U.S. Dept. of Justice Files Suit Against Maine for Unnecessarily Segregating Children Who Have Disabilities

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit against the state of Maine Monday, September 9th, alleging that the state "is unnecessarily segregating children with behavioral health disabilities in hospitals, residential facilities, and a state-operated juvenile detention facility."

DOJ claims "Maine administers its behavioral health service system for children in a manner that gives the families and guardians of these children no meaningful choice other than institutions." The result is hundreds of children segregated from their communities, "miss[ing] the chance to wake up in their own beds, to develop bonds with family and friends, and to go to school with their siblings and peers."

This includes educational settings. As an example, transition planning, starting before the child turns 16 years old, may include pre-employment transition services such as the following examples provided by DOJ "(1) providing students with community-based trial work experiences, including paid work experiences, while in school; (2) crafting career development plans from age 14; and (3) ensuring that those plans include career goals based on the student’s interests and specific action steps targeted to help the student achieve those goals. Examples of pre- employment transition services include (1) job exploration; (2) work-based learning experiences, which may include in-school or after school opportunities, experiences outside of the traditional school setting, or internships; (3) counseling on opportunities for enrollment in comprehensive transition or postsecondary educational programs; and (4) instruction in self-advocacy."

In response to the filing against Maine, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, of DOJ's Civil Rights Division, stated, “The State of Maine has an obligation to protect its residents, including children with behavioral health disabilities, and such children should not be confined to facilities away from their families and community resources."

DOJ argues Maine's practice violates Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Olmstead v. L.C.," which require state and local governments to "ensure the services they provide for children with disabilities are available in the most integrated setting appropriate to each child’s needs."

Olmstead Enforcement

The lawsuit is one in a long line of suits DOJ has filed in the 25 years following the landmark Olmstead decision. Just this past June, DOJ released the findings of its investigation into Utah's ADA violations regarding the state's segregation of children and adults "with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) during the day, instead of helping them find work and spend their days in their communities." Among its findings, DOJ identified gaps in Utah's transition service system put students transitioning out of children's services "at serious risk for unnecessary segregation in these settings", because the students "enter adulthood without the experiences or the services they need to live fully integrated adult lives."

As a result, many people with disabilities experience needless institutionalization, and many also experience preventable law enforcement encounters that may result in institutionalization, incarceration, trauma, injury or death. DOJ has said its Olmstead enforcement work "has helped to expand and enhance community services, including crisis services and to break cycles of institutionalization and arrest. In Georgia, the state at focus in Olmstead, the settlement agreement "prompted the state to create 131 mobile crisis teams with statewide coverage, serving both people with serious mental illness and people with developmental disabilities."

Additional Reading

2016: The National Technical Assistance Center for the Education of Neglected or Delinquent Children and Youth (NDTAC) released the guidance document Transition Toolkit 3.0: Meeting the Educational Needs of Youth Exposed to the Juvenile Justice System,
which was created with input from Murray Meszaros, Utah State Office of Education. The input from Utah focused primarily on transition coordinators; interagency communication and collaboration; records exchange; transition and outcome planning; and transition monitoring.

2018: United States Department of Education (USDOE) Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) issued a letter to Utah State Office of Education (USOE). In the letter, OSEP answered five questions regarding secondary transition, specifically related to consent, which USOD previously submitted.

2020: USDOE published an article on its site about the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) partnering with the Council of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation’s (CSAVR) National Employment Team (NET). According to the article, IRS' partnership with NET had "been fruitful in Utah."

2024: "Justice Department Finds Utah at Fault for Failing to Provide Effective Transition Services"