The government has a profound effect on all of our lives and it is important to stay informed of the current issues and legislation being discussed and voted upon.  People with developmental disabilities and their families are directly impacted by the decisions made by our governing officials.  Therefore, it is imperative to stay abreast of public laws and legislation pertaining to disability issues and to use this vital information to educate our representatives on the unique needs of people with developmental disabilities. 
                              
Laws That Protect People with Disabilities

There are three laws that protect people with disabilities from discrimination:

1. • Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1997 (PL 105-17) provides for special education and related services for children and young people with disabilities up to their 22nd birthday. The IDEA provides for a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) and for an Individualized Education Program (IEP).
   
2. 
   • Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (PL 93-112) prohibits discrimination against children and adults with disabilities. It guarantees that persons with disabilities have equal access to programs and services that receive federal funds. This includes public and private schools and colleges. It also applies to employers who receive federal funds.
   
   • Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 (PL 1-1-36) protects children and adults with disabilities from discrimination in employment, public, and privately-operated settings. The law applies to all public and most private schools and colleges, testing institutions, and licensing authorities. It also applies to state and local governments and to private employers with 15 or more employees.

 For current legislative bills of interest see “Tips for writing a letter or emailing your senator”.

Tips for Writing a Letter or E-mailing Your Senator

1. • State your purpose for writing in the first sentence of the letter. For example: As your constituent, I am writing to urge your support for increased funding for health care.
   
   
2. • If your letter pertains to a specific piece of legislation, identify it.
   • Be courteous.
   
   • If appropriate, include personal information about why the issue matters to you to make your point.
   
   
3. • Address only one issue in each email.
   
   • Close your letter with a restatement of your purpose and indicate the response that you expect.
   
4. 
   To write a letter to your Nebraska legislative senator send you letter to:

Name of Senator and District #
State Capitol
P.O. Box 94604
Lincoln, NE. 68509-4604

To use the Legislature's web-site – www.unicam.state.ne.us

• To find out more about your senator visit this website: www.unicam.state.ne.us/senators/senators.html
• Tips for Phoning Congress or your local Legislature
  
  Telephone calls are usually taken by a staff member, not the member of Congress/Legislature. Ask to speak with the aide who handles the issue about which you wish to comment. After identifying yourself as a constituent, tell the aide you would like to leave a brief message, such as: "Please tell Senator/Representative [Name] that I support/oppose legislative bill #......."
  State your reasons for your support or opposition to the bill. Ask for your senators' or representative's position on the bill. You may also request a written response to your telephone call.
• Current legislative bills of interest:

The Rights & Responsibilities You Have

If you have documentation of a disability, you may have the right to:

1. • Participate in educational programs without discrimination.
3. • Receive reasonable accommodations in courses and examinations.
5. • Receive reasonable accommodations at a workplace with at least fifteen employees.

However, you have responsibilities that go along with these rights. If you wish to receive the accommodations you're entitled to under the law, you must:

1. • Identify yourself as a person with a disability. This can be done in a confidential meeting with your employer or with the disabilities services coordinator at your school.
3. • Provide documentation concerning your disability and your need for accommodation. This can simply be a letter or a report from the professional who evaluated you. It should indicate the methods used in the diagnostic process, including names of the tests given to you. It should state how the learning disability affects your performance and recommend reasonable accommodations.

Don't wait for the last minute; request specific accommodations in a timely manner!

Advocating For Our Children You and the Legislature
June 2005

When you have a child with disabilities born into your family, you realize that part of raising that child involves accessing current and updated information.  You may find yourself responsible for doing things to benefit your child/family that you have never had to do in your life before.   You may get connected with agencies, organizations and educated experienced people that can help you figure it all out.  Many of you who have a family member with a disability already advocate on a daily basis for things your family needs. So I am always a bit surprised when I hear people ask "Why is it still necessary to advocate or be an activist for people with disabilities today—you have services, people are much better off than they were say 30 years ago!    Yes it is true that we have services today.  Historically we as a nation have come far in the field of developmental disabilities and wonderful things have been accomplished by parents and professionals in regard to developmental disabilities.  Over the years parents and disability advocates have seen the inequities and taken up the charge of ensuring the best for people with disabilities. They have done this through the disability civil rights movement, through agenda's that have worked to establish education, medical and financial services for the people that need them. They have brought about change for people.  Great change!

