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Wiley Secures Victory for Disability Rights Maryland in Pro Bono Lawsuit Against Prince George’s County Public Schools

Posted on April 1, 2023

Washington, DC – Wiley Rein LLP secured an important victory on behalf of Disability Rights Maryland (DRM) in a lawsuit against Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS), stemming from allegations that the school system disproportionately subjected students with disabilities to inappropriate and exclusionary forms of discipline.

In a March 24 decision granting DRM’s motion for summary judgment, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland ordered PGCPS to provide DRM with contact information for the parents or guardians of students who are eligible for special education in the school district, and who have received a suspension of more than three days or were expelled since January 2019.

Wiley Pro Bono Partner Theodore A. Howard represents Disability Rights Maryland in this case in collaboration with Luciene Parsley and Megan Berger of DRM’s legal staff. DRM is a nonprofit organization designated as the State of Maryland’s Protection & Advocacy agency. DRM is “federally mandated to advance the civil rights of people with disabilities,” and provides free legal services to individuals in Maryland with all types of disabilities who live in facilities or the wider community, or who are homeless.

DRM’s unsuccessful requests for parent or guardian contact information came after it received over 85 complaints against PGCPS related to exclusionary discipline and educational neglect of students with disabilities. As noted in the court’s ruling, DRM investigated many of the complaints and concluded that “PGCPS frequently violated the educational rights of students with disabilities.”

When PGCPS refused to voluntarily provide the contact information DRM sought, Wiley filed an action for declaratory and injunctive relief on DRM’s behalf in November 2021 under the applicable federal protection and advocacy statutes and regulations.

The court agreed with Wiley’s argument that DRM is entitled to production by the school system of the information it has requested as a matter of law, and firmly rejected the various arguments interposed by the school system to prevent that outcome.

Originally posted March 28, 2023 by Wiley Rein LLP

About Wiley Rein LLP

Founded in 1983, Wiley is a dominant presence in the nation’s capital. With more than 240 attorneys and advisors, the firm has earned international prominence by representing clients in complex, high-stakes regulatory, litigation, and transactional matters. Many of Wiley’s lawyers and public policy advisors have held high-level positions in the White House and federal agencies and on Capitol Hill. The firm represents a wide range of clients – from Fortune 500 corporations to trade associations to individuals – in virtually all industries. Wiley provides significant pro bono legal services and charitable contributions to the local community every year.

Green background, big white letters that read 'We're Hiring'. Blue box with white words that read 'Executive Director'

ARE YOU READY TO LEAD? Disability Rights Maryland Seeks an Executive Director

Posted on February 24, 2023

Disability Rights Maryland (DRM) is seeking an experienced disability rights leader and advocate to lead this private, nonprofit, 501(c)(3) law firm and advocacy organization as it creates an integrated and just society by advancing the legal rights of people with disabilities throughout Maryland. DRM is Maryland’s designated Protection & Advocacy (P&A) agency and a member of the National Disability Rights Network. We work with people with disabilities to pursue opportunities to champion their rights to self-determination, dignity, equality, opportunity, and freedom from discrimination and harm. We provide free legal services to persons with disabilities in Maryland and engage in systemic litigation and public policy advocacy to positively impact people’s lives. DRM’s work spans a spectrum of issues including criminal justice and prison reform, education, monitoring facilities to investigate abuse, neglect and rights violations, voting, housing, transportation, assistive technology, health care, and the right to self-determination and appropriate services, among others, on behalf of Marylanders with all types of disabilities. DRM envisions a world where people with disabilities are fully included in all aspects of community life.

The new Executive Director will have the opportunity to lead DRM’s experienced and talented team with a positive, results-oriented style that inspires all staff and broadens the circles of support for DRM’s work. The successful candidate will manage DRM in a manner consistent with this core mission and can relay commitment to the mission both inside and outside the organization while demonstrating the highest ethical standards and operating with integrity and transparency in conducting the business of the organization.

HIGH PRIORITY ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

To serve as the primary public face of DRM with the disability community, the media, public officials, other nonprofits, and the community at large and to represent the organization in its various local, state, and federal networks;
To lead, encourage, and inspire a staff that is collaborative, talented, collegial and committed to the well-being of the communities we serve and one another;
To articulate and nurture a vision for DRM’s future;
To lead DRM’s community advocacy efforts including disseminating important information, making referrals, providing technical assistance, and training, as well as individual representation and systemic advocacy to promote legal rights for people with disabilities;
To lead DRM in setting priorities and in planning and pursuing creative strategies for addressing future challenges to the disability community and to the organization;
Develop and guide fundraising strategies which include cultivating and soliciting major gifts, and working alongside the board and staff to develop actionable fundraising plans;
To effectively and ethically oversee DRM’s finances in compliance with applicable law and DRM’s mission;
To grow and diversify resources to support DRM’s work;
To support an engaged Board of Directors in carrying out its responsibilities to the

