Judge Calls For Plan To Overcome Barriers In Implementing RI Olmstead Consent Decree

By Gina Macris

The Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court in Rhode Island has ordered an independent monitor to bring him a new plan for implementing a 2014 civil rights agreement that seeks to integrate people with developmental disabilities in work and leisure activities in their communities by 2024.

With the state falling short of its job-placement goals in two of three categories in 2019, as well as other developments in recent months, indicators are mounting that the current approach isn’t working.

In an order issued Feb. 3, Judge John J. McConnell, Jr. has charged the interim court monitor with gathering a wide range of data and information from multiple sources, including comments from people with developmental disabilities, their families and representatives of the community, as a baseline for discussions on the way forward.

McConnell gave the monitor, A. Anthony Antosh, until April 30 to complete the information-gathering process and until August 30 to complete the plan, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Justice, state officials and community representatives who serve on the Employment First Task Force, a committee created by the consent decree as an advisory group to government.

The judge went so far as to specify what agencies and officials Antosh should seek out, including “any interested legislators re: consent decree policies and funding.”

The process appears poised to capture the recent recommendations of a special legislative commission on the state’s fee-for-service funding system, as well as an ongoing rate review being conducted by outside consultants at the behest of the state Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities, and Hospitals.

McConnell said he wants Antosh to identify:

• Policies, activities and funding needed to achieve substantial compliance by 2024

• Obstacles and barriers to full implementation

• Service gaps that might hinder full implementation

• Structural components for a compliance plan

• Criteria for substantial compliance

The standards for compliance have become a matter of debate between lawyers for the DOJ and the state in the context of a prototype for the 2014 consent decree, the so-called Interim Settlement Agreement (ISA) of 2013, which affects about 88 former sheltered workshop employees who once attended the Birch Academy at Mount Pleasant High School and later worked at the now-defunct Training Through Placement.

The city of Providence was released from federal oversight in connection with the ISA last September in unusually celebratory courtroom proceedings, with accolades from all sides on the way it has changed the culture at the Birch Academy and turned around the lives of students.

But the performance of the state on implementing the ISA has not received such rosy reviews, an indication it is struggling with the consent decree as well.

In the ISA, the city and its school department have been responsible for opening the doors to integration through inclusive classes and internship programs, while the state has been charged with picking up where the educational system leaves off, to match individuals with jobs and help them participate in activities of their choice in the community. The state’s role in the ISA mirrors its relationship to school departments throughout Rhode Island in the consent decree, except on a broader scale.

Statewide, the number of adults with developmental disabilities who s must be offered employment by 2024 currently totals 1,987, according to the state’s latest consent decree data. That number is a little more than half the population protected by the consent decree.

After five years and nine months of the decade-long enforcement period of the consent decree, a total of 894 people, or 45 percent of the target number, have landed jobs, the state said in a report that captures progress through December 31, 2019.

The state exceeded the cumulative goal for employment in 2019 by more than 100, but missed targets in two subgroups, named “youth exit” and “sheltered workshop,” labels chosen to reflect whether individuals were young adults who had recently left school or working in enclaves at the time the consent decree was signed.

The state has never met the job targets for the “youth exit” group, which also represents the segment of the population that is applying for adult services for the first time, often from agencies that are hard-pressed to meet the needs of existing clients, let alone take on new ones.

In a third group labeled “day program” to describe those in day care centers in 2014, the number of new jobs recorded through 2019 rose to 385, or 160 over the goal, enough to overcome the shortfall in the other two categories.

But the the pace of new jobs has slowed. There were only 14 new job placements statewide for the last quarter of 2019 and 74 for the entire year. The remainder of the new jobs were recorded in previous years.

State of RI graphic representation of cumulative employment totals by quarter in 2019 under terms of Consent Decree

State of RI table of cumulative employment totals, by quarter, in 2018 and 2019 under terms of Consent Decree

One group not counted in the target population for employment is “youth in transition,” a total of 1,201 high school students with developmental disabilities, or 32 percent of the entire class protected by the consent decree. Many of them are expected to enter the labor market in the next several years.

Last fall, within the limited scope of the ISA, Antosh’ predecessor as court monitor, Charles Moseley, found that the state has made considerable progress in improving the lives of former Birch students – but not enough to warrant the end of federal oversight.

McConnell asked Antosh to review materials developed by Moseley, which include a 70-page exhaustive assessment of the state’s performance in meeting dozens of specific standards in the ISA.

In a draft report, obtained by Developmental Disability News, Moseley said the state has made considerable progress in changing the lives of the nearly 90 people still protected by the ISA, – but not enough. He completed the report at the end of September.

