VOR Weekly News Update
VOR is a national organization that advocates for high quality care and human rights for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities
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VOR promises to empower you to make and protect quality of life choices for individuals with developmental disabilities
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VOR's Annual Meeting & Legislative Initiative
Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C.
June 9 - 13, 2018
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VOR 2018 Annual Conference and Washington Initiative
June 9 - 13, 2018
All meetings will take place at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill, 400 New Jersey Ave., NW, Washington, D.C.
Saturday, June 9, 2018
Registration: Network with families from across the country
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Noon
VOR Board of Directors Meeting & Report to Membership
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12:30 pm
Annual meeting of the VOR Board of Directors, open to all members
Committee Reports and Presentations
Time will be provided for member questions and comments
Installation of VOR 2017-2018 Officers and Board Members
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3:30 pm
Reports from the States
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4:00 pm
Participants report on news from their states. Session is moderated by VOR Board Members
Sunday, June 10, 2018
Registration: Network with families from across the country
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11:30 am
VOR Legislative Initiative 2018
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Noon
Opening Remarks - Joanne St. Amand, President and Hugo Dwyer, Executive Director
Panel Discussion on State Advocacy – Liz Belile (TX). Susan Jennings (PA), Rita Winkeler (IL)
Guest Speakers – Kate McSweeny, Vice President on Govt. Affairs & General Counsel at ACCSES
(Other speakers TBA)
Legislative Briefing
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3:00 pm
Panel Discussion and Issue Briefing. Folders for Congressional visits will be distributed.
Awards and Events
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5:00 pm
VOR’s Sunday Dinner at The Dubliner - 7:00 pm
Sunday Dinner at The Dubliner is optional. The price is $35 per person. Alcoholic beverages are available at an extra charge.
We ask that you make a reservation in advance.
Monday, June 11 – Wednesday, June 13, 2018
The Washington Initiative
Visits to Capitol Hill
- Personal meetings with Members and Congress and their staff are the most effective way to educate and influence federal lawmakers. Join VOR members and advocates from around the country to convey the importance of residential choice and family decision-making to Members of Congress. Be sure to plan enough time to cover your state’s Congressional Delegation.
Monday, June 11 Informal De-briefing
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6:30 - 8:00 pm
Tuesday, June 12 Informal De-briefing
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6:30 - 8:00 pm
To register for the conference and legislative initiative or make a dinner reservation at the Dubliner, go to:
ACT NOW! DISCOUNTS FOR EARLY REGISTRATION END
APRIL 30!
VOR Members:
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$90 per member if paid by April 30, 2018
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$110 per member if paid after May 1, 2018
Non-VOR Members: (Fee includes 1 year membership (Reg. $45)
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$125 per person if paid by April 30, 2018
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$150 per person if paid after May 1, 2018
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HOTEL INFORMATION
Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill
400 New Jersey Ave, NW Washington, D.C. 20001
We have a bloc of rooms available for conference attendees.
The VOR Group rate is $279 for single or double rooms, plus tax, per night. Larger rooms & suites are also available.
To make your reservations online, go to:
If you do not have internet access,
c
all 1-888-421-1442 and mention “VOR’s Annual Conference” when making your reservation.
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ATTENTION CONFERENCE ATTENDEES
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Congressional Lists Are Available NOW!
It's time to start making appointments for with your legislators for
Hill Visits during the Legislative Initiative, June 11 -13
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Over the past two years, the Des Moines Register has been covering the state's transition to Managed Care for its Medicaid System. Below is a Pulitzer Prize-Winning Editorial from April of 2017, followed by an article from January and an update on the passage of a recent bill aimed at cleaning up the system.
(Special thanks to VOR's Jill Barker for bringing this series to our attention)
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Editorial: Privatized Medicaid is Worst Prank Ever
By Andie Dominick, Des Moines Register, April 1, 2017
Saturday was the first anniversary of Gov. Terry Branstad’s Medicaid privatization experiment. On April 1, 2016, Iowa abandoned state management of the $4 billion health insurance program for more than 500,000 poor Iowans and hired three for-profit insurers to take over.
One year later, the entire ordeal is like an April Fool’s joke with no end.
The joke is on low-income Iowans who have lost access to health services. These include home-bound, disabled people who rely on daily visitsfrom caregivers.
