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National Disability Voter Registration Week

The REV UP Campaign coordinates National Disability Voter Registration Week (NDVRW) each year on the third week of July to increase the political power of people with disabilities while also engaging candidates and the media to recognize the disability community. REV UP stands for Register! Educate! Vote! Use your Power!

On Monday, July 15th DRM kicked off National Disability Voter Registration Week by providing a Voter Registration and Rights training and voter registration session for The League for People with Disabilities advocacy group. Many thanks to the staff from the Baltimore City Board of Elections who brought Maryland’s accessible voting technology, the Ballot Marking Devices, “BMDs.” They provided a demonstration on how to use the BMD, offered an opportunity for the advocates to practice using the devices themselves and answered questions. Staff from the Baltimore City Mayor’s Office of Civil Rights were also in attendance and shared information about upcoming events.

According to a study conducted by Rutgers University, voter turnout surged by 8.5 points in 2018 among citizens with disabilities relative to the 2014 midterm elections, and it is expected to increase during the 2020 elections.

It is important for people with disabilities to be registered voters so they can elect officials who have their best interest at heart, and vote for policies that will improve their quality of life.

“Everyone with disabilities in the United States benefits from the rights and protections under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)”, said Voting Advocate, Tracy Wright. “We all need to do our best to protect it.”

Visit our website for more resources https://disabilityrightsmd.org/voting/

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The Civil Rights Crisis in Our Schools

The termschool to prison pipelinerefers to the link between school failure, zero-tolerance discipline policies, exclusionary discipline, school-based arrest, and the likelihood that youth who have these experiences in school will become involved in the juvenile, and later, adult criminal justice systems. Children of color and children with disabilities are overrepresented at all stops on the school to prison pipeline, beginning with exclusionary discipline and academic failure in early childhood.

The fact that Black children and children with disabilities are suspended and expelled more often than other children for the same offenses reflects the same inequalities that exist in the adult world. We live in a society where the rate at which Black men are subject to imprisonment is unparalleled, and where people with disabilities are at disproportionate risk of lethal encounters with law enforcement.[i] The deaths of Freddie Gray and Ethan Saylor indicate that Maryland is no exception.

Although the overall number of suspensions and expulsions are down across Maryland, the disproportionate impact of school exclusion and push-out of children with disabilities and children of color continues. According to Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) data, in 2014-2015, there were 70,404 total suspensions and expulsions. Students with disabilities represented 12% of the population, but 27% of suspensions and expulsions were of students with disabilities. In the same year, Black students made up 35% of the population but 62% of the suspensions and expulsions were of Black students.[ii] Nationally, the data is even more troubling, with Black students 3.8 times as likely to be suspended as white students, and children with disabilities more than 2 times as likely to be suspended as students without disabilities, according to the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.

Unfortunately, the requirement that districts track, reduce and eliminate disproportionate suspensions of students with disabilities and students of color has not been implemented. MSDE is now considering methods of measuring disproportionality, but after two years, has not yet begun measuring it.

Don’t some students need to be removed?

Violent or dangerous behavior in school is never acceptable, and there are times when a student must be removed from a learning environment to ensure the student’s safety and that of other students. However, according to MSDE data, most suspensions are not for violent actions. Rather, the majority of suspensions statewide fall into the categories of disrespect, insubordination, and disruption.  Restorative practices can address these categories of behavior effectively. “Restorative practices” are a way of affecting behavior and school “climate” that focuses on relationships and having individuals repair wrongs they have committed. If our goal is to change inappropriate behavior, suspension has not been proven to make schools safer.[v] What suspension has been proven to do, however, is increase the likelihood of substance abuse, school failure, dropout, and involvement in the juvenile justice system. [vi]

Students with Disabilities

We know that students with disabilities are more frequently suspended and/or expelled from school, but why? When schools fail to identify students with disabilities, when disability is misunderstood or underestimated, or when students with disabilities do not have effective, appropriate academic instruction, challenging behavior can result.