Moseley said the state fell short in several key areas:

• The number of people it had connected with jobs

• The number of hours logged by the job holders, some of whom said they wanted to work more

• The degree to which non-work activities in the community promoted interactions with non-disabled people

• The specificity and sense of purpose in the written short-range and long-term goals and supports that are supposed to fit together in a cohesive career development plan tailored to the individual

In a notice to Judge McConnell submitted in late December, the DOJ said that while the state “made initial progress in implementing the Agreement’s provisions, recent monitoring has showed that the state’s efforts have stalled such that it may not independently act to achieve the requisite outcomes before the Agreement ends.”

In its reply, the state acknowledged that it had not found jobs for 15 members of the protected class but said the barriers included health and behavioral problems, family resistance, and other issues.

The agreement itself says that “substantial compliance is achieved where the State and City have implemented all of the provisions of the Interim Settlement Agreement for all individuals in the Target Populations.”

In the context of that language, the state lawyers maintained that implementation means it has “mechanisms and/or policies” in place to carry out any of the specific requirements of the agreement, whether or not a particular numerical target is reached, as long as the “Court is satisfied that the State is on track to reasonably reach the requirement.”

Those who don’t want jobs can file for an exception, or variance, with the monitor, but Moseley said he had not received any such requests from the 87 members of the protected class. The state’s lawyers said officials wanted to keep working with the 15 unemployed persons rather than have them opt out of the search for employment.

Moseley’s report goes into great detail in evaluating the state’s performance on dozens of standards, many of them bureaucratic, that are nevertheless important for creating a high quality system of social services designed to sustain itself after the consent decree is long gone.

Among other things, the standards cover multiple aspects of:

• quality improvement

• detailed data collection

• benefits counseling for job seekers so that they know how earned income will affect their government disability payments, if at all

• the clear communication of each person’s short-term and long-term objectives in detailed career development plans

• staff training

In several areas, Moseley said he did not find enough documentation or evidence to make an assessment, although the state says it has supporting materials to show it has met the standards in question.

For example, Moseley said he didn’t have enough information to determine whether the state is following proven, or “evidence-based”, practices in its approach to employment supports for adults with developmental disabilities.

He also said the state hadn’t given him enough documentation to show whether the private agencies delivering services have the wherewithal, or capacity, to serve adults with developmental disabilities as required by the ISA.

Both Moseley and Antosh are experts in the research on supporting adults with developmental disabilities.

Antosh wrote the proposal that established the federally-funded Sherlock Center on Disabilities at Rhode Island College and served as its director from its inception in in 1993 until October, 2019.

Moseley, a former director of Vermont’s developmental disability system, worked as a top official in the national association of state developmental disability directors before he became the court monitor. Moseley stepped down for health reasons at the end of September.

Judge Closes Nation's First "Sheltered Workshop" Case Early, Citing Great Strides in Providence

Etta Carmadello, Special Education Director for Providence Schools, is interviewed outside U.S. District Court Sept. 26. Onlookers, left to right, are Christopher Coleman, principal at Mount Pleasant High School; Lisa Vargas-Sinapi, Carmadello’s predecessor in the director’s post; Linda Butera Noble, former Director of Community Services at the Birch Academy at Mount Pleasant High School; and Mary Ann Carroll, the lawyer representing the city of Providence. Carroll credited Vargas-Sinapi, Noble and Carmadello in providing critical leadership that ultimately brought a landmark civil rights case against the city to a close. All photos by Anne Peters.

By Gina Macris

The U. S. District Court in Rhode Island has approved an early conclusion to the nation’s first “sheltered workshop” civil rights complaint, brought six years ago against the city of Providence, with federal officials praising the swift, comprehensive, and lasting efforts at Mount Pleasant High School to transform the lives of its students with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

“The hard, tedious work you did has really had a positive effect on people’s lives,” said Judge John J. McConnell, Jr. in a hearing Sept. 26, addressing a packed gallery in a small courtroom filled with state, city, and school officials involved with developmental disability services.

When the U.S. Department of Justice first investigated in 2013, lawyers found the Birch Academy in an isolated classroom in the basement of Mount Pleasant High, where students “collated jewelry” in a sheltered workshop setting that served as a “pipeline” for a lifetime of such work, said DOJ lawyer Victoria Thomas.

The 2013 civil rights agreement in Providence, based on the Olmstead decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, was the first in the nation to address the rights of individuals with developmental disabilities to live, work, and play in their communities under the Integration Mandate of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA).

Today, students attend classes integrated with their typical peers. They receive services designed to help them identify and develop their own interests and skills and to try them out in two 60-day work experiences before they graduate, Thomas said. She said those internships are “life-changing” for some people. For example, Miriam Hospital has offered permanent jobs to several Birch graduates.

