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DRM will receive an award from the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) for our successful housing advocacy on June 15, 2016 at NDRN’s annual conference during a plenary session with HUD Secretary Castro delivering the keynote address, and our plaintiffs and allies present. See our joint press release for more information.

Media Coverage:

Fox Baltimore

The Ken Capone Equal Employment Act (EEA), named for DRM Board member Ken Capone, will abolish the payment of subminimum wages to people with disabilities inMaryland by 2020. The legislation makes Maryland the second U.S. state to eliminate this discriminatory exception to Section 14(c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. The EEA will phase out “sheltered workshops” that pay people as little as pennies per hour and require the Maryland Department of Disabilities and the Developmental Disabilities Administration to implement a 4-year transition plan to move individuals from segregated day programs to competitive integrated employment. Each individual currently making less than minimum wage pursuant to a 14(c) certificate will receive an individual plan for the phase out. DRM participates on the Employment First Steering Committee that is developing the policies and infrastructure to support transition to competitive integrated employment.

HB 420/SB 417 Bill Signing (photo credit: Executive Office of the Governor)

SB 765 will protect people with disabilities and their families from discrimination in private custody, visitation, adoption and guardianship proceedings by requiring any findings that a person’s disability affects the best interest of a child to be recorded in writing; allowing the party with a disability to show that supportive parenting services would prevent such finding; placing the burden of proof on the party alleging that the disability affects the child’s best interest; and conforming the Family Code definition of “disability” to federal law. DRM was pleased to work with National Federation of the Blind, People on the Go, The Arc Maryland, Maryland Association of Centers for Independent Living, other members of the Maryland Disability Rights Coalition, the National Council on Disability, and bill sponsors Senator Jamie Raskin & Delegate Sandy Rosenberg on this groundbreaking legislation.

SB 765 bill signing (photo credit: Executive Office of the Governor)