New York braces for impact of DOJ disability rights memo

Did someone forward you this email? Sign up here to receive this weekday newsletter.

Happy Monday! It’s Dan.

Last week, I started to hear rumblings about a memo issued by the U.S. Department of Justice that redefines how states are required to serve people with disabilities. I have a look at that today, including how New York is responding and what’s next.

But we also got a surprise Monday from the U.S. Supreme Court, which said it won’t hear a case against Gov. Kathy Hochul regarding the state’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for healthcare workers. One of the top court’s justices wrote a fiery dissent of that decision.

Later, I’ll have a look at a bill that one of its main proponents said could have helped prevent a tragedy in the Capital Region, where four kids, their mother and grandmother were found dead. The bill deals with what’s considered in custody and visitation matters.

And Hochul has signed the 30 bills that were on her desk. I have a full list of those new laws, what they’ll do and who they’ll impact.

People with disabilities in New York are bracing for the impact of a memo issued by the U.S. Department of Justice this month that could upend nearly three decades of precedent.

That memo included a revised interpretation by the federal government of what kind of care states have to pay for when it comes to people with disabilities. It’s being viewed as counter to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision.

That decision, Olmstead v. L.C., found that states are required to pay for care that allows people with disabilities to remain at home and in their communities instead of being institutionalized.

But that “integration mandate,” as the memo calls it, was not justified by federal law, attorneys for the DOJ wrote.

“No sufficient legislative record exists to justify an integration mandate on states as a remedial measure against irrational discrimination,” they wrote in the memo.

The memo has been interpreted as something that could open the door for states to cut community-based services that allow people with disabilities to live at home in favor of institutionalizing those individuals at a lower cost.

Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara, a Democrat who chairs the People With Disabilities Committee, is asking the state Office for People With Developmental Disabilities to review how the memo could impact New York, including any gaps that could be filled through new laws.

“Whatever this (DOJ) opinion says, we want to make sure we’re protected,” Santabarbara said. “If there are gaps, that must be a priority, whether that’s legislation or funding, whatever form it takes.”

He sent a letter to the agency last week seeking that review and how the administration of Gov. Kathy Hochul planned to proceed given the federal memo.

I spoke Monday with Willow Baer, the agency’s commissioner, about how they’re responding to the new interpretation from the federal government and what that could mean for the state moving forward.