Schools have specific legal obligations regarding students with disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. These include identifying students who have disabilities, providing a free and appropriate public education to all children, even those who are suspended; questioning whether problematic behavior is a “manifestation” of the child’s disability before suspending them; and providing positive behavior supports.[vii] Too often, school systems fail to meet these obligations and respond to the resulting behavior issues in a manner that discriminates against that student due to their disability. Without access to legal representation, many low-income families of children with disabilities are unsuccessful in getting help for their children in situations where disability is misunderstood, underestimated, or not properly addressed.

Alternatives to Suspension

For students with disabilities, there are already systems in place that are underutilized for addressing problem behavior, including correctly identifying students with disabilities through the existing special education process and planning for appropriate accommodations and services for those students. Functional behavior assessments (FBA) and behavior intervention plans (BIP), which are in use to varying degrees throughout the state for both students with disabilities and students without them, aim to identify the main problematic behaviors and the “function” of those behaviors, and direct adults how to respond in a consistent, specific way to teach and reward appropriate “replacement” behaviors. Other programs aim to teach children the skills they are lacking in order to resolve conflicts.

There are also research-based methods of improving school climate and reducing the need to suspend so many children. These alternatives have costs associated with them, but those costs are less than the economic and social costs of school drop-out and incarceration. It is up to the community to demand that education budgets include funding for these restorative justice programs. Two examples of many are Community Conferencing and Holistic Life Foundation. Community Conferencing reports that 98% of Community Conferences resulted in a written agreement between the parties, with 95% compliance to those agreements. Holistic Life Foundation reports an overall reduction in the stress levels of students, many of whom have experienced high levels of trauma. Importantly, these programs teach students critical life skills that will ensure their success, rather than their failure, beyond school. Finally, teachers report that their training should include more information about behavior and classroom management.[viii]

Given the alternatives and the damaging impact of suspension, other school systems including New York and Minneapolis have determined that children in pre-kindergarten to 2nd grade—or four-six-year-olds—should not be suspended. Maryland should follow suit, especially given that in 2014-2015, almost 3000 four, five, and six-year-olds were suspended in Maryland, mostly for minor misbehavior.

While Disability Rights Maryland and other organizations represent some children whose civil rights have been violated in the school discipline process, a vast gap exists between the number of students who are removed from school inappropriately and the number of students we can serve. We rely on pro bono attorneys to help bridge the gap. Disability Rights Maryland’s pro bono program provides training and technical assistance to attorneys willing to assist a student and their family. Please consider volunteering your time to represent these students.

Nicole Joseph is an attorney with Disability Rights Maryland and co-chair of the Maryland Coalition to Reform School Discipline. Fazia Hasan contributed to this post.

[i] NAACP, Criminal Justice Fact Sheet. http://www.naacp.org/pages/criminal-justice-fact-sheet; Perry, David and Carter-Long Lawrence, How Misunderstanding Disability Leads to Police Violence. The Atlantic, May 2014.

[ii] Maryland State Department of Education, Suspension, Expulsion, and Health Related Exclusions in Maryland Public Schools 2014-2015, available at http://marylandpublicschools.org/MSDE/divisions/planningresultstest/doc/20142015Student/2014-2015_Suspensions.pdf

[iii] Maryland State Board of Education, School Discipline and Academic Success: Related Parts of Maryland’s Education reform. (July 2012) Available at http://marylandpublicschools.org/NR/rdonlyres/42ED8EDA-AF34-4058-B275-03189163882D/32853/SchoolDisciplineandAcademicSuccessReportFinalJuly2.pdf.

[iv] COMAR 13A.08.01.-04.

[v] Steinberg, M.P., Allensworth, E., & Johnson, D.W. (2015). What conditions support safety in urban schools? The influence of school organizational practices on student and teacher reports of safety in Chicago. In Losen, D.J. (Ed.) Closing the School Discipline Gap: Equitable Remedies for Excessive Exclusion. New York: Teachers College Press.