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The joke is on numerous health care providers underpaid or not paid by the managed care companies. These include an Iowa nursing home forced to borrow $150,000 while waiting for reimbursements, a mental health facility owed $300,000, and a family planning clinic that finally had no choice but to close its doors. One insurer recently notified patients it may stop covering services at Mercy Health Network, which has more than 200 hospitals and clinics across the state.
The joke is on taxpayers now funding insurers’ administrative costs to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Taxpayers will also bankroll the additional $130 million Iowa agreed to pay MCOs in October after they complained about losing money.
And Iowans get a good ribbing every time Branstad says his privatized Medicaid is accompanied by “unprecedented transparency.”
There is nothing transparent about any of this. Just the opposite.
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Bill Would Allow Iowa’s Disabled to Avoid Managed Care in Medicaid
By Clark Kauffman, The Des Moines Register, January 17, 2018
Tens of thousands of disabled Iowans who rely on Medicaid would no longer have to deal with private managed-care companies under a bill now being considered by state lawmakers.
Senate File 2013 would create an exemption from the managed-care component of Medicaid for disabled and elderly Iowans who rely on long-term support services such as housing, meals, employment and transportation.
Such a change likely will face stiff resistance from GOP lawmakers who support managed care and don’t want to create a two-tiered system of Medicaid, with hospital patients forced to deal with the cost-containment efforts of managed-care organizations while nursing home residents and people with lifetime disabilities bypass the MCOs entirely.
The Iowa Health Care Association and the Iowa Association of Community Providers are backing a bill that directs the Iowa Department of Human
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Services to terminate its contracts for long-term support services with Medicaid’s managed-care companies.
The Iowans who receive those services would then be transferred to a Medicaid-funded program that would be administered by the state on a fee-for-service basis.
Shelly Chandler of the Iowa Association for Community Providers said the bill would benefit thousands of Medicaid-dependent nursing home residents as well as the 39,000 disabled Iowans who rely on Medicaid for home- and community-based services such as meals, housing, employment and transportation.
She noted that 37 of the 39 states that have moved toward a privately administered form of Medicaid have exempted those populations from managed care because of the beneficiaries’ recurring nonmedical needs.
Only two states — Iowa and Kansas — have opted to use private, for-profit managed care organizations to oversee services for intellectually disabled people receiving home- and community-based services.
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By its very Design, Managed-Care Medicaid Discriminates Against Severely Disabled Iowans
By Bill Dodds, The Des Moines Register, January 26, 2018
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By its very design, managed-care Medicaid discriminates against disabled Iowans who require costly, long-term treatments simply to live in their communities. It’s the only way today’s managed-care organizations (MCOs) can deliver on their promise to slow the growth of Medicaid spending and generate profit for shareholders.
Iowa, like many states, has sought to gain control over the increasing costs of its Medicaid program by doing away with a state-run system in favor of managed care. This has resulted in state contracts with multiple managed-care organizations in an attempt to incent these companies to compete in Iowa for Medicaid members by offering services that best meet their needs while simultaneously reducing costs.
This might sound good in concept but is difficult to achieve in reality, especially for recipients who have severe mental illness and disabilities. At Optimae, we have seen this play out daily in the lives of the more than 5,300 Iowans we serve.
It is virtually impossible for an MCO to determine which of the millions of units of services provided each year is truly “medically necessary,” given that more than 600,000 Iowans receive services under Medicaid. To compensate, the companies focus on managing the most expensive services, especially those that are long-term. This includes longer term inpatient and outpatient services, including home health and home- and community-based services for individuals with disabilities, and nursing and residential care facilities.
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AmeriHealth's Dr. Brian Morley testified that it wasn't necessary for an in-home care patient to receive daily assistance to clean himself after bowel movements.
These services represent a disproportionate percentage of the total cost of Medicaid, making them a target for cost reductions in the form of lower payments for or a reduction in services. That means fewer and less intense supports for the Medicaid members who rely on them to live in their communities. This is the only way the MCOs can survive.
Additionally, the MCOs in Iowa and most other states are publicly traded, for-profit companies. Their management is under pressure to constantly produce better financial results for shareholders, meaning taxpayer dollars that previously paid for Medicaid services are now set aside for profits. This puts the most expensive services at even greater risk for reductions by the MCOs regardless of the outcome.
Which brings us to the core of the issue.