Mary Ann Carroll, a lawyer representing the city, said that at the outset, former schools superintendent Susan F. Lusi took swift action in empowering the redesign of the Birch program in the summer of 2013, a job that has involved changing the mindset of staff and “parents who thought that a sheltered workshop was appropriate for their children.”

Judge McConnell, in dismissing the case nine months ahead of schedule, said he imagined that resistance was similar to what he encountered decades ago as a lawyer for activists seeking to close the Ladd School, the state’s now-defunct institution for people with developmental disabilities.

“Change is hard when it has to do with human beings – how they perceive themselves and how others perceive them,” he said.

He said he tells own children that he wants them to be “problem-solvers and not problem identifiers.”

“It’s good to see public servants be problem-solvers,” McConnell said.

McConnell asked if either the DOJ or an independent court monitor had any concerns about maintaining the changes at Mount Pleasant in light of the takeover the Providence school system by the state Department of Education.

The “thought of stalling or going backward is unacceptable,” the judge said.

The monitor, Charles Moseley, said he has not spoken to state education officials about the takeover.

But Thomas, the DOJ lawyer, said she had read the outside report which prompted the state to move ahead with the takeover and found “no overlap” between the faults it found in the district as a whole and the compliance efforts at Mount Pleasant High.

Charles Moseley, Left, and Judge John J. McConnell, Jr., in the Judge’s Chambers After Court Sept. 26

Carroll, the city’s lawyer, said the changes have been made in such a way that she does not feel they will “evaporate.” Emphasizing the teamwork of key leaders in the school department and the support of current and former mayors, she said she hopes the successes at Birch can serve as a model for other cities and school departments around the country.

“The message I want people to take away is that when we work together, we can make things happen,” Carroll said.

Moseley himself is leaving the monitor’s post, but his successor will continue to keep tabs on Mount Pleasant as part of another case which grew out of the initial “Interim Settlement Agreement“ of 2013.

At least three departments of state government still have obligations under a broader, statewide consent decree signed in 2014 to bring integration into services for all Rhode Island public high school students with developmental disabilities. Once they become adults, the state must help them find regular jobs and engage in community activities. The statewide consent decree remains in effect until 2024. The Interim Settlement Agreement was to have expired July 1, 2020.

A spokeswoman for the state Department of Education affirmed its commitment to continuing the reforms at Mount Pleasant in keeping with the 2013 interim agreement and the subsequent statewide consent decree, in response to a recent question from Developmental Disability News.

The Providence school department “will be expected to continue to meet the decree requirements, and our agency will continue to provide support and technical assistance to the entire state to ensure that our school communities are meeting the Employment First policy,” said spokeswoman Meg Geoghegan.

The Employment First Policy, which has been adopted statewide, assumes that all adults with disabilities can work in the community, in keeping with the Integration Mandate of the ADA.

The end of federal oversight at Birch, which over the years has involved between 51 and 65 students at any one time, also has marked the end of Charles Moseley’s role as the independent monitor. He announced in July that he planned to step down at the end of September, citing health concerns.

The consent decree gives the state and the DOJ 30 days after they receive a letter of resignation to reach agreement on a new monitor. If they can’t agree in that time frame, according to the consent decree, each side is to submit the names of up to three candidates to the judge, who will make the decision.

In response to recent questions from Developmental Disability News, a spokesman for the state Executive Office of Health and Human Services said: “DOJ and the state continue to work collaboratively on the selection process for a replacement monitor and have kept the Court aware of their work in this important decision.”

DOJ Urges End To City’s Obligations In Landmark Providence "Sheltered Workshop" Case

By Gina Macris

The U.S. District Court will hear a request by the City of Providence and the U.S. Department of Justice for early termination of a civil rights agreement affecting intellectually challenged students at Mount Pleasant High School who were once trained only to perform repetitive tasks in a sheltered workshop.

The hearing was scheduled for Sept. 26 after the DOJ formally signaled its support for the city’s request, saying the city and its school department have transformed services for students in keeping with the Integration Mandate of the Americans With Disabilities Act.

“Students are now integrated with their classmates and receive services to prepare them for integrated work in careers that match their interests and abilities,” said lawyers for the DOJ.

In accordance with the agreement, “the City will ensure that these changes are lasting,” the DOJ said in written arguments urging Judge John J. McConnell, Jr. to dismiss the case against the city.

The DOJ praised the city’s “rapid implementation” and “consistent adherence” to the provisions of the agreement, saying it has resulted in “substantial compliance” a year ahead of schedule. The government’s conclusion concurs with a recent report filed by an independent court monitor.

