Virginia To Close Training Centers For Those With Disabilities
FALLS CHURCH, Va. (WUSA) - A scathing federal critique of Virginia's institutions for developmentally disabled people has led to
landmark decision. Virginia will close four of its five training centers, in a settlement with the U-S Justice Department.
Also, the state has agreed to increase the number of people with disabilities who can receive Medicaid funding, that still doesn't support to help people with disabilities live in their communities in these ways:
* Adds 4,170 new Intellectual Disability (ID) waiver slots over 10 years to transition individuals currently living in training centers to community services and to provide for continued growth of slots for individuals in the community who are on the waiting list for waiver slots
* Strengthens quality and risk management systems for community services
* Expands the role of licensing specialists and the responsibilities of case management services
The decision is what the DeLoatche family of Falls Church has been fighting for for eight years, ever since their son Charlie was born. He is a happy eight-year-old who has downs syndrome and extreme medical issues. Even though it's been financially draining, his parents felt strongly he needed to live at home and in his community rather than an institution.
"He's here. He's in the community. He's in his school. He goes out to play. He was at the (the Boy Scout's) Pinewood Derby. It's amazing. And it's a joy," says Kymberly DeLoatche, Charlie's mom.
9News Now covered their story three years ago when the family boarded a bus to Richmond to advocate for more support services and funding to help keep people with disabilities in their home. They urged the state to close the institutions and move the people and money to their communities.
"It's landmark, it's historic. Especially for people with disabilities.
In 1999, the U.S. Supreme Court found that confinement in an institution severely diminishes the everyday life activities of individuals. Since then, states have been closing institutions for people with intellectual disabilities.
"It's landmark, it's historic, especially for people with disabilities," said DeLoatche.
Before public schools were forced to allow children with disabilities into classrooms, Virginia Training Centers housed 6000 people. Now, the numbers down to about 1000. As laws and attitudes changes, many other states started closing institutions like these.
Nancy Mercer, for executive director of the Arc of Northern Virginia helped lead the fight.which convinced the Justice department is was about civil rights.
"Virginia typically is the last to make changes. We were the last when it came to integration for people of color. And so it was no surprise that we'd be the last to integrate people who have disabilities," said Mercer.
But aging parents of children who live at the Northern Virginia Training Center and the other institutions worry that community based services won't meet their many needs.
A mother of an adult son who has the IQ of a 6 month old and lives at the Northern Virginia Training Center said, "The news is devastating and there are many medically fragile and behaviorally-challenged individuals who will be at risk in an unprepared community."
There is also disappointment from many that there is not a firm commitment to eliminate the waiting list for people with disabilities to received services.
Written by Peggy Fox