This discrimination has serious effects on the health and quality of life of these individuals, their families and friends and the communities where they live. Iowans have a long and proud heritage of taking care of their most vulnerable citizens, especially those with disabilities. Managed care, as it currently exists, seriously damages that tradition and the citizens who rely on it.
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Rates of Autism Continue to Rise, New Data Indicate
Many children still diagnosed late, after age 4
By Jim Dryden, Washington University School of Medicine, April 26, 2018
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New statistics indicate rates of autism in children have continued to increase. However, the rates have increased only modestly, suggesting there may be a leveling off.
Still, researchers found that many children aren’t getting diagnosed until age 4 or older. The older a child is at diagnosis, the harder it is for health-care professionals to intervene and change the trajectory of autism spectrum disorder. Children with autism often face social challenges, communication problems and intellectual deficits, but research suggests some of those hurdles may be overcome with early, intensive therapy.
The new
statistical findings, from the 11-center Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, which includes Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, are based on data from more than 10,886 children. The results are published April 27 in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.”
In 2014, the most recent year for which comprehensive statistics are available, researchers found that 1.7 percent of 8-year-olds (1 in 59)
in the study had a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. That compares with 1.5 percent (1 in 68) in 2012. This
increase could indicate an improvement in the identification of autism spectrum disorder,
particularly in previously underdiagnosed minority populations, among other factors. Prevalence estimates in the 11 communities represented in this report ranged widely, from a low of 1.3 percent to a high of 3 percent.
“I think this shows that the prevalence of autism in the U.S. is continuing to show signs of steadying,” said John N. Constantino, MD, one of the study’s
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authors and the Blanche F. Ittleson Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at Washington University. “Unfortunately, however, it appears many kids still aren’t getting diagnosed early enough to get maximum benefit from therapy.”
Some 39 percent of the children
in the study who were diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder didn’t receive such a diagnosis until they were over 4 years of age, added Constantino.
“It remains a priority to diagnose autism earlier and begin intervention sooner, especially given recent research suggesting that higher intensity and duration of early developmental therapy for children with autism is associated with significant improvements in outcomes,” he said.
A higher percentage of white children than African-American and Hispanic children were identified as having autism spectrum disorder. That gap, however, is narrowing, which m
ay be due in part to increased efforts to diagnosis children in minority communities.
Despite the narrowing gap, minority children with autism are disproportionately affected by intellectual disabilities related to the disorder.
Some 44 percent of African-American children with autism also have intellectual disabilities, compared with 22 percent of white children with the disorder.
“That underscores the necessity of resolving racial disparities in access to diagnostic and therapeutic services,” Constantino said.
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Despite Law, Funds To Address Wandering Remain In Limbo
By Hannah Long, Disability Scoop, April 23, 2018
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Though federal legislation addressing wandering among people with autism and other developmental disabilities was approved as part of a $1.3 trillion government spending package in late March, advocates are still fighting to ensure that the program gets funded.
Kevin and Avonte’s Law is set to provide $2 million annually through 2022 for grants to local law enforcement and nonprofit agencies. These grants can be used to purchase electronic tracking devices for families of those at risk for wandering, or for education, training, notification systems and resources to better address the issue.
However, communities will only be able to take advantage of the grants if the law is financed. Its passage with the federal spending package only authorized the legislation to be funded, but did not provide a source of funding.
“We’re really excited that this law has finally passed,” said Lori McIlwain, co-founder and executive director of the National Autism Association. “We’re just now in the minutia part where we’re trying to get the actual dollars and make it official.”
Advocates are hoping that the U.S. Department of Justice will allocate discretionary funds toward
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Kevin and Avonte’s Law so that the program can start this year.
The Justice Department did not respond to multiple requests for comment about whether or not funds are available for this fiscal year, which runs through September.
At the same time, supporters are lobbying Congress to establish a dedicated source of funding for Kevin and Avonte’s Law in 2019.
Kevin and Avonte’s Law is named for two children on the autism spectrum who drowned after eloping. Research indicates that about half of children with autism have a tendency to wander away from safe places.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who originally proposed the bill in 2014, will continue to fight to get Kevin and Avonte’s Law funded in both 2018 and 2019, said a senior official in his office.
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Texas - In Plan to Fix Special Education, Texas Education Agency will Spend $212 Million
By Alejandra Matos, The San Antonio Express-News, April 24, 2018
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The Texas Education Agency plans to spend nearly $212 million over the next five years in an attempt to fix systemic problems with special education in Texas schools, according to a final action plan released Tuesday.