QUALIFICATIONS:

Possession of a Juris Doctor degree and membership in good standing with the Maryland Bar, or ability to obtain membership upon employment;

A passion for the mission of DRM and its multi-faceted advocacy approach;
A demonstrated commitment to, and experience with, advancing the rights of persons with disabilities in ways that express the values of inclusion, autonomy, equal access and full participation in community life;

Experience working with persons with disabilities, including from diverse communities;
An understanding of the difference between disability rights and disability justice;
Successful leadership of lawyers and others in a justice-oriented organization;
Experience managing a similar organization, including staff supervision, budget development, financial oversight, grant and contract compliance, strategic and priority planning, and managing change;
Experience successfully raising funds from private sources, including foundations and individual donors, and from federal, state and local governments;
Experience working effectively with multiple organizations and individuals with diverse perspectives, the public, elected and appointed officials, and consumers of services;
Demonstrated understanding of legislative and executive-level public policy issues and processes, in Baltimore and Maryland a plus;
Experience working productively with or on an engaged board of directors;
Interpersonal skills that demonstrate integrity, respect, compassion, collegiality, inclusivity, flexibility, capacity to motivate and thoughtfulness;
Outstanding communication skills, including written language, with a range of audiences and
Preference for an individual with lived experience as a person with a disabiiity.

SALARY AND BENEFITS:

The salary range is $130,000 to $160,000 depending on experience and special skills. DRM also offers a very generous benefits package which includes excellent medical insurance, employer-paid dental, prescription, vision, life, and disability insurance, as well as pre-tax savings plans, and a retirement savings opportunity with generous employer contributions. DRM offers eligible employees reimbursement for the cost of spouse or partner-paid health insurance premiums up to an established maximum amount. DRM also offers generous paid time off package, including vacation, holidays, sick time, and more. DRM is headquartered in Baltimore and a hybrid work schedule is available upon approval by the Board.

HOW TO APPLY:

Applications will be accepted until the position is filled and will be reviewed as they are received. Serious candidates should submit applications as soon as possible, but no later than June 30, 2023. Applications should contain a current resume and a thoughtful cover letter outlining how your skills and experience meet the qualifications of the position.

Applications should be submitted by email to Christine Griffin (cgriffin@benderconsult.com) and should include “DRM Executive Director Search” in the subject line. Please include in your message how you heard about the search. Only a select number of highly qualified individuals will be invited to participate in the formal interview process. This is a confidential process and will be handled accordingly throughout all phases of the recruitment and selection process.

Materials should be submitted electronically in Microsoft Word or PDF format.

DRM has retained the executive search firm and certified disability-owned business enterprise, Bender Consulting Services, Inc. to conduct this search, www.benderconsult.com.

DRM is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified individuals with disabilities including those who are also people of color, LGBTQIA+ individuals and others who contribute to staff diversity are encouraged to apply. DRM provides reasonable accommodations to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the position. Please notify us if you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application and/or hiring process.

ABOUT DISABILITY RIGHTS MARYLAND:

DRM’s advocacy improves the lives of people with disabilities and creates a more inclusive and just society for all, by advancing human rights. We help people with disabilities pursue opportunities to participate fully in all aspects of community life, and champion their rights to self-determination, dignity, equality, opportunity, and freedom from discrimination and harm.

DRM provides free legal services to Marylanders with disabilities on matters that are related to their disabilities and fall within our advocacy service areas. DRM’s advocacy services are developed in close collaboration with the community of people we serve, and in compliance with our funding sources.

DRM is Maryland’s designated Protection & Advocacy (P&A) agency and a member of the National Disability Rights Network. As such, DRM is part of a nationwide network of organizations working to advance the rights of people with disabilities. Congress established the P&A System in 1975 in response to squalid conditions in institutional facilities for people with disabilities. In creating and funding the P&As, Congress granted us unique statutory authority to conduct investigations of suspected abuse and neglect of individuals with disabilities in facilities.

DRM currently has a budget of approximately $5 million, and a staff of 45, including 19 attorneys, 3 intake specialists, 14 advocates, and 9 administrative support staff. Among the leadership team members are the Director of Litigation, the Director of Finance, the Deputy Director, and the Executive Director.