“This is a victory for all involved,” the DOJ said.

The DOJ lawyers pointed out that “this agreement was the first in the nation to address the rights of individuals with disabilities to receive integrated employment services instead of segregated workshop services.”

The DOJ did not address the city’s compliance in the context of the impending state takeover of the city’s school system. The request for early dismissal was made last winter - months before the appointment of a new state Commissioner of Education, who received a devastating outside evaluation of the school system from the Johns Hopkins Institute for Educational Policy.

The agreement, signed in 2013, is due to expire on July 1, 2020. It served as a prototype for a subsequent statewide consent decree signed in 2014 which obliges the state to provide transition services to students with developmental disabilities in all high schools across Rhode Island and to transform all work and non-work adult services to comply with the ADA’s Integration mandate, which has been affirmed by the Olmstead decision of the U.S. Supreme Court.

An early dismissal of the city’s obligations under the 2013 Interim Settlement Agreement (ISA) would mean that the city would no longer have to prepare for frequent calls and periodic visits from the monitor and the DOJ lawyers, or to file detailed and time-consuming quarterly reports documenting its compliance efforts. But court retains jurisdiction for a year after the expiration date, according to the DOJ.

Granting the city’s request would not affect the state’s continuing obligations for former Birch students who were sent to the now-defunct sheltered workshop, Training Through Placement, which used the Birch Academy as a pipeline for workers. Nor would it curtail the state’s responsibilities for other adults with developmental disabilities throughout Rhode Island who must have access to integrated work and non-work services under provisions of the separate 2014 consent decree.

The two agreements have fostered an “Employment First” policy, which assumes that all adults with developmental disabilities can work at regular jobs in the community. The policy encompasses self-employment and customized employment, which involves cooperation by employers motivated to re-order established job descriptions to get important tasks done by reliable employees. (Exceptions to the “Employment First” policy are allowed on a case by case basis.)

The DOJ said an independent court monitor, Charles Moseley, has found in a recent report that the city has met or exceeded standards for 45 compliance measures in four categories:

• Career development and transition planning

• Trial work experiences

• Training, outreach, and education about integrated employment for school staff, students and families

• Interagency coordination

School personnel have prepared students to obtain competitive employment as adults through “person-centered” planning, which begins by highlighting each student’s individuality; as well as detailed career development plans and vocational assessments, the DOJ wrote.

Moreover, the city’s efforts have extended to former Birch students who left school as early as 2010. The city has undertaken “significant efforts” to locate them and provide vocational assessments, supported employment services and other assistance to help them find integrated employment. The city has reached nearly 50 former students.

“As noted by the court monitor, this ‘look back’ strategy to correct past discrimination showcased the city’s commitment to the objectives of the ISA,” according to the DOJ.

The government lawyers also agreed that the city provides high quality trial work experiences that are individualized and integrated in the community. The agreement requires that every student have two such internships, each one lasting 60 days, before leaving school.

The city “repeatedly went the extra mile to ensure students’ individualized needs were met” and has satisfied the monitor’s concerns about the few cases in which students lacked a second internship, the DOJ said.

Teachers and other professionals working with students participate in frequent training and have “consistently demonstrated their ability to implement the requirements and goals of the ISA, breathing life into the city’s Employment First Policy,” the DOJ said.

The lawyers cited improvements in the school department’s cooperation with state agencies, including regular consultation with a rehabilitation counselor from the Office of Rehabilitation Services and monthly meetings between the city’s special education director and state officials to review the progress of former students who are receiving adult services.

The city’s swift progress in implementing the agreement and “years of sustained reform” have resulted in a myriad of changes in policy, operations, and attitudes that will be “difficult to dismantle,” the DOJ wrote.

And the success of the ISA, “including considerable outreach and education to students, families, and the community, has spread awareness and the expectation that students with IDD are capable of working in integrated settings with services,” the lawyers wrote.

The DOJ noted that Birch students will continue to benefit from the state’s obligations under the 2014 statewide consent decree, which requires students with developmental disabilities in all Rhode Island high schools to receive transition services similar to those developed through the ISA. The statewide decree is to expire in 2024.

The Sept. 26 hearing before Judge McConnell is scheduled for 10 a.m.

Read the next article (below) for monitor Charles Moseley’s assessment of the city’s compliance efforts under the Interim Settlement Agreement.

In addition, click here for an article on a public discussion of the pros and cons of early termination of the city’s obligations.

Monitor Finds Providence School In "Substantial Compliance" With DD Civil Rights Agreement

By Gina Macris

Educators at Mount Pleasant High School have done a good job integrating special education students with their peers and preparing them for the world of work as adults.