[vi] Tracy J. Evans-Whipp, et al., Longitudinal Effects of School Drug Policies on Student Marijuana Use in Washington State and Victoria, Australia. American Journal of Public Health: Vol. 105, No. 5 (2015); Krezmien, M. and Leone, P. Suspension, Race, and Disability: Analysis of Statewide Practices and Reporting, Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders (2006); Leone, P. et al., School failure, race and disability: Promoting positive outcomes, decreasing vulnerability for involvement with the juvenile delinquency system, The National Center on Education, Disability and Juvenile Justice (2003).

[vii] 20 U.S.C. 1412(a)(3); providing a free and appropriate public education to all children, even those who are suspended, 20 U.S.C. § 1400, et seq., 34 CFR 300, 34 CFR 300.101(a); and questioning whether problematic behavior is a “manifestation” of the child’s disability before suspending them, 34 CFR 300.530 (e); and providing positive behavior supports.

[viii] American Federation of Teachers, Reclaiming the Promise: A new path forward on school discipline practices. Available at http://www.aft.org/position/school-discipline#sthash.DJf7GIID.dpuf

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Dara

DRM represented “Dara,” a young woman with mental illness who lives in a supportive housing program. The program terminated Dara’s lease after she intervened in a fight to protect a friend who was being assaulted in her building. DRM investigated and found that the building, which serves young adults who are formerly homeless or aging out of foster care, was very chaotic because the program had stopped providing building security, and Dara’s case manager was refusing to intervene when she asked for help or indicated she did not feel safe. DRM was able to negotiate a solution whereby the supportive housing program allowed Dara to move to an independent apartment of her choosing with continued rental assistance. DRM also advocated for the program to train its staff about the principles of trauma informed care.

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Abdul

Without providing adequate notice to his family, the state reduced and then ended Therapeutic Behavioral Services (TBS) for “Abdul,” a 13-year-old boy with cerebral palsy, autism, stereotypic movement disorder, and intellectual disability. DRM advocated for Abdul to be reinstated into his previous level of TBS pending his appeal. While the state ultimately authorized these hours pending the hearing, but before Abdul could receive them, he was hospitalized in a psychiatric facility for several weeks, which according to his neurologist, was due in part to the lack of in-home TBS services. DRM provided extensive support, including answers to legal questions and strategic advice, to a pro bono attorney who represented Abdul in appealing the reductions and termination of TBS hours. The administrative law judge found that the reductions below 40 hours/week of TBS, and the subsequent termination of his hours altogether, were improper. We will follow up to ensure that Abdul connects with an agency able to provide the ongoing 40 hours/week TBS services.

 

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Yesenia

DRM represented “Yesenia,” who despite her severe physical disability, had maintained her job as an inclusion school teacher for the past 15 years with the assistance of 90 weekly hours of attendant care under Medicaid, first under a waiver program and then under Medicaid Community First Choice (CFC). Yesenia had also been able to purchase her own home. When DHMH terminated the self-directed option under CFC and transferred her services to an agency, the state reduced her hours to 77 per week but failed to send her written notice with appeal rights in accordance with the law. Yesenia’s ability to continue working, paying her mortgage and living in the community rather than a nursing facility was at risk, as she could not afford to pay for the additional care she needed and thus intended to quit her job unless she received the full 90 hours of care. She came to DRM when appealing a later request to restore her from 77 to 90 weekly hours. We represented her to get the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) to restore her to 90 hours pending the appeal hearing and advocate on the merits for the restoration of her approval for 90 hours. While DHMH did restore her to 90 hours until the hearing, they refused to reverse their decision on the merits. We referred the case to a pro bono attorney with limited experience and provided many hours of technical assistance to her on handling the case over several months. After negotiations, the week before the scheduled hearing, DHMH rescinded its decision to cut Yesenia’s hours and restored her to 90 hours/week.

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