Disability Policy Consortium Weekly Update
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Nothing About Us Without Us, So Count Us!
The U.S. Census will be arriving in people’s mailbox beginning March 15th. The DPC strongly urges all members to complete the form. To request materials in alternate formats or to complete the Census by telephone, call the Telephone Questionnaire Assistance Center at 1-866-872-6868 or via FedRelay 1-866-783-2010 (for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing). For more information on Census assistance available for people with disabilities, visit www.2010.census.gov or www.dpcma.org.
You’re invited to TWO Parties!
DPC IS HAVING A PARTY…A B.Y.O.C. PARTY!!!
What: Bring Your Own Census Party!
When: Friday, March 19, 2010, 12:00pm-3:00pm
Where: DPC Office, 59 Temple Place, Suite 669, Boston
Snacks, many free giveaways, and much more!
Please bring your Census form (which you will soon receive), and we can help you fill it out!
For more information, call 617-542-3522 or email rpowell@dpcma.org.
Community Census Awareness Day
Join us Saturday March 20, 2010
Filled with music, food and family fun!
Come and bring your 2010 census forms. Census partners will be available to help you fill out your form!
A kid’s Corner will be provided with lots of fun games while parents get informed of the census.
DON’T MISS THIS GREAT OPPORTUNITY!!
Prince Hall Grand Lodge, 24 Washington Street
Dorchester, MA 02121 from 11am to 3pm
Remember the United States Census 2010 is in OUR HANDS.
Budget Advocacy Training – RSVP by Friday!
Although we are in the middle of the Budget process, it is not too late to make a difference! The Governor has proposed his budget for FY11 and now is the time to communicate your concerns to the legislators about disability issues. Don't miss this important training! Come learn:
What's included in the budget proposal for people with disabilities
How decisions made by your state representatives will affect your services
How you can best communicate your concerns to your elected officials
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
1:00p-3:00p
State House, Room B-1
Please RSVP to Robyn Powell by March 19, 2010 rpowell@dpcma.org or 617-542-3522. Please contact Robyn Powell immediately to request accommodations, such as ASL Interpreters, CART, or alternate formats for handouts.
Federal Hiring Event for People with Disabilities
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the U. S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) are sponsoring a historic day-long Federal Hiring Event for People with Disabilities. Representatives from many agencies (including FEMA and DHS) will be reviewing resumes prior to the event, and inviting prospective candidates for interviews. For additional information, please go to: http://www.usajobs.gov/DisabilityHiringEvent.asp .
Deaf-Blind Awareness Day
Date: March 16th, 2010
Time: 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Location: State House – Grand Staircase
Description
The critical services of more than a dozen deaf-blind-related agencies and organizations will be on exhibit. A short program will include remarks by EOHHS Assistant Secretary Jean McGuire, MCB Commissioner Janet LaBreck, and MCDHH Commissioner Heidi Reed. Awards will be given to honor individuals whose contributions to the Deaf-Blind community are particularly noteworthy. The afternoon allows for visits with State Representatives and Senators.
Program
10:00–1:00 Exhibits
12:00 Presentations
1:00–3:00 Visits with Legislators
Communication Access Requests by MARCH 1: Please contact State House ADA Coordinator, Carl Richardson at carl.richardson@state.ma.us.
For more information please visit www.necdbp.org (website for the Massachusetts Deafblind Project) or call 617-972-7514 and leave a message.
Second Annual Blind Legislative Informational Networking Day
Date: April 5th, 2010
Time: 11:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Location: State House – Great Hall
Description
Advocating for the maintenance funding for vital blindness services from the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind and for the Massachusetts Talking Book Program libraries at the Worcester Talking Book Library and the Perkins Braille & Talking Book Library. Reinforcing the importance of specialized services for people who are blind, visually impaired and deaf-blind.
Program
11:30 Registration and technology demonstrations in the Great Hall
12:00 Lunch available
12:15 Speakers and Program
1:00 Legislative Issues Briefing
1:15-2:00 Afternoon visits with legislators
Communication Access Requests by MARCH 20: For all communication access requests, please contact State House ADA Coordinator, Carl Richardson at carl.richardson@state.ma.us.
New Disability Status Report
Cornell University's Employment and Disability Institute (EDI) will host a free online webinar on March 17th from 1:00-2:00 p.m. EDT to present the findings of the 2008 Disability Status Report. The free webinar will explore recently released 2008 American Community Survey (ACS) data related to disability and employment, education, poverty, household income and labor earnings.
