Keys to the community:

Many Texans with disabilities still locked out after legislative session

The heart of the Disability Policy Consortium’s advocacy campaign during the Texas Legislature’s 80th session included four “key” issues important to people with disabilities and their ability to be part of their communities:

• No waiting lists,
• Community services,
• Livable wages and benefits, and
• Accessible, affordable housing.

Legislators went home at the end of May after a controversial session. They made a few small steps of progress; but for the most part, they left without unlocking many doors that keep thousands of Texans with disabilities outside mainstream society.

In this edition of Texas Action Update, we are recapping the session in terms of the issues we’ve written about since January. If you are interested in issues beyond these and don’t know how or where to find information, call the DPC office (toll-free: 800-798-1492). We’ll be happy to try to locate what you need.

Waiting list funded at less than half of goal

Throughout the session, disability advocates worked hard to achieve a 20 percent reduction in the waiting lists for Medicaid waiver services over the next two years. In the end, legislators allocated enough funds to shorten the lists by slightly less than 10 percent. Approximately 8,900 home and community-based services “slots” will be released for the next two state fiscal years (beginning in September 2007). In March 2007, there were 124,424 Texans with disabilities on the waiting lists.

Kudos for Sen. Zaffirini

The DPC Long-Term Services and Supports Committee honored Sen. Judith Zaffirini in the last days of the session. In addition to “heartfelt gratitude and respect,” they gave her a collage of pictures of young people who have left nursing homes and intermediate care facilities, thanks to bills she wrote in past legislative sessions. The group also thanked Zaffirini for fighting tirelessly to reduce the Medicaid waiver waiting lists, noting she was fighting alone at times in the 80th session.

Call for state school closure goes unheeded

There was a flurry of legislative activity—including hearings in the House and Senate—following media accounts of an alarming Department of Justice report on conditions at the Lubbock State School. Released the month before the legislature convened, the report cited a substantial number of deficiencies in the facility’s care for residents, most of whom have significant mental and physical disabilities. DOJ investigators concluded the institution “…substantially departs from generally accepted professional standards of care…”

In February, DPC and several other disability advocacy organizations staged a news conference and memorial for the 17 LSS residents who died since the DOJ visit in June 2005. They called on legislators to close the school in favor of community-based services for the 300+ residents.

Lawmakers took no action to close state schools, but did pass a bill intended to improve the process for informing state school residents of their community living choices. Sen. Zaffirini’s SB 1870—touted as a partial solution to the problems at LSS and other state schools—ended up part of SB 27. The original SB 27, sponsored by Sen. Jane Nelson, creates a pilot program “to increase the use of advance directives by nursing home residents and intermediate care facilities for the mentally retarded…by educating the residents and families of residents about advance care planning.”

The revised SB 27 sent to the Governor’s desk includes the language from Zaffirini’s bill requiring the Department of Aging and Disability Services (DADS) to contract with local mental retardation authorities to counsel adult state school residents about their community living options. Among other things, the change is expected to make the counseling more objective by removing state school personnel from the discussion.

“Futile care” bill derailed despite careful negotiations

You may recall that the House Public Health Committee delivered a surprise when members adopted Rep. Garnett Coleman’s amendment to SB 439 with less than two weeks left in the session. The bill, authored by Sen. Robert Deuell, R-Greenville, would have significantly increased the amount of time families would have to locate other care options when hospitals decide to withdraw treatment for terminally ill patients.

The bill passed the Senate after careful negotiations with parties on all sides of the issue, including the medical and disability communities. The careful compromise fell apart, however, when Coleman, D-Houston, sought to change the Senate’s definition of a terminal condition. His amendment alarmed members of the disability community concerned about people with disabilities who may need life sustaining therapy while hospitalized, even though their conditions are not terminal.

The Legislature adjourned without any new legislation on this important issue. The bill got caught up in the insurmountable backlog in the House and never came up for a vote.

Housing legislation takes convoluted path to semi-success

HB 3627—an important disability housing bill—didn’t survive the legislative process. But some of its language did, and housing advocates applaud the legislators who made it so, including Reps. Eddie Rodriguez and Jose Menendez, and Sens. Royce West and Rodney Ellis.

In his original bill, Rep. Rodriguez wanted the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) to have more flexibility in how it distributes HOME funds—dollars that are critical to people with disabilities who need more and better housing options. After years of successful partnership, TDHCA officials had recently balked at working with the Texas Home of Your Own (HOYO) Coalition and Promoting Independence Advisory Council to develop specialized home ownership and renter assistance projects. The agency’s enabling law, they said, limits how HOME funds can be used.

Rodriguez crafted language that would lift the restrictive requirements and allow the funds to be directed where they are needed most—including urban areas. (Approximately 80 percent of Texas’ disability population lives in major metropolitan areas in order to be near services and supports they need.) His bill didn’t survive the process, but the part pertaining to TDHCA did. In a convoluted process that defies a concise description, the Senate attached the needed language to a bill passed in the final hours of the session. This is good news for programs for people with disabilities who need affordable, accessible housing in integrated, community settings.

A second provision of the original bill didn’t fare so well. It would have created a special mortgage bond program to provide low-interest home mortgage loans to eligible people with permanent disabilities, their families and guardians.

Personal attendants get federal minimum wage

The flurry of activity in the last days of the session left members of the Personal Attendant Coalition of Texas (PACT) a little uncertain about the status of their pay and benefits. Funding levels for attendant services in community and institutional settings was included in a rider to the health and human services budget. While they are still trying to get final word, at this writing PACT members believe the legislature set the minimum hourly wage for attendants at the federal minimum wage—$7.25—by the end of the next biennium.

While they are still sorting out the pros and cons, PACT members say the funding will be good news for attendants who are providing services in the community at below minimum wage (and below what their counterparts working in institutions earn). Without their services, many people with disabilities would not be able to function in their home or community.

Effort to improve special education falls flat

A strong advocacy effort from parents and others who wanted to strengthen special education in Texas was just not enough to get a package of 12 important bills through this difficult session. Only one of the bills was successful. Governor Perry signed “Scooter’s Bill” into law before the session ended. It allows students in individualized education programs with four years of high school to participate in graduation ceremonies with their classmates.

Education advocates had hoped to improve assistance for students with disabilities in three primary areas—early intervention, support and training for teachers and aides, and more information and control for parents.

It’s a wrap! Post-session conference call will feature more on what did (and didn’t) happen in the 80th Texas Legislature. Sign up for the DPC conference call today!

Make plans now to participate in the upcoming DPC Educational Conference Call scheduled for Friday, June 22, beginning at 12:00 p.m. (noon) Austin time. This will be our legislative wrap up call—a great way to get the scoop on the legacy of the 80th Texas Legislature.

You can participate in one of two ways:

• In person at the Advocacy, Inc.’s state headquarters (7800 Shoal Creek Blvd., Suite 171-E, in Austin).
• Toll-free conference call. (You’ll get the call-in number when you RSVP.)

Please RSVP for the call by contacting Toni Byrd, DPC Project Coordinator at (512) 371-1783 or toni@dpctexas.org. She’ll send the agenda and call-in information prior to the event.