Finding funds for new programs is likely to be a major challenge when lawmakers return in January, but officials are confident they’ve already found the money to launch the program.
TEA officials acknowledged that students with special needs lag far behind their peers in reading and math skills, and say their plan includes efforts to boost academic achievement as well as address corrective actions required by the U.S. Department of Education. The federal agency determined that the state illegally set up an 8.5 percent benchmark — some critics considered it a de facto cap — on the number of students receiving special education services, well below the national average of 13 percent.
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A 2016 Houston Chronicle investigation found that the practice led school districts to deny access to special education services to tens of thousands of students with disabilities.
The final version of the plan comes after months of draft proposals and feedback sessions with parents, educators, education advocates and students. The state is aiming to repair a decade-old practice that drastically reduced the number of students receiving special education services. TEA officials have repeatedly said the 8.5 percent benchmark was not a cap but an “indicator of performance.” But in practice, districts used the number as a cap, the Department of Education found, and denied or delayed services for children across the state.
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Georgia -
Disabled Deaths, Lack of Support for Mentally Ill Plague Georgia Patients
By Tom Corwin, The Augusta Chronicle, April 19, 2018
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The state of Georgia is still failing to adequately care for some developmentally disabled patients in community settings, including one death due to neglect in a former Gracewood patient, a court-appointed expert said in a report. The state is also failing to provide housing support for the mentally ill being discharged from jails and prisons, the report said.
The State of Georgia is still not providing adequate care for some developmentally disabled patients discharged into the community, including at least one death due to neglect of a former Gracewood patient, according to a court-appointed expert.
The state is also not meeting its obligation to provide housing support and coordination for the seriously mentally ill, particularly those being released from jail or prison or those who show up often in Emergency Rooms, Independent Reviewer Elizabeth Jones wrote.
Georgia has been under a 2010 settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice over the conditions in its state institutions for the developmentally disabled and mentally ill and had to have that settlement extended last year until this June after it failed to meet several requirements and obligations. The state remains out of compliance with many of those still in the latest assessment, filed by Jones in March in U.S. District Court in Atlanta.
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The state has transferred 29 to the community since last July, more than it did the entire previous fiscal year, but four died within six months of being transferred. Only two of those death reports were provided to Jones. One, referred to by her initials B.B., was clearly due to poor care, Jones noted.
“There was sufficient evidence to substantiate neglect by the provider who assumed responsibility for B.B,” she wrote. “The agency failed to provide adequate staffing in the home; failed to track skin integrity, weight and bowel movements; and failed to report her hospitalization.”
Jones later wrote that there were 31 deaths in December and January and she was hoping to discuss those with state officials this month. The Augusta Chronicle in an earlier investigation found that there were nearly 1,000 deaths of developmentally disabled patients in community settings while under the care of the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities in 2013-2014 and in her last report Jones still faulted the state for inadequate investigations of those deaths.
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Connecticut -
Workers Who Care For Disabled Clients Will Strike On May 7
By Mackenzie Rigg, The CT Mirror, April 26, 2018
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A strike organized by workers who care for the disabled is back on for May 7.
In March, the worker’s union, SEIU 1199 New England, held a rally at the State Capitol to announce that some 2,500 workers from nine organizations intended to strike on April 18, seeking increased state funding and higher wages.
These employees work for private agencies in group homes and day programs that receive state funding, with the majority of that coming from the state Department of Developmental Services.
State funding to these private agencies has been flat for more than a decade. This has caused low wages, high turnover and lack of affordable health care for workers, the union says.
On April 4, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy wrote a letter to union President David Pickus asking him to postpone the strike until early May “in order to give this process time to produce a positive result, with state budget support.” The next day, the workers voted to postpone.
On Wednesday, they voted to re-issue strike notices to nine private agency providers that operate services in 250 locations statewide.
Office of Policy and Management Secretary Ben Barnes has presented legislators with a proposal that would raise wages to $14.75 per hour and
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provide a 5 percent raise for workers currently earning more than $14.75, effective Jan. 1, 2019. The proposal would cost the state about $11.4 million in fiscal year 2019 and $22.8 million in subsequent years. The total annual cost is double that, but the federal government would provide a match through Medicaid.
It would benefit about 18,000 workers, according to the union.
Thirty agencies pay less than $13 per hour, including four that pay less than $11 per hour, according to the union.
