Institutions endure in Virginia, amid controversy

Virginians with disabilities are caught in a system with too many antiquated institutions and too little money for community care, Henri E. Cauvin writes in the Washington Post. The state is one of just 11 that have not closed any institutions.

Former Gov. Timothy M. Kaine stirred public controversy last year when he announced a plan to close  the Southeastern Virginia Training Center, a  97-acre facility in Chesapeake with 133 residents and 400 employees. Following vocal complaints and active lobbying by families to keep the place open, the state has instead commenced a $23.7 million rebuilding project. The decision is an indication that the state’s path to deinstitutionalization will continue to be slow, Cauvin writes.

Supporters of Southeastern say community care should not be the only option available for families. Advocates like The Arc of Virginia argue that the state could serve more people if it shifted its limited resources away from its five large institutions and toward community-based services that would allow people to live in their own homes.

“We should close them all,” said Charles Hall, a local mental health official in the Hampton Roads area. “But Virginia is very predictably conservative when it comes to things like this.”

From Education Week:

At least two states have received federal permission to cut back on the money they spend on special education, and officials at the U.S. Department of Education are considering a request from a third.

Iowa and Kansas have both won permission for the funding cuts, which can be granted under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) when states are struggling financially. South Carolina’s request is pending.

Special education advocates say this is the first time they’re aware that such economic hardship waivers have been granted. With states facing record budget shortfalls and soaring special education costs, one education finance expert said, more waiver requests may be coming.

More information here.

Related post here.

Letter writers to the Los Angeles Times take issue with LA school superintendent Ramon C. Cortines’ assertion that special ed funding takes services away from “regular kids.” The comment came in an article about the district’s plans to cut 200 special ed classes.

Said one writer:

Perhaps Cortines would prefer we revert to the not-so-distant past and pull resources entirely that allow children with special needs to be productive members of society and reach their potential. Then we can channel even more funding to those “regular” kids.

Maybe I’m naive, but in my world we measure our humanity by how willing we are to support those who struggle the most. I prefer my world to that of Cortines.

Advocates worry that budget woes are turning back the clock for kids with disabilities

From the Los Angeles Times:

Faced with a multi-million dollar deficit, the Los Angeles Unified School District has announced plans for massive cuts in spending on services for students with disabilities. Some 200 special education classrooms will be closed, as well as a specialized campus. Among schools targeted for cutbacks is Hollywood’s Frances Blend School for students with multiple disabilities.

“Blend has one adult to every three kids,” said L.A. schools Supt. Ramon C. Cortines. “Some of those are very, very severe cases, but you have to look at it in perspective. When you fund some of the special ed things, you’re taking from regular kids.” (emphasis added.)

Critics say the cuts reveal a pervasive focus on saving money by limiting services to individual children.

… Serving the disabled costs more than the state and federal governments pay for. The overrun for this year is $628 million from the general fund, which is intended for the district’s regular program.

… About 13% of students in the nation’s second-largest district have a recognized disability. And their education has long been a sensitive subject.

The federal government requires a “free and appropriate” individual program for disabled students but pays only about 17% of the added cost.

… The closing of 200 classrooms will likely force thousands of children into longer commutes to other schools, where average class sizes could grow substantially. At the same time, the district is reducing busing for disabled children to save as much as $7.4 million.

Earlier post here.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Around the country, shrinking state budgets and rising health-care costs are forcing drastic cuts in home services to people with disabilities. Because federal mandates restrict what states may cut inside Medicaid, states are often cutting basic services that help people with disabilities remain in their own homes.

This is happening even though home services are cheaper and more cost effective than institutional care. Experts say it’s politically easier to cut back individual services to people at home than to close a 24-hour facility. But many worry that the cuts could push more people into costly institutions or large group homes because that is where services are guaranteed.

“My biggest fear is having to go to an institution,” says Jimmy “Chip” Eubanks of Clinton, S.C., who has cerebral palsy and lives at home.

People with intellectual and developmental disabilities are particularly at risk for service reduction, experts say, because the per-person cost of their services is about 10 times higher than that of the average Medicaid recipient.

The cuts for the developmentally disabled are almost certain to bite deeper in the future. Part of the federal stimulus money this year was designed to prop up Medicaid. The federal infusion disappears for the fiscal year starting in July 2011.

Some of the biggest cuts are coming in South Carolina, where Medicaid already consumes about 20 percent of the state’s budget and is one of its fastest growing costs. In Aiken County alone, more than 5,000 people languish on waiting lists for various services. “We want to give families hope to keep their family unit together, but in reality there is very little we can put in place to assist them,” says the head of the county’s disabilities board.

By columnist Dennis McCarthy in the Los Angeles Daily News:

The Los Angeles Unified School District has cancelled its summer classes for adults with developmental disabilities for the first time in 20 years, thanks to the budget crisis. Veteran special ed teacher Robert Zazula, who will be laid off for the summer as a result of the cuts, is angry that his students won’t be served even as English-as-second-language classes are preserved.

An excerpt from McCarthy’s interview with Zazula:

“My people matter, and for anyone to say they don’t, whatever the reason, is wrong,” the Bronx, N.Y.-born teacher says.

“These people were born into a world where they are not as fortunate as the rest of us. They need our continued support. Now that there’s a budget crisis we’re going to forget about them?”

… “Why ESL classes all year and not the disabled? We don’t matter anymore?”

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

As school districts across the nation spend their federal stimulus money, some disability advocates say a loophole in the federal law has allowed districts to cheat students out of the very special education services the money was meant to bolster.

A federal rule allows districts to use their stimulus dollars to reduce the amount of local money a district spends on special education, allowing districts to use special ed funding to reduce other costs. Districts say the provision allows them to improve education for all students, but advocates worry the districts may be setting a precedent that could jeopardize special education allocations in the future.

“It’s an atrocity,” said Laura Kaloi, public policy director for the National Center for Learning Disabilities. The money was meant for students receiving special education, not as a way for districts to cut back on how much they spend on those students, she said.