A recently released Justice Department memo questions decades of protections for Americans with disabilities. It’s the latest effort by the Trump administration to shift longstanding practices for the disability community, attempting to change services and policies. Ali Rogin speaks with Maria Town, president and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities, for more.
Nick Schifrin:
A recently released Justice Department memo questions decades of protections for Americans with disabilities. It’s the latest effort by the Trump administration to shift longstanding practices for the disability community.
Ali Rogin has more on potentially landmark changes.
Ali Rogin:
Nick, the new memo is one of several attempts to change services and policies dedicated to people with disabilities. The DOJ says states aren’t required to provide home and community-based services that have long kept disabled Americans out of institutions if they would benefit from these other services.
And as the administration seeks to shutter the Department of Education, it’s moving key responsibilities to agencies which disability advocates say are less equipped to handle them.
For perspective on what these actions mean for the disability community, I’m joined by Maria Town. She’s president and CEO of the American Association of People With Disabilities.
Maria, you are on the move today. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us.
I first want to ask about this DOJ memo which really provides a new interpretation of these existing laws and a Supreme Court decision that reaffirmed what we have understood to this point to be the rights afforded to people with disabilities. Can you just walk us through what those existing statutes are?
Maria Town, President and CEO, American Association of People with Disabilities: So, in the Americans With Disabilities Act, which turns 36 six next month, there is an integration mandate.
And the Olmstead decision is a Supreme Court decision that turns 27 years old today that affirmed the integration mandate in the Americans With Disabilities Act. The Olmstead decision stated that people with disabilities had to be served in the most integrated setting whenever possible.
What this means in practice is that states cannot forcibly institutionalize people with disabilities, whether that be in nursing homes, state psychiatric facilities, or in other institutional settings.
And so this memo from the Department of Justice, which says that Olmstead is not enforceable, completely goes against all previous legal precedent. And it also goes against the will of Congress and the will of the Supreme Court.
Ali Rogin:
So if states no longer feel obligated because of this DOJ legal opinion, which we should mention is not a law, but could have far-reaching implications anyway, if states don’t feel obligated to provide these services to people who would benefit from them, rather than go into an institution, what does that mean for the people who rely on home and community-based services?
Maria Town:
This means that people’s ability to live in their homes and in their communities and with their families and friends that they love is in jeopardy.
If states decide not to follow decades of legal precedent and existing civil rights, it means that people with disabilities may be forced into institutions, instead of being provided with services that allow them to thrive in their communities.
It may also mean that people’s health suffers. And in the worst-case scenario, it means people will die. We know that people with disabilities and older adults have better outcomes and live longer lives when they are served in the community and not in institutions. So this could have extremely dire consequences for many people and their families across the country.
Ali Rogin:
Separately, Maria, the administration is taking steps to move oversight with special education from the Department of Education to HHS.
Here is what Education Secretary Linda McMahon said recently about these changes — quote — “By closely partnering with HHS, we will align federal services to improve academic outcomes, strengthen access to programs and information, and support people with disabilities so they can gain self-sufficiency, life tools and meaningful employment that they need to succeed in their lives.”
How does your group see it?
Maria Town:
This move basically re-medicalizes the education of students with disabilities. Putting special education in education asserts that students with disabilities have a chance at mainstream curriculum, at developing critical thinking skills, and in participating in the classroom, mainstream classrooms with their non-disabled peers.
We see this as a resegregation of students with disabilities, when, literally for the past 50 years, the standard has been to serve students with disabilities in the least restrictive environment and to ensure that students with disabilities have a free and appropriate public education.
We are concerned that the public education students with disabilities will receive will no longer be appropriate because it will no longer be a meaningful education.
Ali Rogin:
When we see the government focusing on changes to policies and services that affect children and adults with disabilities, what are the stakes for the wider disability community here?
Maria Town:
These changes, both the change in education coupled with the DOJ memo, basically put our nation back at least 50 years, if not more.
We are worried that we will see the progress that’s been made on disability rights and on the quality of life of disabled people, whether they’re young or old, erode very, very quickly, and that hard-fought progress will be lost.
Ali Rogin:
Maria Town, president and CEO of the American Association of People With Disabilities, thank you so much.
Maria Town:
Thank you.
