Direct care workers provide crucial personal care services and/or community living supports to people with disabilities. Direct care workers receive wages which are clearly inadequate. As a result of low pay, often coupled with a lack of benefits, a staffing crisis exists. This is both an economic and a moral issue. Low rates of pay also contribute to problems in recruiting and retaining long-term care staff supporting older adults. The Legislature authorized a study of long-term care challenges in the 2018-2019 budget act. The study will look at challenges faced by the direct care work force and issue recommendations for long-term services and supports. This issue will continue to be at the forefront of discussions about providing crucial supports that enable people with disabilities to work and live in their communities. For more information, please contact MPAS. Sixth Circuit Issues Landmark Special Education Decision From the Council of Parent Advocates and Attorneys (COPAA) On August 20, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals found that a Tennessee school district violated federal special education law when it demanded that a second-grade student with Down syndrome be removed from his general education classroom in his neighborhood school to a segregated special education classroom in another school. The case, L.H. v. Hamilton County Department of Education, was described as “arguably the most important special education case heard by the Sixth Circuit in the past 35 years.” The Court found that the “least restrictive environment” is a “separate and different” measure than that of “substantive educational benefits.” “A child need not master the general-education curriculum for mainstreaming to remain a viable option,” the Court wrote. “Rather, the appropriate yardstick is whether the child, with appropriate supplemental aids and services, can make progress toward the IEP’s goals in the regular education setting.” To read the entire decision, go to the COPAA website at .
Direct care workers provide crucial personal care services and/or community living supports to people with disabilities. Direct care workers receive wages which are clearly inadequate. As a result of low pay, often coupled with a lack of benefits, a staffing crisis exists. This is both an economic and a moral issue. Low rates of pay also contribute to problems in recruiting and retaining long-term care staff supporting older adults. The Legislature authorized a study of long-term care challenges in the 2018-2019 budget act. The study will look at challenges faced by the direct care work force and issue recommendations for long-term services and supports. This issue will continue to be at the forefront of discussions about providing crucial supports that enable people with disabilities to work and live in their communities. For more information, please contact MPAS. Sixth Circuit Issues Landmark Special Education Decision From the Council of Parent Advocates and Attorneys (COPAA) On August 20, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals found that a Tennessee school district violated federal special education law when it demanded that a second-grade student with Down syndrome be removed from his general education classroom in his neighborhood school to a segregated special education classroom in another school. The case, L.H. v. Hamilton County Department of Education, was described as “arguably the most important special education case heard by the Sixth Circuit in the past 35 years.” The Court found that the “least restrictive environment” is a “separate and different” measure than that of “substantive educational benefits.” “A child need not master the general-education curriculum for mainstreaming to remain a viable option,” the Court wrote. “Rather, the appropriate yardstick is whether the child, with appropriate supplemental aids and services, can make progress toward the IEP’s goals in the regular education setting.” To read the entire decision, go to the COPAA website at .
fall_exchange_2018.docx