEA to further strengthen the LRE requirement in light of new education research, describing it as ‘a presumption that children with disabilities are to be educated in regular classes.’…The presumption of inclusion is so robust that it may even justify placement in general education in the rare case where the more restrictive setting may be educationally superior.”

Case Documents

D.R. v. Redondo Beach Unified School District Amicus Brief

D.R. v. Redondo Beach Unified School District Opinion

Talk About Sexual Violence: Supported Decision-Making

/in , , , , /by Pam Katz

This eight-minute video helps medical professionals understand what supported-decision making is and why it is important to use when assisting victims of sexual violence who have an intellectual or developmental disability.

Talk About Sexual Violence: Plain Language

/in , , , , , , /by Pam Katz

This eight-minute video provides health care professionals with a basic understanding of plain language and how to use it so that patients with IDD can better understand information and more fully participate in health care decisions.

Why Talk About Sexual Violence? Medical Professional Focus Group Findings

/in , , , , , /by Pam Katz

This eight-minute video highlights key findings from focus groups held with medical professionals who were asked about how they address or talk about sexual violence with their patients with intellectual or developmental disabilities.

Kligler v. Healy

/in , , , , /by Pam Katz

Filed: February 14, 2022

Court: Supreme Court of Massachusetts

Overview: The brief argues that whether a constitutional right to assisted suicide exists must be addressed from the perspective of people with disabilities, the class of people who will be most adversely impacted if such a right is found. Amici discuss how assisted suicide is part of a long history of discrimination and bias against people with disabilities in medical settings. Amici also discuss how legalized assisted suicide amplifies ableist beliefs about the quality and value of disabled lives and how supposed safeguards are inadequate to protect people with disabilities.

Excerpt: “Legalizing assisted suicide in Massachusetts would add to the…history of discrimination and bias against people with disabilities. It would establish a discriminatory double standard for how health care providers, government authorities, and others treat disabled individuals versus others. Only disabled people would be removed from the protections of generally applicable laws on abuse, neglect, and homicide. And only disabled people would face an offer of assisted suicide, as opposed to an offer of services and supports, in response to suicidal ideations.”

Case Documents

Kligler v. Healy Amicus Brief

Kligler v. Healy Opinion

2022 Policy & Advocacy Kickoff Webinar

/in , /by Pam Katz

Get the most up to date information and have your questions answered about areas of focus this year and how we, as The Arc network, can make the greatest impact both in Washington D.C. and around the country.

View the presentation slides here.

A Home of One’s Own

/in , /by Pam Katz

In 2009, the state of Minnesota’s legislature implemented a moratorium on increases in licensed group homes, as a cost-savings measure. To free up capacity for those with the most significant needs, and to demonstrate ways to bolster the state’s ability to support people with disabilities in their own homes, The Arc Minnesota has been providing housing navigation services since 2009 through a Housing Access Services contract with the Minnesota Department of Human Services. To date, Housing Access Services has assisted over 2700 adults who have disabilities, with moving – many out of group homes and family homes – into homes of their own.

The Arc Minnesota is also a provider of the new Housing Stabilization Services program which was approved by the Center for Medicaid Services (CMS), administered by the Minnesota Department of Human Services and funded by a participant’s Medicaid. This is a billable housing navigation and housing sustaining service. Minnesota was the first state in the nation to implement Housing Stabilization Services.

The Arc Minnesota presents a summary of these programs as well as information about the programs’ history and impact.

View presentation slides here.

Presenters: Andrea Zuber, CEO; Ellen Baudler, Housing Services Director; Karli Harguth, Self-advocacy Associate

How Death Affects the Money Left in ABLE Accounts and Special Needs Trusts

/in , , /by Pam Katz

In this video, you will learn what happens to the money in an ABLE or Special Needs Trust account when the person with a disability who has the account dies. We explain the rules that Medicaid has about what happens and what you should know when you set up the account.

This video is also available in Spanish.

Pooled Special Needs Trusts

/in , , /by Pam Katz

What is a pooled special needs trust, and why should you consider one? Watch this video to learn more about how they work. You can access the video slides here.

This video is also available in Spanish.