Legislator Says Goals To Move People From Institutions Are
'Illegal'
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
November 2,
2006
SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA--In the latest battle between advocates of
community living and supporters of institutional housing, a California
legislator has accused an agency that serves people with developmental
disabilities of setting "secret" goals to move residents out of state-run
institutions, "forcing" some to move into communities whether or not they are
ready or willing.
Assemblywoman Noreen Evans, a Democrat from Santa Rosa, also accused
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of covering up the "completely inappropriate and
very likely illegal" scheme.
State and regional officials say Evans simply does not understand how
the planning and contracting system works.
At issue is the contract between the Department of Developmental
Services and the North Bay Regional Center. NBRC is a nonprofit that oversees
services in and around Napa, including the Sonoma Developmental Center, which
houses more than 700 people with developmental disabilities.
Evans has been citing the minutes of a February NBRC board of directors
meeting, in which executive director Nancy Gardner reportedly said that SDC had
to "intensify efforts to meet community placement plan goals" or risk losing
funding. Evans has also been pointing to the existing contract, which requires
the center to move at least eight people out of SDC by the first of January.
Evans called the number a "quota" and a "bounty on the heads of the
developmentally disabled", which she claimed is illegal because services are
supposed to be individualized. She has called for a legislative inquiry into
the practice.
State and regional center officials have explained to Evans and the
media that the number is not a quota, but a budgetary goal that needs to be in
place in order to adequately plan for supports in the community. Family members
and advocates are involved in the process for each person, which does not
"coerce" any individual to leave the institutions against his or her will. If
the goal is not met, the money simply goes back to the state general fund,
officials said.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that unnecessarily institutionalizing
people with disabilities violates their rights under the 1990 Americans with
Disabilities Act. In fact, the state's Protection and Advocacy Inc. is suing
California for not moving people into the community quickly enough.
Opened in 1891 as the "California Home for the Care and Training of the
Feeble Minded", Sonoma Developmental Center is California's oldest state-run
institution housing people with developmental disabilities. It has been under
scrutiny in recent years because of a number of unexplained deaths and
injuries, along with allegations of cover-ups by facility administrators and
staff.
Related:
"Disabled care facilities accused of illegal quotas"
(Oakland Tribune)
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/ci_4566912
"Evans
Exposes Administration Cover Up" (California Chronicle)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/06/red/1102b.htm
"Sonoma
Developmental Center -- Investigations or Cover-ups?" (Inclusion Daily Express
Archives)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/institutions/ca/sdc.htm
---
Reproduced here under special arrangement
with Inclusion Daily Express international disability rights news service.
© Copyright 2006 Inonit
Publishing. Please do not reprint, publish or distribute without
permission. |