DRM receives federal funding from several agencies under the following grants:

Protection & Advocacy for Developmental Disabilities (PADD), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Protection & Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness (PAIMI), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Protection & Advocacy for Individual Rights (PAIR), U.S. Department of Education
Protection & Advocacy for Assistive Technology (PAAT), U.S. Department of Education
Protection & Advocacy for Traumatic Brain Injury (PATBI), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Protection & Advocacy for Voting Access (PAVA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Protection & Advocacy for Beneficiaries of Social Security (PABSS), Social Security Administration

In addition, DRM is a grantee of the Maryland Legal Services Corporation. In 2016, DRM was awarded a Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) grant from the Governor’s Office of Crime Control & Prevention. DRM has received support from private foundations including the Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, Morton K. and Jane Blaustein Foundation, Open Society Institute, Hoffberger Foundation, Zanvyl and Isabelle Krieger Fund, Fund for Change, Steptoe Foundation, Venable Foundation and the Baltimore Bar Foundation. DRM’s governing Board of Directors financially supports the organization with 100% participation. DRM also relies on charitable contributions from individual donors.

Statement on the Chauvin Verdict

Posted on May 6, 2021

Statement on the Chauvin Verdict

The trial and conviction of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd provide some accountability for practices and policies that have disproportionately and negatively affected people of color, including those with disabilities. Unfortunately, these kind of violent police actions that cause death, serious bodily harm, and unjust incarceration remain a very real aspect of daily life for many. The psychological and physical trauma inflicted by these policies and practices continue largely without the accountability our nation witnessed for the murder of George Floyd. This is evident in the deaths of Daunte Wright and Adam Toledo which occurred during the trial.

Disability Rights Maryland is committed to justice. Since the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, awareness has been heightened in our nation and the world about the injustices perpetrated by a system of mass incarceration. Disability Rights Maryland remains committed to listening and learning more about what justice means. We learn from the youth who led this summer’s protest, and from leaders who have guided Baltimore City in redressing systemically unlawful policing. We learn from our clients, our communities and each other. We know that structural and institutional racism is fundamentally at odds with the freedom, liberty, and survival of people of color. Systemic discrimination in housing, transportation, education, healthcare, employment, and so many other aspects of our society perpetuate the disproportionate institutionalization and segregation of people of color with disabilities.

Our work to create a just and inclusive society will not end until structural racism is dismantled. Our nation’s reckoning with this truth must continue, and it must continue to be led by the communities most impacted. Disability Rights Maryland will continue to learn from, support, and stand alongside these communities to achieve justice for our clients and for all.

DRM’S Leslie Margolis Featured in ABA Journal

Posted on October 12, 2020

Leslie Seid Margolis, managing attorney at Disability Rights Maryland (DRM), was featured in the ABA Journal last week for her role in the passage of the American Bar Association (ABA) Resolution 103, which urges government bodies to establish and enforce legislation and educational policies that prohibit school personnel from using seclusion and restraints on students in preschool through 12th grade. She worked with the ABA Commission on Disability Rights over the past year to draft and edit Resolution 103 and was invited to speak in favor of the resolution at the ABA’s Annual Meeting on August 3, 2020. Leslie shared the story of a 7-year-old child in foster care who was restrained more than 147 times by his school’s staff—a story she “wished that she could say [was] unusual,” but one that continues to affect children across the county at high rates, particularly students with disabilities and students of color. Thanks to the vigorous efforts of Leslie and other advocates, the ABA House of Delegates expressed overwhelming support for Resolution 103 by passing it with a vote of 358-19.

Every child has the right to be treated with dignity and respect. No child should ever be subjected to abusive treatment under the guise of providing effective educational services. DRM continues its efforts to hold school systems accountable for their over-reliance on these traumatic and potentially deadly interventions and is profoundly thankful to the ABA for passing Resolution 103 and, by doing so, acknowledging that what happens to so many children across the United States is unconscionable and inhumane.

DRM’s Coronavirus (COVID-19) Related Advocacy

Posted on March 31, 2020

Health Care:

Disability Services Personnel Are Essential:

April 3, 2020 – The Developmental Disabilities Coalition, in collaboration with Disability Rights Maryland and other organizations, sent a letter to State Governor Larry Hogan in response to the Executive Order (March 31, 2020) determining disability services personnel as health care providers necessary for Maryland’s response to COVID-19. More information can be found here.
December 18, 2020 – Disability Rights Maryland, along with a coalition of disability organizations, sent a letter to Governor Hogan to underscore the importance of having all people with disabilities, the professionals and caregivers that support them, and residents in nursing homes and residents in care facilities, prioritized in the first phases of the vaccination.

