Gratitude November

Medicaid Terminations:

Disability Rights New Jersey responded when people with disabilities began facing Medicaid terminations earlier this year after the Public Health Emergency ended, providing legal representation to restore critical Medicaid services.

Nothing is more important to the Olmstead promise to live one’s life in the community then access to home and community-based services and supports (HBCS), like group homes, day programs, and direct care aides. For many New Jerseyeans with disabilities, particularly those with IDD, this means getting and keeping Medicaid which pays for these services.

Medicaid HCBS services were suddenly at risk with the end of the Public Health Emergency in April, as the State began redetermining Medicaid eligibility for more than 2 million people. There were bound to be mistakes – people with disabilities wrongly terminated, who remained eligible. Disability Rights NJ met this unprecedented challenge full-on, deploying our attorneys and advocates to provide legal representation to people with disabilities facing Medicaid terminations.

To date, we’ve successfully restored Medicaid for more than a dozen people with disabilities who rely on Medicaid for their long-term services and supports critical to their daily living.

While the need continues, Disability Rights NJ remains committed to reigniting the promise of Olmstead – will you join us in this fight to keep eligible people with disabilities on Medicaid?

Alternatives to Nursing Homes

Disability Rights New Jersey is laser-focused on people with disabilities living in nursing homes, particularly people with intellectual and development disabilities and mental health disabilities.  We are working to change the rules in New Jersey so that people with disabilities are given alternatives to nursing homes, and have meaningful housing choices in the community with individualized, person-centered services and supports to ensure independence, choice, and true inclusivity.  Things most of us take for granted. 

We achieve this through advocacy with policy makers, outreach and rights-based training to nursing home residents, and legal representation of people seeking to move back into the community from nursing homes.   All of these efforts are to move New Jersey away from its institutional bias and reliance on nursing homes towards the Olmstead promise of life in the most integrated setting. 

Through our research interviews, we met K.K., a 61-year-old woman with IDD who lived her entire life in the community with her mother. K.K. was placed in a nursing home, alongside her mother, shortly after K.K. turned 54. K.K. was placed in a nursing home because her mother, and primary caretaker, was aging and unable to continue to care for K.K. K.K’s mother passed away a few years after they entered the nursing home. K.K. told us that she was unhappy there and wanted to live somewhere that she could make friends and engage with others. 

New Jersey has a long way to go to give people with disabilities meaningful alternatives to nursing homes and Disability Rights NJ is at the forefront of this advocacy effort committed to reigniting the promise of Olmstead – will join us in this fight to keep people with disabilities who want to live in the community, in the community and out of nursing homes? 

College Tuition for Students with Disabilities

“Disability Rights New Jersey played a pivotal role in my journey towards achieving my educational goals. Their unwavering support and advocacy helped me navigate the financial aid process and secure the funding I needed to pursue my Master’s Degree program. Their guidance and expertise were invaluable, and I am incredibly grateful for their assistance. Without Disability Rights NJ, I would not be where I am today.”

Disability Rights NJ stands ready to provide legal assistance to remove barriers for students with disabilities seeking tuition assistance from New Jersey’s Vocational Rehabilitation Agencies for college and graduate school tuition. Through legal representation and policy advocacy, we have convinced these state agencies to adopt meaningful tuition fee schedules and financial assistance to students consistent with the Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act. Without this important work, students with disabilities were being laden with unmanageable and unlawful student loan debt.

Will you join us in the fight for students with disabilities seeking access to college and graduate school programs which lead to meaningful jobs on the other side?

Keeping Youth in School and Out of Prison

Youth with disabilities, especially Black boys with disabilities, are most vulnerable to being propelled along the School-to-Prison Pipeline: disciplined more harshly, referred to law enforcement, subject to school-based arrest, and incarcerated. Over 13% of students with disabilities receive out-of-school suspension compared with 6% of students without disabilities. For Black male high school students with disabilities approximately one-third are subjected to school discipline. Moreover, students with disabilities represent a quarter of students arrested and referred to law enforcement. 

The higher rate of school discipline does not reflect a higher rate of misbehavior by students with disabilities, but reflects instead the impact of school policies, practices and leadership. Each suspension increases a child’s odds of becoming delinquent, abusing substances, getting involved with gangs, and getting caught up in the juvenile justice system.  

Youth with disabilities are especially vulnerable to the impact of secure confinement, which can leave them traumatized and permanently damaged. The rate of suicide in juvenile justice facilities is approximately four times greater than in the general population. Moreover, juvenile incarceration greatly increases the likelihood of further involvement with the criminal justice system. 

Disability Rights NJ represented a teen with an emotional regulation impairment in her fight against the school district’s attempt to exclude her from her local high school, violating her right to Fair and Appropriate Public Education in the least restrictive setting, according to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Disability Rights NJ continued to advocate for the student’s rights, filing a petition for due process and an application of emergent relief against the school district’s proposed change of schools and was successful in keeping  the student in her general education program at her local school. In addition, Disability Rights NJ was able to negotiate for a functional behavior assessment  and improved Behavior Intervention Plan which resulted in a more robust transition plan with services requested by the youth. She is on track to complete her senior year of high school.