So why is it that we need to still advocate?  Why be an Activist when it comes to disability issues?

1. • There continue to be services we need that are not currently available in our communities.
3. • Lawmakers are often not educated in the field of developmental disabilities and can make major decisions that affect our families but are often unaware of the consequences of their actions. Parents can help educate them. We've done it many times before and it works!
5. • Government often cannot or will not allocate funds to create new programs.
7. • Federal and state governmental bodies often cut costs and eliminate our current services.
9. • Funders often want hard statistics (that may be difficult to come by) and a myriad of information about consumers before they will even consider whether to fund something or not.

Advocacy and Activism are still needed. Parents and our family members with disabilities are the stakeholders that are affected when their needs cannot be met. With the help of informed sources and information sharing, advocating for your child does not have to take up a huge chunk of your time, but continues to be necessary.   We must protect the rights we already have and continue to move forward towards equal rights for people who cannot always advocate for themselves.   If you would like to get updated or educated on legislative or governmental issues that may affect your family you can receive information by signing up to be on a legislative e-mail list-serve or receive information in the mail. To do this you may call Annie Anderson or Cleo at 346-5220 to be added to the list-serve. 

Here are some things that have been happening legislatively on both a federal and state level that you may be interested in...

In the state of Nebraska, there is currently a bill called LB 623.  This bill would codify the rights of individuals with disabilities to make autonomous decisions about their services.  This supports that allowing people with developmental disabilities to make decisions about his or her own life gives them the same rights as ordinary citizens in our society.  It recognizes that service delivery should be based on the consumer and his or her needs. People with disabilities should be able to live in the most integrated community settings that are appropriate to their individual support requirements and their preferences.  They should have the right to exercise meaningful choices about the services they receive, the types of support they can use etc.

Governors and State Legislatures are proposing sweeping changes to trim Medicaid by the billions.  They have devised proposals to curb the rapid growth of Medicaid.  Under the new proposals, some individuals who receive Medicaid would have to pay more for care and states would have more latitude to limit the scope of services.  The proposals provide guidance to Congress, which just recently proposed a budget blueprint that would cut projected Medicaid costs by 10 billion over the next five years. The state officials say their goal is not to save money, but to avoid wholesale cuts in coverage like those in Tennessee, which is dropping more than 300,000 people from its Medicaid rolls—Missouri is dropping 90,000 people.  These proposals have a substantial chance of becoming law.

President Bush has a new initiative called "Competitive Sourcing" which worries workers with disabilities.  David Goodman, a clerk at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, is caught between two conflicting federal policies, one that helped him get his federal job 14 years ago and another that soon may take it away.  Goodman, 34, has Autism.  He landed his job at Occupational Health and Safety Division in 1991 as a Schedule A appointee, the beneficiary of a long-standing government policy that promotes employment of people with disabilities in federal agencies.  Goodman loves his job. Last month his family learned that Goodman is among tens of thousands of federal employees whose agencies are evaluating whether their jobs could be performed better and more cheaply by a private contractor.  This is a part of Bush's "competitive sourcing initiative which requires civil servants across the government to prove they can do their work more efficiently than private contractors, or risk seeing the work outsourced.  The initiative has thrown a scare into many workers who are anxious about whether or not they will be forced to go to work for a private contractor or find themselves without a job at all.  This new policy is especially vexing for employees with disabilities and their advocates. They fear that a strict economic comparison puts such workers at a decided disadvantage because they often require more supervision and extra help, and therefore cost more to employ. Timothy J. Wheeles the federal manager in charge of competitive sourcing at NIH, said, "The agency values the diversity of its workforce, and many mangers and colleagues are worried about what competitive sourcing will mean for employees with disabilities.

Legislative/Governmental Affairs Links  
Nebraska Legislature – www.unicam.state.ne.us
United States Senate – www.senate.gov/general.contact_information/senators
Justice For All – justice@jfanow.org
Nebraska Unicameral Update Newsletter – uio@unicam.state.ne.us
Status of Nebraskas Unicameral Bills – www.unicam.state.ne.us/documents/bills.htm
U.S. Government site – www.erols.com/irasterb/gov.htm