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Serving at the time on the state’s advisory council to recommend steps for completing the MDC closure, Sadowski choked back tears as she told the group about the situation. She advocated for a state crisis facility where the courts could place someone in severe need.

At the same time, Sadowski recognized the need for more money going into community based services for individuals with developmental disabilities and/or mental illness. Through nearly a year and a half of meetings, Sadowski consistently maintained there was simply not enough money in the funding pot. Wages for direct care staff in private community group homes, driven by federal dollars, were too low to keep staff, she said.

And she recognized that the community-based services and the MDC were all drawing from the same — too small — pot of money. But doing away with the MDC, which some had argued to the legislature would free up funds for community providers, was not the answer, either, she said.

Believing “let’s close MDC and everything’s going to be okay” is not true, she said, urging the council to take a broader view of “what does the system need in the community to be successful.”

since it sent a letter in February saying Jay qualified for services.

But officials with MHMR, which provides mental health services to Denton County residents, say getting into the Denton State Supported Living Center isn’t as simple as putting a name on a list.

Although she wouldn’t discuss Danko’s case individually because of privacy laws, MHMR’s local authority director Leslie Hunt said admission to the state living center requires approval from a probate judge and often is used as a last resort for people who can’t function in other settings.

“[The state school] is considered the most restrictive environment,” she said. “Our goal is to keep individuals living in the community if they’re able to.”

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Over the decades, the laws governing the institution and care of people with developmental disabilities have changed and evolved. Its name somewhat reflected those changes. It began as the California Home for the Care and Training of Feebleminded Children; it then became Sonoma State Home, then Sonoma State Hospital, and finally Sonoma Developmental Center.

As late as the 1960s, it cared for more than 3,400 patients and employed nearly 2,000 people, most of them Sonoma Valley residents. Many were friends of my family whose children were my classmates.

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At the time the closure was announced in January 2017, Hamburg was serving 80 residents and employing about 350 people at its 154-acre campus. At one time, it was reported to house more than 900 people.

The residents have since transitioned to community-based centers, and most of the employees have either transferred to other state jobs or have retired, officials said.

The state has not said what plans it has for the the Hamburg center or its 39 buildings.

"We are very interested in bringing new jobs to this site," said state Sen. David Argall. "Several developers have shown considerable interest. Now that we have an exact closing date, we can move forward."

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(The Reader comments are also worth noting)

state has managed to rack up millions of dollars in operational costs by keeping some of the buildings open for administrative staff with the state Office for People with Developmental Disabilities. That has made absolutely no sense from a fiscal point a view. And it’s kept in limbo any possible plans for redevelopment.

For decades, Dutchess County residents have seen the worst of what happens when the state closes big facilities and has little regard for what happens next — and no coherent strategy for redevelopment. But these centers provide unique opportunities for smart growth, to see progress without ripping up more rural farmland or open space in the county. Whatever emerges at this site must be something that the local community supports. For that to occur, the state will have to be far more transparent during the redevelopment process than it has been for the decades it has taken to part with the land.

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Medicare is now relying on the new data to evaluate staffing, but the revamped star ratings still mask the erratic levels of people working from day to day.

At the Beechtree Center for Rehabilitation & Nursing here, Jay Vandemark, 47, who had a stroke last year, said he often roams the halls looking for an aide not already swamped with work when he needs help putting on his shirt.

Especially on weekends, he said, “It’s almost like a ghost town.”

Nearly 1.4 million people are cared for in skilled nursing facilities in the United States. When nursing homes are short of staff, nurses and aides scramble to deliver meals, ferry bedbound residents to the bathroom and answer calls for pain medication. Essential medical tasks such as repositioning a patient to avert bedsores can be overlooked when workers are overburdened, sometimes leading to avoidable hospitalizations.

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Township-based center, in a news release.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity for the artists to be received in the community by their peers,” added Art Serfass, a supervisor, in the news release. “By showcasing and selling artwork in community spaces, our artists gain self-confidence that permeates all aspects of their lives.”

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Under Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, the agency has raised concerns that the Obama-era rule “may not appropriately address the problem of significant disproportionality” and questioned whether the Education Department had the statutory authority to create a national standard.

Despite the delay, states are allowed to implement the new standard if they wish to, the Education Department said, and they are still obligated under IDEA to assess school districts for significant disproportionality.

COPAA’s lawsuit brings claims under the Administrative Procedure Act arguing that the Education Department did not offer a “reasoned explanation” for changing course and it failed to consider the costs to parents and students of delay or any alternatives to delay.

What’s more, the legal action indicates that the agency did not allow for “meaningful participation” because its public comment period only solicited feedback on the idea of a delay, not the issue itself.

“We are highly dismayed at the delay in the department tackling an issue that has literally been occurring for over a decade,” said Denise Marshall, executive director of COPAA. “We see no new information, no new reason to deny students of color with an equitable access to their education.”

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The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that all children receive developmental surveillance at every health visit and that developmental screening be conducted at 9, 28 and 30 months or any time a concern is raised.

Nonetheless, the study found just 30.4 percent of kids in the target age group had been screened in the previous year, while 37.1 percent had participated in surveillance. More than half of children had received neither.

And the numbers varied substantially by state. At the low end, only 17.2 percent of Mississippi children were screened compared to a high of 58.8 percent in Oregon.

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