That’s the overall conclusion of a federal court monitor who says the Providence School Department is in “substantial compliance” with a 2013 civil rights agreement which ordered an end to unnecessary segregation of students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, mandating instead an inclusive approach that prepares them to live and work in the community as adults.

The 2013 agreement followed a federal investigation which found that the Birch Academy, a special education program operating within a city high school, was in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act.

The monitor’s report comes as the state prepares to take control of Providence schools in light of an explosive report by a visiting team from the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy, which found dramatic deficiencies in teaching, learning, achievement and discipline throughout the system.

However, the detailed, 80-page report by the court monitor, Charles Moseley, does not place the school department’s compliance efforts in the context of the Johns Hopkins report or the pending state takeover.

The finding of “substantial compliance” sets the stage for a federal court hearing on whether the city should be granted early relief from federal oversight of the 2013 Interim Settlement Agreement (ISA), which is due to expire July 1, 2020. Even if federal oversight is not curtailed early, the school department was still required to achieve substantial compliance by midsummer of this year to have the agreement terminated as scheduled on July 1, 2020, according to lawyers for the U.S. Department of Justice.

The school department had asked to shorten the length of the agreement months before the appointment of a new state Commissioner of Education, Angelica Infante-Greene, who sent in the Johns Hopkins educators to evaluate the entire school system.

A hearing on the city’s request for early relief is expected in early fall, according to a spokeswoman for U.S. District Court John J. McConnell, Jr., who is presiding over the case.

Moseley said his finding of substantial compliance referred only to the city, and not the state, which is also a defendant in the 2013 case because it licensed a sheltered workshop for adults with developmental disabilities where most Birch students ended up once they left school.

In 2014, after a broader investigation, the DOJ extended the finding of unnecessary segregation to all the state’s sheltered workshops and day care centers for adults with developmental disabilities. The state and the DOJ subsequently signed a separate consent decree mandating a transformation of all Rhode Island’s daytime services for adults with developmental disabilities to an inclusive model over ten years.

Students who leave Birch will continue to receive protections under the provisions of the 2014 consent decree.

‘Culture Of Low Expectations’

Moseley’s report recounted the investigation of the DOJ, which found a “culture of low expectations” at Birch, where students performed menial tasks in a sheltered workshop setting inside the school, often without pay, and were redirected to the work in front of them when they indicated an interest in finding work in the community.

Some students sorted buttons by color into bags or buckets that were emptied by staff at night to be re-sorted the following day, according to the findings.

When students with intellectual and developmental disabilities aged out of the school system, they were sent to a nearby sheltered workshop in North Providence. DOJ found that Birch “served as a direct pipeline” to that workshop, called Training Through Placement. Former Birch students often remained there for decades, even when they asked for a change.

Even before the ISA was signed in June, 2013, Providence closed the sheltered workshop at Birch and replaced the principal, putting the program under the supervision of the special education director. The school department set about redesigning the curriculum with the goal of helping students build skills and confidence to realize individualized post-secondary goals as members of the community at large.

Since 2013, the enrollment at Birch has varied at any given time from 51 to 65 students, according to Moseley’s data.

Moseley praised the redesigned Birch program for its “robust, engaging curriculum;” its efforts to integrate students facing intellectual challenges with their peers throughout the school day, and for providing experiences and activities designed to prepare young people to plan for jobs and otherwise lead regular lives once they finished high school.

In stark contrast, the Johns Hopkins team found a shortage of special education teachers in the system as a whole, with some of them admitting they hadn’t been able to meet their students’ individualized educational goals in years.

Though Mount Pleasant High School was one of the 12 schools visited by the Johns Hopkins observers, their final report does not indicate whether they were briefed on the ISA involving Birch Academy students.

Systemic Improvements Cited

Moseley’s assessment cited improvements in staffing, professional development and leadership, as well as collaboration with the Rhode Island Department of Education and state agencies serving adults with developmental disabilities, particularly in connection with the development of transitional and supported employment services.

One highlight of this type of collaboration has been the creation of Project Search, a work internship program at the Miriam Hospital for students aged 18 to 21. Under this program, the hospital has hired some former Birch students as permanent employees.

Other endeavors offering real-world experiences, including practice in independent living, job discovery and employment –related skills, are the Providence Transition Academy and the Providence Autism School to Tomorrow Academy, Moseley said.

Some Difficulty In Compliance Noted

Moseley noted that the school district has had difficulty meeting two requirements:

• Matching each Birch student with two internships before graduation, each one lasting at least 60 days

• · Linking students and their families with representatives of adult service agencies, the Office of Rehabilitation Services (ORS) and the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals (BHDDH).