WHO: Cornell University's Employment and Disability Institute
WHAT: Free Online Webinar on Disability Statistics
WHEN: March 17th from 1:00-2:00 p.m. EDT
WHY: Cornell University researchers will present the latest information and issues associated with disability statistics and the circumstances that people with disabilities face.
WHERE: To register for this free webinar, please go to: www.DisabilityStatistics.org
Significant changes were made to the 2008 ACS survey, including a completely new set of disability questions. These important changes will be discussed, along with several new topics, including health insurance coverage and veterans service-connected disability-rating.
Cornell research found that in 2008, 39.5 percent of working-age (21-64) people with disabilities were employed, compared with the 79.9 percent of people without disabilities. Moreover, researchers found that 25.3 percent of working-age Americans with disabilities lived in poverty, compared to 9.6 percent of those without disabilities. These dramatic discrepancies are longstanding and continue to separate Americans with disabilities from their peers without disabilities. The relevance of these statistics to the process of developing and maintaining policies that relate to people with disabilities in the United States cannot be overstated.
JOYCE, SCIBACK’S SHOCK THERAPY BILLS REPORTED FAVORABLY OUT OF COMMITTEE; HEADED TO SENATE
BOSTON, MA –Senator Brian A. Joyce and Representative John W. Scibak today announced that the Joint Committee on Children, Families, and Persons with Disabilities reported out favorably S.45 An Act relative to Level IV Treatment Interventions and S.46 An Act Creating a Special Commission on Behavior Modification. Both bills will provide further oversight and regulation to the use of aversive therapy in Massachusetts.
S.45 is designed to create a set of unified standards across all publicly operated and/or funded agencies/providers who utilize aversive therapy (shock therapy) techniques to reduce challenging behavior. These standards will specify the scope of techniques permissible under statute and regulations, and will provide for future review and monitoring of individuals’ to ensure the health, safety, privacy, dignity, and human rights of all who have behavior plans in place.
S.46 is a companion bill, which would create a special commission to investigate the current status of aversive therapy usage in the Commonwealth and the policies and procedures in place for governing their use. The bill would also establish a single state-wide Peer Review Committee that would be charged with the approval and oversight of all aversive therapy interventions.
The bills have the support of numerous civil rights groups, behaviorists, and disability advocates including the ACLU and the Disability Law Center.
In Joyce’s own district, much attention has been given to the Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC) in Canton, which is thought to be the only facility in the country that uses electric shock therapy to curtail behavior. In 2007, the State launched a criminal investigation into an incident where a prank phone call to the school led to the repeated electric shocking of two individuals in the dead of night. Last October 2009, the JRC made headlines again when the Boston Globe reported that Director Matthew Israel was fined by the Massachusetts Division of Professional Licensure for allowing 14 unlicensed clinicians at the school to use the title “psychologist”. And most recently, the United States Department of Justice launched an official investigation into the JRC which was initiated in response to a September 30th letter of complaint from 31 disability advocacy groups from across the nation.
"I am ecstatic that the Committee has taken the appropriate steps to regulate this barbaric practice,” said Senator Joyce. “We owe it to our future generations to protect each and every life and ensure that human rights are not abused.”
“There are a small number of individuals whose self injury and aggression is so dangerous as to be life threatening. When less restrictive interventions have been tried and failed, clinicians sometimes have to resort to aversive therapy. That is why I am pleased to see that the Joint Committee on Children and Families have reported out favorably two bills which will establish greater safeguards and oversight regarding the use of aversive therapy and establish a commission to develop a unified set of standards regarding the use of these procedures across all agencies and programs regulated by the Commonwealth,” said Representative Scibak.
Joyce and Scibak, the former Director of Psychology at Belchertown State School, have pushed for the passage of common-sense aversive therapy legislation for several years.
The bills now head to the Senate for further action.
STATE OFFICIALS OPTIMISTIC ABOUT DELIVERY OF $600 MIL AFTER SENATE VOTE
By Kyle Cheney and Michael Norton
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE
STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, MARCH 11, 2010.....State officials say a vote in the U.S. Senate Wednesday appears to assure delivery of $600 million in federal health care funds that Gov. Deval Patrick relied on to balance his fiscal 2011 budget proposal.
Legislative leaders, contemplating a local aid cut, have expressed reservations in recent weeks about the $600 million, largely because the money had not cleared all of its hurdles in Washington.
