RI Agreement / Consent Decree about opportunities for people with Disabilities

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Justice Department Reaches Landmark Settlement Agreement with Rhode Island  Ensuring Employment and Integrated Day Services for People with Disabilities

The Justice Department announced today that it has entered into the nation’s  first statewide settlement agreement vindicating the civil rights of  individuals with disabilities who are unnecessarily segregated in sheltered workshops  and facility-based day programs.  The agreement with the State of Rhode Island will resolve violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for approximately 3,250 Rhode Islanders with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

 This first-of-its-kind statewide agreement addresses the rights of people  with disabilities to receive state-funded employment and daytime services in integrated settings, such as supported employment and integrated day  services, rather than in segregated sheltered workshops and facility-based  day programs with only other people with disabilities.  The agreement also provides relief to transition-age youth at risk of segregation in facility-based programs.

 Under the agreement, transition-age youth will have access to a wide array  of transition, vocational rehabilitation, and supported employment services intended to lead to integrated  employment outcomes after they leave secondary school.  The parties have jointly filed the settlement in federal district court and have requested that it be entered as a court-enforceable Consent  Decree.

For more general information about the Justice Department’s ADA Olmstead  enforcement efforts, visit the Civil Rights Division’s Olmstead: Community Integration for Everyone website.  

To find out more about the ADA, visit Division’s  ADA.gov
website or call the toll-free ADA Information Line at 800-514-0301 or 800-514-0383 (TDD).
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