Of 11 students who were to leave school at the end of the academic year in June, nine had had two internships by the end of February and the remaining two students each had had one. Of those two, one completed a second internship in June. The family of the remaining student, who uses a wheelchair, did not want her using public transportation to go to and from another trial work experience, Moseley reported. He said the school department should have provided the student other options for transportation.

At the end of any given academic year, Providence reported between 51 percent and 91 percent of students preparing to leave school had completed two trial work experiences, although Moseley said this requirement has been met in the “vast majority” of cases.

He said the school department is making “meaningful efforts” to overcome barriers to the internships, such as transportation, irregular school attendance by some students, specific health care needs of others, and, in some instances, parental resistance.

In introducing students and families to adult services agencies, Moseley faulted the school department for not making it clear to parents that they may ask for a representative of either ORS or BHDDH to attend annual meetings for developing the Individualized Educational Plan (IEP) for their son or daughter. The data on attendance at such meetings showed that ORS or BHDDH had a presence only when students were 19 or older, Moseley said. Transitional services are to be made available beginning at age 14, according to the federal Individuals With Disabilities Education Act.

Moseley said the state has agreed to amend the standard IEP meeting notice to give parents the option of requesting ORS or BHDDH attendance. The state has a contract with the private non-profit Rhode Island Parent Information Network to represent the adult service agencies at IEP meetings of students 14 through 17, Moseley noted.

Mosley said that since 2013, the changes made by the city and its school department “have shifted the focus of education and training toward the accomplishments of key benchmarks and provisions of the ISA.”

Assurances of funding and other important changes have grown out of a collaborative approach involving ORS, BHDDH and others that have resulted in memoranda of understandings “with the intention of producing enduring policy change,” Moseley wrote.

He said his reviews over the past few years “have documented the ability of PPSD (the Providence School Department) to maintain compliance with both the letter and intent of the ISA and strongly suggest that such changes will be maintained as ‘business as usual’ beyond the term of this agreement.”

Feds Consider Early Termination Request For DD Oversight At Mount Pleasant High School

By Gina Macris

A Providence School Department request that the federal government end its oversight of a special education program at Mount Pleasant High School is encountering some resistance and concern because of a more immediate development: The state is taking control of the entire “broken” school district.

Months ago, the city of Providence sought early termination of a landmark federal Interim Settlement Agreement, reached in 2013, in which the school department promised to make major changes in the way special education students at Mount Pleasant High School were being shuttled into a sheltered workshop program in North Providence.

The school system agreed to prepare students in the Birch Vocational Center at Mount Pleasant High School to take advantage of supported employment in the community and to participate in integrated non-work activities in compliance with the integration mandate of the Americans With Disabilities Act.

The U.S. Department of Justice and a federal court monitor are carefully considering the request and have solicited the opinions of various segments of the developmental disabilities community on the pros and cons of terminating the agreement now, a year before it is set to expire.

On July 23, the monitor, Charles Moseley, and Victoria Thomas, a lawyer for the DOJ, discussed possible early termination via conference call with members of the Employment First Task Force (EFTF), an advisory group on matters concerning the 2013 agreement and a broader, statewide consent decree signed in 2014.

On the same day, the Council on Elementary and Secondary Education voted, as anticipated, to empower the state Commissioner of Education to intervene in the Providence School District, taking temporary control, if necessary, of its budget, personnel, and governance.

Thomas said she was concerned about a recent report on Providence schools from Johns Hopkins University’s Institute on Educational Policy which found a deeply dysfunctional system where most students are not learning, principals are struggling to lead, teachers and students don’t feel safe, and some buildings are crumbling around them.

Mount Pleasant High School was one of 12 schools visited by the Johns Hopkins researchers.

At the same time, Thomas said, she personally has been “very impressed with the work Providence has done” with the Mount Pleasant special education students protected by the 2013 Interim Settlement Agreement. Over the last several years, Thomas has participated in many site visits at Mount Pleasant High, as has Moseley, who concurred with Thomas’ assessment. Having done similar visits in other states, Thomas said, she has been “blown away” by the quality of work done to put the needs and wants of students in Providence at the center of their individualized education plans.

“That doesn’t mean that everything is perfect,” Thomas said.

The Interim Settlement Agreement assumes that Mount Pleasant High School students will make a successful transition from school to adult services provided by the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals. And Thomas said some of the comments that have been received from stakeholders in developmental disability services indicate that the DOJ and the monitor “really need to look into adult services.”

The Providence school department’s involvement in the Interim Settlement Agreement is set to expire in July, 2020, as long as the city is in “substantial compliance” a year ahead of time and the changes made during compliance are found to be lasting.

