Oregon paid parent caregiver bill advances to funding step
Plus: Washington Senate gives $2B boost to special education; and advocates worry cuts to the Department of Education will hamper civil rights cases
Our first story this week is about the Oregon pay family caregivers movement and quotes me and many of my friends in Advocates for Disability Supports. If you want to follow along as we fight for Tensy’s Law to be included in the state budget, follow us on Facebook: Facebook.com/ADSOregon
Medical Motherhood’s news round up
Snippets of news and opinion from outlets around the world. Click the links for the full story.
• From InvestigateWest: “Oregon bill to pay parent caregivers advances to budget committee”
A bill to make Medicaid pay available to parents for providing certain care to their minor children with severe disabilities cleared its first major hurdle in the Oregon Legislature on March 13, passing out of the Senate Health Care Committee with unanimous support.
It was an encouraging step forward for families and lawmakers leading the push to pass Senate Bill 538, or “Tensy’s Law,” named after 10-year-old Tennyson Ross from Sherwood.
[…]“I really think the morally right thing to do is to help families access hours that their kids are already eligible for,” said Sen. Deb Patterson, D-Salem, one of the chief sponsors of Senate Bill 538. “These kids really need the care, and the parents really need the assistance.”
[…]Overall, the fiscal analysis for the bill is more nuanced than in 2023, said Shasta Kearns Moore, a parent advocate who has kept in close contact with the Oregon Department of Human Services as it worked to produce the estimate. She said additional context could make the cost even lower.
“My takeaway from the fiscal (analysis) is that, for a $20 million investment, you can stabilize over 1,500 families, provide the support that Oregon has promised to these kids for over a decade, and lower medical costs,” Kearns Moore said.
[…]And as a counterpoint to the projections of increased costs from the state having to pay out more of the care hours already promised to children, Kearns Moore and others say that paying parents can save the state money in other ways. Pay will help some families come off public assistance such as food stamps and housing vouchers. It can also reduce expensive hospitalizations and emergency care.
[…]“The solution is so clear,” said Tobi Rates, executive director of the Autism Society of Oregon, testifying in the February hearing. “If the state will pay anyone but a parent to care for our children, and if the state will pay parents of adult children, why aren’t we willing to pay parents of minor children? If it's because parents should care for their children, we do and we will, but we need help. And that help is already in the budget.”
• From the Associated Press: “Education Department staff cuts could limit options for families of kids with disabilities”
For parents of kids with disabilities, advocating for their child can be complicated, time-consuming — and expensive.
Changes at the Education Department are likely to make the process even more difficult, advocates for kids with disabilities say.
When a parent believes their child is not receiving proper services or school accommodations for a disability, they can seek remedies from their district. They can file complaints with their state, arguing the child’s rights have been taken away without due process of law, or even pursue litigation in state or federal courts.
Those processes often involve multiple sessions with hearing officers who are not required to be experts in disability law. Legal fees can cost tens of thousands of dollars for a single case. Legal aid and other advocacy organizations that can provide free assistance often have more demand for their services than they can meet.
But filing a complaint with the Education Department has long been an option for families who can’t afford a lawyer. They begin by filling out the Office for Civil Rights’online form, documenting the alleged instances of discrimination. From there, the agency’s staff is supposed to investigate the complaint, often interviewing school district employees and examining district policies for broader possible violations.
[…]Under President Donald Trump, the Education Department’s staff has been cut approximately in half — including in the Office for Civil Rights, whose attorneys are charged with investigating complaints of discrimination against kids with disabilities. The staff has been directed to prioritize antisemitism cases. More than 20,000 pending cases — including those related to kids with disabilities, historically the largest share of the office’s work — largely sat idle for weeks after Trump took office. A freeze on processing the cases was lifted early this month, but advocates question whether the department can make progress on them with a smaller staff. [..]
• From My Edmunds News: “Major boost to special education funding gets Washington Senate approval”
State senators delivered a resounding message Wednesday that a looming budget shortfall cannot deter them from upping special education funding for Washington public schools.
On a 48-0 vote, the Senate approved a bill to provide another $2 billion in the next four years for special education services in the state’s 295 public school districts.
Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, and Senate Minority Leader John Braun, R-Centralia, are the sponsors of Senate Bill 5263 which identifies special education as a component of basic education that the state has a duty to fund.
Pedersen said the tight budget situation is going to involve “some wrenching choices” but the state Constitution “is very clear that funding basic education is our paramount duty.”
[…]Braun pointed out that when the state Supreme Court issued its landmark McCleary decision over a decade ago, the justices did not address special education. In that ruling, the court found the state was not meeting its constitutional obligation to amply fund basic education.
“It was always deeply disappointing to me that we didn’t really get after this issue,” he said. “This bill, I think, is really the gold standard.”
[…]But the extent to which lawmakers can help out is limited by the need for austerity in the face of a budget shortfall estimated at $12 billion or more over the next four fiscal years.[…]
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