"The Senate was the last piece that needed to act," Administration and Finance Secretary Jay Gonzalez, Patrick's budget chief, told the News Service Thursday afternoon. "The fact that the U.S. Senate has passed it pretty much makes it a certainty that that funding will be available for the state next year."
The funds were included in a larger $140 billion package that would extend federal unemployment aid and COBRA health care benefits for the unemployed through 2010. The bill passed 62-36.
Senators voted largely along party lines, with Massachusetts Democrat John Kerry voting in support and Republican Scott Brown voting against the 110-page bill, although he voted in favor of cutting off debate to give the proposal an up-or-down vote.
Brown said in a statement that the legislation would raise the federal deficit by $100 billion.
Asked about voting against a bill that included $600 million in health care funds for Massachusetts, a Brown spokesman said the legislation contained some "useful components" but violated Congressional policies to offset new spending with corresponding cuts.
"Senator Brown believes Congress should pursue policies that will provide jobs for Massachusetts families - not policies that will pile on to our already record-high national debt," said the spokesman, Colin Reed.
In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, Brown said, "Washington needs to get its fiscal house in order and start living within its means, just like families across this country are doing during these tough economic times. Today, I opposed legislation that will add more than $100 billion to our already record-high national deficit, and violate the PAYGO pledge. We cannot keep burdening future generations under unsustainable mountains of debt."
In a statement released to the News Service Thursday, Sen. John Kerry said, "Massachusetts would have faced budget cuts of approximately $608 million if this extension didn't go through go through before the FY 2011 budget is finalized. This was a jobs issue, pure and simple. Without an extension of federal Medicaid assistance, governors would have had no choice but to make deeper and deeper cuts to their state budgets at a potential cost of up to 900,000 jobs next year alone."
At a state Connector Board meeting Thursday morning, state Medicaid director Terry Dougherty confirmed to the News Service that the Senate vote puts both branches of Congress on record in support of extended health care funding, which President Barack Obama also supports.
At the meeting, Gonzalez said it was "very likely" that the appropriations request would soon reach Obama's desk.
If allocated in next year's state budget, as expected, the funds would help the state cover soaring health care costs and preserve coverage gains made since passage of the 2006 health care law, but will perpetuate a structural budget deficit that the legislative and executive branches have been grappling with for years on Beacon Hill as state spending has consistently outpaced recurring revenues.
Gonzalez said in an interview that federal Medicaid funds have been "critical" to Massachusetts's ability to balance its budget amid the fiscal downturn. He said concerns that the state is relying on one-time sources of revenue that will disappear after next fiscal year are well-founded but that the administration has been weaning the state off such funding sources.
"Our trend is in the right direction," he said.
At the Connector board meeting in One Ashburton Place, Patrick administration officials and a Connector Board member exchanged high fives as they shared the news of the Senate vote.
"Planning a Life", Making the Most Out of High School
A Transition Conference coming up April 9 & 10, 2010
High school is a time when all students need to be actively involved in planning for their future. The process can be overwhelming for families because resources and information on Transition planning are often difficult to find. At this critical juncture, students and families must be informed, proactive, involved and hopeful.
We are pleased to announce the final Planning a Life conference for the 2009-2010 school year !
April 9 & 10, 2010 Church In the Acres Baptist 1383 Wilbraham Road, Springfield, MA 01119-2614 Get directions
"Planning a Life: Making the Most out of High School" is a two day conference packed with Transition planning information and resources for and about students in special education ages 14-22. Transition planning needs to be on schedule to ensure a systematic, purposeful, and individualized educational experience.
Plan now to attend. Find out about "what you need to know, when you need to ask, and who you need to go to for answers." Our goal is to establish a statewide network of proactive knowledgeable parents working in partnership with their local schools to develop individualized Transition goals in the IEP.
Go to http://fcsn.org/pti/workshops/transition.php Download the conference brochure.
This conference is open to everyone. For families in Boston, Worcester and Springfield, registration is free through Transition Works! a grant in partnership with the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission. Additionally you can apply for scholarships available thru the Massachusetts Developmental Disabilities Council (MDDC) Call 617-770-7676 or click on this link> Council Empowerment Funds Program
Register today for the last remaining conference of the 2009-2010 school year! Space is limited to 50 participants. Send your registration with payment today to the Boston office, attention: Wanda.
If you need additional information, contact Terri McLaughlin 617-236-7210 x336 or tmclaugh@fcsn.org