If the DOJ and the monitor agree to “early termination and we’re wrong,” Thomas said, the oversight of the state’s efforts to integrate adults with developmental disabilities in their communities will continue as part of the overlapping statewide consent decree signed in 2014.

“We’re not leaving anyone behind,” she said. Moseley added that the monitor and the DOJ will continue to have access to data about the progress of the same students as they merge into the adult population.

State Sen. Louis DiPalma, D-Middletown, who attended the task force meeting, expressed concern that even if implementation of the Interim Settlement Agreement has been going well at Mount Pleasant High School, the state of the school system around the program is in question.

Anne Peters, a parent who serves on the task force, asked whether continuing to monitor Mt. Pleasant High might be needed to protect the resources that have been brought to bear to change the prospects for special education students.

“I think we’re expecting quite the chaotic year” in Providence, she said.

“An excellent question,” Moseley said.

Several days before the meeting, Task Force leaders collected comments on early termination that made three main points:

• There seems to have been significant progress at Mt. Pleasant, with special education students having meaningful work trials

• Students still leave school unable to get the appropriate employment supports, like those from other communities, because providers are not accepting new referrals.

• ·The Johns Hopkins report will put Providence under pressure to make many reforms and it would be ill-advised to take the spotlight off students with developmental disabilities for fear they would once again get left behind.

Neither Thomas nor Moseley said when the decision would be made on early termination. Moseley has indicated he plans to complete a report on whether Providence is in substantial compliance with the Interim Settlement Agreement before he steps down as monitor on Sept. 30.

Moseley To Step Down As Court Monitor of RI Olmstead Consent Decree, Citing Health Concerns

Charles Moseley

By Gina Macris

Charles Moseley, the independent federal court monitor overseeing implementation of two federal civil rights decrees affecting Rhode Islanders with developmental disabilities, will step down at the end of September because of what he termed “emerging health issues.”

Brian Gosselin

In a related matter, Brian Gosselin, chief strategy officer at the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS), has been named the state’s consent decree coordinator, a post he has filled on an interim basis twice in the last few years. Rhode Island has had five consent decree coordinators, including Gosselin, in five years.

The personnel changes were announced July 18 by EOHHS. Before Moseley resigns on Sept. 30, he said in his letter, he intends to complete his assessment of whether the city of Providence is in substantial compliance with the first of the two federal agreements, reached in 2013.

In it, the city stopped using the Birch Academy at Mount Pleasant High School as a feeder program for a now-closed sheltered workshop called Training Through Placement and instead pledged to help high school students with intellectual or developmental challenges make the transition to competitive employment in the community.

The 2013 “Interim Settlement Agreement” (ISA) is set to expire in 2020, but lawyers for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) have said the city must be in “substantial compliance” a year ahead of time. Moseley’s resignation letter indicated he is working on that assessment. The city, meanwhile, has asked for early release from the ISA.

Moseley has served as the federal court monitor since late 2014, a few months after the state and the DOJ settled a broader civil rights complaint saying that Rhode Island’s system for developmentally disabled adults relied too heavily on sheltered workshops and segregated day centers. Former Gov. Lincoln Chafee signed a consent decree with the federal government in which he pledged that the state’s system would be overhauled by 2024, making certain that those who wished to participate in work, learning and recreation in the larger community would be helped to do so.

The 2014 settlement marked the first Olmstead consent decree in the country targeting segregated day services for adults with developmental disabilities. The Olmstead decision of the U.S Supreme Court reinforced the Integration Mandate of the Americans With disabilities Act. Previously, the DOJ had enforced the ruling in connection with segregated housing.

Moseley is a former director of developmental disabilities in Vermont and a former associate executive director of the National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services.

A new court monitor would need the approval of the state, the DOJ and Judge John J. McConnell, Jr. of U.S. District Court, who is overseeing the case. McConnell has made it clear that he relies on Moseley’s recommendations in steering the implementation of the consent decree.

In his letter, Moseley said the decision to step away after five years “is a very difficult one to make.”

He said he has enjoyed working with all involved and will miss the “in-depth discussions and negotiations that we have had in our ongoing efforts to achieve the goals and outcomes identified by the two agreements.”

Moseley, who lives in Vermont, has made site visits to Rhode Island several times a year, usually keeping out of the public eye, and has incorporated his observations, as well as data supplied by the state and the city, into quarterly reports to McConnell. He also has attended periodic status conferences on the case before McConnell.

“Implementing comprehensive systems change within the boundaries of the complicated developmental disabilities system is challenging,“ Moseley said. He praised a variety of state and city officials for “actively addressing the changes that must be made.” He also recognized the DOJ lawyers for their “constructive approach and unwavering focus” on individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

RI Olmstead Judge Says He'll Be Keeping Eye On State And Federal Funding For Disability Services

By Gina Macris

John J. McConnell, Jr., the U.S. District Court judge overseeing changes in Rhode Island’s developmental disability service system, has signaled that that future funding of the social services is very much on his mind.