According to the union, about 59 percent of this workforce are people of color; and 67 percent, is female.
The nine agencies where workers plan to strike are: Oak Hill School, Journey Found, Mosaic, Alternative Services ASI, Sunrise, New Seasons, New England Residential Services, Whole Life and Network.
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Massachusetts - Advocating for her Daughter’s Care got a Woman Banned from DDS-funded Group Home; and her Daughter got an Eviction Notice
By Dave Kassel, The COFAR Blog, April 24, 2018
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When Susan Fernstrom got her developmentally disabled daughter, Holly Harrison, into a group home in Danvers in June of 2015, she thought it would lessen some of the growing burden on her of caring for members of her family.
Susan’s husband, Patrick, was terminally ill with a brain tumor and needed his own intensive care. He died in December of that year.
Holly, who is now 39, had been born with Galactosemia, a rare genetic disorder, that causes intellectual disability and other complications, including coordination issues, and requires a controlled diet.
The group home is run by Toward Independent Living and Learning, Inc. (TILL), a corporate, nonprofit provider funded by the Department of Developmental Services. The residence was brand new and beautiful, and centrally located in the downtown in Danvers, near the mall.
But almost immediately, Susan became concerned when she realized there were no meal plans for any of the five women in the house. Two of the
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women are diabetics, and, like Holly, require special diets.
Beyond that, Holly wasn’t getting fed regularly. She was not fed or given water for up to nine hours at a time, Susan said. On many occasions, the staff forgot to give her lunch, particularly onweekends. In one instance, Holly was given a sandwich by the staff to eat that contained uncooked bacon.
The home wasn’t kept clean. There was clutter left outside Holly’s bedroom door and mold on the bathroom shower curtain and on the floor of the shower. “The bathroom was often filthy,” Susan said. “The staff would clean it when they knew investigators were coming, mostly due to complaints from me,” she said. Raw meat was often left in the sink.
In addition to the mold and clutter, it took months to hook up a shower curtain rod to the bathroom wall.
There was only one working light in the basement even though that was an area set aside for storage of extra clothing for Holly, which Susan frequently had to retrieve. Also, there was furniture and a large carpet roll placed in way of the clothing bins.
But when Susan raised these issues, she never anticipated the push-back she would receive, not only from the staff, but from Dafna Krouk-Gordon, the president of TILL. As of last August, Susan found herself banned under a written directive from TILL from entering the group home and therefore from being able to check directly on the care there.
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Kolkhort Receives Legislator of the Year
The Eagle, April 22, 2018
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Texas Sen. Lois W. Kolkhorst of Brenham has received the Legislator of the Year Award from Parent Association for the Retarded of Texas (PART), a statewide advocacy group for the developmentally disabled. The group said it chose Kolkhorst for her years of support for State Supported Living Centers across Texas.
Senate District 18, which Kolkhorst represents, contains two state supported living centers, in Brenham and Richmond. PART is a statewide volunteer-led organization dedicated to improving educational and residential placement options.
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Missouri -
KPI Advocates for Sheltered Workshops at Capitol
By Helen Wilbers, The News Tribune, April 27, 2018
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Sheltered workshops are falling out of favor in the United States.
Connie Hale, general manager of Kingdom Projects, Inc. in Fulton, doesn’t think that should be the case.
“The employees derive a lot of benefits from the dignity of their employments and their friendships, and also the paycheck,” she said.
Hale was among more than 100 workshop managers, employees, and employees’ family and friends to attend “Day for Choice” on Wednesday at the Capitol. Advocates from across the state gathered to speak in favor of sheltered workshops’ validity as an employment option.
While Hale doesn’t know of any new, direct threats to Missouri’s workshops, she said the workshops’ prominence has been decreasing as regulations have increased.
“We can’t employ anyone under 25 until they’ve been to vocational rehabilitation and been tested,” she said. “Years ago the schools would send over their juniors and some seniors, and they’d do a couple of hours of work each day as training. Now, that’s no longer allowed because essentially they might start feeling comfortable in that atmosphere and that might be where they want to stay.”
Hale said she believes this impedes disabled individuals’ right to choose where they want to be employed. She added in her experience,
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competitive employment actually means fewer hours and less support for disabled employees.
“Usually, competitive employment only offer 10 hours a week or less,” she said. “KPI employees can work 30 hours a week.”
