Editors of the Denver Post say it’s time for state lawmakers to find a way to care for Colorado children and adults with disabilities who remain “tragically underserved.” State voters last week rejected Amendment 51, a measure that would have raised the state sales tax by 0.2 percent to pay for “services that should be available now to 10,000 children and adults on a years-long waiting list for help.”

An excerpt:

We did not endorse Amendment 51, largely because we think the general budget should serve the disabled and not a special, earmarked tax raised during uncertain and difficult economic times.

So, now is the time to start fighting for that money.

… As we said in advance of Election Day, it is a disgrace that our budget for the developmentally disabled and their families excludes nearly half the disabled population

From the Washington Post:

As people with Down syndrome live longer, healthier lives, their parents are working with greater urgency to try to help them achieve independence. Adult services, like supervisory programs and group homes, are scarce. An excerpt:

“It’s a huge problem, and it’s not just a problem involving Down syndrome but for all people who have an intellectual disability,” said Peter V. Berns, executive director of the Arc of the United States, whose headquarters is in Silver Spring. “There’s a serious crisis brewing. There are actually huge waiting lists for services across the United States.”

In 2006, 61 percent of people with an intellectual disability were living with their families, and more than 700,000 of them were living with parents or family members who were older than 60, Berns said.

“The reality is that the services are not available to take care of these people in the event that their family member either becomes sick or passes away,” Berns said. “In a sense, their very freedom is at stake.”

(Washington Post photo. Jennifer Holden, 20, who has Down syndrome and is a sophomore in George Mason University’s LIFE Program, takes a field trip with her class.)

From the Washington Post:

Even as most prenatal diagnoses of Down syndrome lead to abortion, more families are seeking to adopt children with the condition. Almost 200 families are on waiting lists to adopt a child with Down syndrome in the United States, and others are seeking overseas adoptions. Many of those are families who already have a child with the condition; some are special education teachers or people motivated by religious belief.

Last month, President Bush signed into law a bill meant to help families who confront questions about Down syndrome or other disabilities. It promotes initiatives to give new or expectant parents up-to-date information about the conditions, as well as referrals to support services. It also authorizes the government to help create a national registry to connect birth parents with people who want to adopt a child with Down syndrome.

From The Australian and the Qatar Gulf Times:

A high-ranking UN disability rights leader has called on Australia to reverse its decision to refuse Dr. Bernhard Moeller’s application for permanent residence.

“It’s outrageous a family is denied immigration because of a disability in their family,” said Ron McCallum, a member of the UN select committee that oversees the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. McCallum, who is blind, is a former University of Sydney dean of law.

“It’s out of step with the spirit of the international convention we’ve just signed,” he said. “We signed this convention to give disabled people the same rights as the rest of the community.” Australia ratified the convention in July, one of the first Western nations to do so.

The Australian Immigration Department denied Moeller’s application because his son has Down syndrome, saying the potential cost to taxpayers of caring for 13-year-old Lukas would be too great.

See also: Health dashes migrant hopes — Melbourne Herald Sun

Applications by almost 3,000 disabled or ill people wanting to migrate to or stay in Australia were rejected in the past two years because officials considered their health costs too high.

Among the conditions cited were HIV, Down syndrome, various cancers, and physical and mental disabilities.

Earlier posts here and here.

Writing in the [Lakeland, FL] Ledger, lawyer David Utter says the arrest and detention of a 9-year-old girl with mental illness at a Fort Myers special ed school is proof that the current system is failing children with disabilities. The girl was handcuffed, arrested, and charged with two felony counts for allegedly spitting at teachers and fighting restraint during a confrontation.

Utter says children with disabilities deserve to get help in a school setting, but too many are being shoved needlessly into the criminal justice system instead. Approximately 70 percent of youths referred to the Florida juvenile justice system have at least one mental health disorder.

An excerpt:

I’m sure school officials thought they were doing the right thing. But it shouldn’t take handcuffs and felony charges for a child with mental illness to get the help she needs.

In fact, this harsh approach — encouraged by zero-tolerance policies that have been in vogue for the past decade or so — is just flat wrong. And it’s not working for anyone, least of all the children who get caught up in the cold bureaucracy of courts, judges and jails.

It is this approach that is feeding Florida’s most vulnerable children into the state’s “school-to-prison pipeline” and, ultimately, into its adult prisons.

David Utter is a civil rights lawyer specializing in juvenile-justice law and director of Florida initiatives for the Southern Poverty Law Center, Montgomery, Ala.

Earlier post here.

Related story here: Mother questions use of force on student with Down syndrome — Naples [FL] Daily News

See also:

Girl, 9, jailed after classroom outburst — Fort Myers [FL] News Press

9-year-old arrested at school — WINK News, southwest Florida (with video)

… includes a reference to people with disabilities. Check out the third paragraph of the remarks he delivered in Chicago:

“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

“It’s the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen; by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the very first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different; that their voice could be that difference.

“It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled –- Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of red states and blue states: we are, and always will be, the United States of America …

From the Steamboat Pilot [Steamboat Springs, CO]/Rocky Mountain News:

Voters spooked by a sluggish economy soundly rejected a measure aimed at removing thousands of Coloradans with developmental disabilities from the waiting lists for state assistance.

What was touted as this election year’s feel-good measure was defeated by Colorado voters by a nearly 2-to-1 ratio.

… “The economy was the issue,” said Marjio Rymer of ARC of Colorado and chairwoman of the coalition to End the Developmental Disability Wait List. “We couldn’t have predicted the fall of the world economy, but we will be back.”

Amendment 51 would have increased the state sales tax by 2 cents on every $10 to fund services for the developmentally disabled.

County by county results, with 86 percent reporting, from the Denver Post here.