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Good evening, I’m Abe Shapiro and this is Disabulletin, where we cover the top stories impacting the disability community across the country and around the world.
Two weeks ago, Disabulletin covered the challenges facing New Jersey School Districts as they work to determine what a post-pandemic classroom looks like for students with disabilities while emphasizing mental health and school safety. The issue the New Jersey state government and several districts face is: whether or not students whose behavior is perceived as threatening to themselves or others must undergo psychiatric evaluations prior to returning to class. Such a reliance on these evaluations has increased in light of teacher shortages, but disability advocates argue that requiring such evaluations prevent students with disabilities from obtaining an education. Although a bill was passed by the State Senate Education Committee in September 2022 requiring schools to provide data for how many students are awaiting psychiatric evaluations, it has been awaiting review by the State Assembly since September.
Now, the State of New Jersey is tackling yet another question regarding the disability population, should cameras be installed in group homes?
In May 2017, 33-year-old Billy Cray was found dead on the bedroom floor of his group home. Although the home and an autopsy reported Billy had died of “natural causes”, vague answers were provided to his mother Martha regarding how the home supervised and cared for Billy prior to his death. Since then, the New Jersey Non-profit Children’s Aid and Family Services has campaigned for expanded oversight in group homes via surveillance cameras to provide “ evidence when investigating a resident’s injury and an allegation of abuse.”
Three years ago, a bill introduced in the New Jersey State Senate, known as Billy’s Law, would require some residential homes to install video cameras in residents’ homes. It was reintroduced in the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee in March 2022, but has not advanced since then due to a stalemate between Joseph Vitale, the chairman of the committee and the bill’s sponsor, first year state senator Ed Durr about whether or not to write the bill’s amendments and negotiate with those opposed to them via a public hearing or through private meetings. Opponents of the bill say that the bill violates a resident’s right to privacy, is not clear about who would review the footage, and would not stop abuse in the moment, arguments that were put forth in a committee hearing in December 2020. Meanwhile, one of the primary lobbyist organizations in the state for individuals with disabilities, the New Jersey Council on Developmental Disabilities, has avoided picking a side because according to Council Executive Director Mercedes Witowsky, “privacy needs vary based on the individual.”
Meanwhile in our home state, an alternate specialized education plan for Indiana students that “have one or more type of disability under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, such as Autism or a traumatic brain injury.” was approved on January 11 and will begin being offered this spring. Previously, students who did not meet requirements for graduation would instead receive a certificate of completion instead of a diploma, which can prevent individuals with disabilities from being considered for entry level jobs. The new program requires that those who qualify complete 40 credit hours and a unit, defined by the ARC of Indiana’s Karly Sciortino-Poulter in an interview with WFYI’s Elizabeth Gabriel, or “when a student with cognitive disabilities is in the same class as their peers and exposed to higher level education concepts, but the assignments they’re completing are on a more accessible level.” Other supporters say that this program will create an even playing field for this segment of the educational landscape.
In the weeks ahead, Disabulletin will continue its look at the history of Special Education in light of the recent Perez V Sturgis which is slated to be decided by the Supreme Court in June. To celebrate Disabulletin’s one-year anniversary of reporting the stories impacting the disabled populous coast to coast and continent to continent, you can listen to all our prior installments on WFHB.ORG.