Hale believes workshops are a financially sound way to employ disabled people. She cited a figure from the Missouri Association of Sheltered Workshop Managers that claims sheltered workshops return $10 for every $1 invested.
During “Day of Choice,” Hale and other KPI attendees dropped off flyers for area representatives. The entire group of advocates also dropped in on both the state House and Senate, she said.
Past advocacy efforts by A Team Missouri, the organizers of the event, helped the passage of MO HCR28 in 2017. The bill affirmed Missouri legislators’ support of special workshops. Currently about 6,000 Missourians work in sheltered workshops, Hale said.
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Senators Call For End To Subminimum Wage Amid Accusations Of Exploitation
By Courtney Perkes, Disability Scoop, April 27, 2018
Subminimum wages for workers with disabilities came under fire this week as a group of U.S. senators called for an end to the “discriminatory” practice and an Illinois manufacturing company was accused of exploiting nearly 250 employees.
Lawmakers sent a five-page letter to the U.S. Department of Labor on April 23, the same day that the department announced that Rock River Valley Self Help Enterprises had violated federal employment law and owed two years’ worth of back pay to workers who earned less than minimum wage.
Seven Democratic senators, including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, wrote that the lower pay “permits employers to discriminate against workers on the basis of disability status and unjustifiably sets low expectations for workers with disabilities.”
The lawmakers called for a phasing out of so-called “Section 14(c)” jobs where employers, under the Fair Labor Standards Act, apply for certificates that allow them to pay people with disabilities less than minimum wage. Subminimum wages are based on the productivity of a person with a disability compared to someone without a disability.
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Call For Entries! 2018 Application Period Now Open for Disability Reporting Contest
Posted on March 22, 2018 by
The National Center on Disability and Journalism
The National Center on Disability and Journalism is accepting entries for the 2018 Ruderman Foundation Awards for Excellence in Reporting on Disability.
This award is the only journalism contest devoted exclusively to disability coverage.
The Ruderman Foundation Awards for Excellence in Reporting on Disability recognize the best reporting on disability issues and people with disabilities that is being done in the U.S. and abroad.
More than $20,000 in cash awards will be given to first-, second- and third-place winners in large media and small media categories.
There is no entry fee for the competition, which is open to digital, broadcast and print media outlets.
Contest entries are due by midnight on Aug. 6, 2018. Entries must have been published or aired between July 1, 2017, and July 31, 2018. Entries are accepted from outside the U.S., although the work submitted must be in English. Awards are given to individuals or teams.
The 2018 winners will be recognized at a fall 2018 ceremony in Washington, D.C., featuring a keynote speaker on disability coverage as well as a disability reporting workshop for journalists.
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Indiana - Task Force to Examine Support Needs for Hoosiers with Disabilities
A state plan for the support needs of Hoosiers with intellectual and developmental disabilities will get an update soon for the first time in 20 years. A new state task force aimed at helping the estimated 100,000 Indiana residents has scheduled meetings across the state.
The link to the livestream can be found
here.
Dates, times and location for each meeting of the task force are as follows:
- Wednesday, June 27, 2018, 10 a.m.--2 p.m. CT, Valparaiso
- Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2018, 11 a.m.--3 p.m. ET, New Albany
- Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018, 11 a.m.--3 p.m. ET, Columbia City
All meetings are open to the public and will be streamed live. Public comment will occur prior to the start of each meeting to provide input regarding services and supports for people with disabilities. Requests for accommodations for meetings of the task force should be made by contacting Kristina Blankenship at Kristina.Blankenship@fssa.in.gov at least 48 hours in advance of the task force meeting.
For more information, visit:
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VOR's Annual Meeting & Legislative Initiative
Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C.
June 9 - 13, 2018
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The conference will be held at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill again this year. This is a very nice hotel and it is only a short walk to the Capitol and the Senate and House Office Buildings. We have reserved a bloc of rooms at the hotel for the event.
We are also accepting reservations for our
Sunday Dinner at the Dubliner
.
This is an added event, with a $35 Prix-fixe menu that includes salad, entree, dessert, and non-alcoholic beverages (alcoholic beverages are available at an additional cost). This event has been popular in past years, so make sure to reserve your seat when you register.
Space is limited, and this event has reached capacity in recent years, so make sure to reserve now!
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836 South Arlington Heights Road #351 Elk Grove Village, IL 60007
Toll Free: 877-399-4867 Fax: 877-866-8377
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