Protect Disability Rights if Ventilators are Rationed:

April 9, 2020 – Disability Rights Maryland and 20 disability advocates signed on to a letter to State Governor Larry Hogan in early April, urging him to pledge to protect the rights of Marylanders with disabilities if ventilators are rationed during the COVID-19 crisis. More information can be found here.

Allowing Disability Support for People with Disabilities in Health Care Facilities:

April 30, 2020 – Casey Shea, a Staff Attorney with Disability Rights Maryland, sent this letter on behalf of the organization to urge the Maryland Department of Health (MDH) to take swift action to provide statewide guidance to hospitals and health care facilities concerning visitors and other reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities during the COVID-19 emergency.

May 12, 2020 –MDH and the Maryland Department of Disabilities (MDOD) issued a directive requiring that hospitals issue policies providing for disability support personnel for people with disabilities needing support. A few weeks later, the State issued a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) guidance document addressing “Access to Support for Patients with Disabilities in Hospital Settings.”

August 26, 2020 – Disability Rights Maryland with a Coalition of disability organizations sent a letter to MDH and MDOD requesting that the State of Maryland take further action to ensure that visitor and reasonable accommodation policies are adopted by health care facilities throughout the state to ensure that health care facilities do not discriminate against patients and consumers with disabilities. The Coalition’s recommendations include that MDH:
- Amend Maryland’s Disability Support Directive to provide clear non-discrimination expectations for all Maryland health care facility providers (expanding from previous policy only covering hospitals).
- Provide an expedited mechanism to (1) review disability support personnel access and other disability accommodation requests and (2) to review health care facility policies and enforce the Secretaries’ directive.
- (1) Post the directive clearly on state webpages; (2) provide notice and contact information related to complaints about violations of the directive; and (3) update the directive to require health care facilities to list a contact point familiar with Americans with Disabilities Act and other disability support personnel legal requirements to whom questions or violations of the directive may be addressed.
- Use the Framework developed by national disability rights advocates to create clear expectations and a notice of rights in the state directive and policy FAQs, including clearly advertising and posting notice of the directive at patient entry points in every facility, on the facility’s website, and providing the information to patients; and clarifying that COVID-19 positive patients are still entitled to access in-person disability support.
September 24, 2020 – MDOD Secretary Carol Beatty and MDH Secretary Robert Neall responded to the disability Coalition stakeholders and issued new directive and guidance documents regarding disability support personnel in health care facilities. The newly expanded directive and guidance replaces the May 12, 2020 directive and applies to all licensed Maryland hospitals, related institutions, freestanding medical facilities, freestanding ambulatory care facilities, chronic disease centers, hospice care facilities, comprehensive rehabilitation facilities, nursing homes, and assisted living programs (health care providers). Other changes in the directive and guidance make clear that patients with COVID-19 have the right to access support persons; provides that support persons “are permitted to access restrooms, food, and drink while in the health care facility”; requires facilities to take clear, affirmative steps to directly notify residents/patients of disability support rights and how to request them; requires facilities to make sure they can process requests for support persons “during all operational hours”; and posting the policies on the MDH and DOD state websites. With the change, Maryland health care providers are required to adopt policies on or before October 1, 2020, that comply with the directive.
- Self Advocacy Resources:
  - Autism Self Advocacy Network and Green Mountain Self Advocates “Know Your Rights: Bringing a Supporter to a Hospital or a Doctor’s Office”: Resource
  - Maryland Developmental Disabilities Council “Access to support for people with disabilities in hospital settings FAQs”: Resource

Voting:

Provide Polling Centers with Accessible Voting Machines:

April 11, 2020 – David A. Prater, a Managing Attorney with Disability Rights Maryland, sent this letter on behalf of the organization to urge the State Board of Elections (SBE) to provide an option for accessible voting machines at accessible polling locations for the Special General Election, to be held on April 28, 2020.

Education:

Help Baltimore City Youth Get Internet Access for Distance Learning:

April 24, 2020 – Disability Rights Maryland joined nearly 60 other advocates in signing onto a letter sent by the Baltimore Teachers Union to address the digital divide in Baltimore City. The coalition called on city officials to make an emergency financial investment into the purchase of technology for the children and families who need computers or internet access in their homes. More information can be found here.

We need your help now more than ever. Donate to DRM to support our work.

Last Updated: September 30, 2020

Blog

Wiley Secures Victory for Disability Rights Maryland in Pro Bono Lawsuit Against Prince George’s County Public Schools

ARE YOU READY TO LEAD? Disability Rights Maryland Seeks an Executive Director

Statement on the Chauvin Verdict

Statement on the Chauvin Verdict

DRM’S Leslie Margolis Featured in ABA Journal

DRM’s Coronavirus (COVID-19) Related Advocacy

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