During a hearing Nov. 30 in Providence, McConnell listened to the state’s summary of the latest progress and the work still to be done to achieve the goals necessary to transform Rhode Island’s segregated services for persons with developmental disabilities into an integrated, community-based model. The transformation would bring Rhode Island into compliance with the U.S. Supreme Court Olmstead decision clarifying the integration mandate of the Americans With Disabilities Act.

After Kerri Zanchi, the state Director of Developmental Disabilities, had finished her prepared remarks, McConnell interjected the observation that the necessary services are all “contingent on funding.”

“Funding is a key issue,” both at the state and federal level, he said. 

 Zanchi, too, expressed concerns, saying the developmental disability community needs advocacy to make its case on budget issues.

Most recently in Washington, disability rights advocates have said that the proposed tax cuts now before Congress would result in reductions in spending through Medicaid, the federal-state program that pays for services required by a 2013 interim agreement and a broader 2014 consent decree between the state of Rhode Island and the U.S. Department of Justice.

In addition, the federal government’s re-direction of some vocational rehabilitation funding from Rhode Island to Texas has triggered a waiting list, effective Dec. 1, for future clients of Rhode Island’s Office of Rehabilitation Services (ORS), which is involved in implementing both the 2013 and 2014 agreements.

No one currently served by ORS will be affected, but by the time the court is scheduled to reconvene in April, the waiting list could include applicants for services who are covered by the consent decree or the interim agreement.

Meanwhile, Rhode Island’s implementation of the agreements has contributed to a projected cost overrun of almost $26 million in federal and state Medicaid funds for developmental disability services in the current fiscal year, and the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals (BHDDH) is under pressure to find ways to cut costs.

McConnell said he hoped that state officials will take into consideration the requirements of the 2014 consent decree (and the more limited interim agreement) as they look for cuts in social services in the coming months.

He said he wanted it known that “the third equal branch of government is watching.”

State Details Compliance Efforts  

The Nov. 30 hearing concerned those who are covered by the so-called “Interim Settlement Agreement,” originally 125 former students at the Birch Academy at Mount Pleasant High School in Providence who at one time were funneled into jobs paying sub-minimum wage at the former sheltered workshop, Training Through Placement (TTP) in North Providence. 

The latest update puts the current number in this group at 91 individuals whose cases are still open at the state Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD), said Zanchi, the division director.

She summarized the state’s progress in working with them:

• 51 have jobs in the community paying at least minimum wage
• 21 are unemployed but job-hunting, with support 
• 7 are currently inactive
• 12 have chosen not to work but are receiving integrated day services from a total of 12 providers.

In a report to the court submitted the eve of the hearing, an independent monitor, Charles Moseley, framed the employment statistics differently.

He zeroed in on an order from McConnell in June that the state follow up on 46 unemployed members of the class protected by the interim agreement of 2013, including 34 who had never had a job in the community.

Among the group of 46, Moseley said the state had made 11 job placements as of the end of October. That is most of the goal of 15 placements that must be made by March 23, 2018. An additional 16 placements must be made by June 23, 2018, and target dates for the remaining 15 placements are to be determined, he said. (Some of them have indicated they don't want to work.)

'Underperformance' Of One Provider Hurt State

Much of the testimony, as well as Moseley’s comprehensive report, concerned Community Work Services, the successor to TTP, the sheltered workshop at the center of the U.S. Department of Justice investigation that led to the interim agreement of 2013.

CWS serves 57 of the 91 individuals covered by the interim agreement, according to Zanchi. (CWS’ own report to the monitor earlier in November put that figure at 59, with 5 of the 59 transitioning to other providers.)    

Of the CWS clients covered by the interim agreement, 25 belong to the group of 46 unemployed individuals the judge said needed special attention, according to Moseley’s report. The rest are served by other providers.

Zanchi said the “underperformance” of CWS “has directly contributed” to the state’s non-compliance with the interim agreement’s targets for employment and integrated non-work services. CWS is a subsidiary of Fedcap Rehabilitation Services of New York.

By now, the state was to have found jobs for all members of the former Birch and TTP group who made an informed choice to seek employment. 

Zanchi said the current CWS leadership has shown a “solid grasp of the significant change needed in their organizational structure” as well as the fact that it needs to reach performance goals “expeditiously.”

She emphasized that CWS’ “re-engagement of families” to support integrated services “cannot be understated.”

She shared the story of one young CWS client and the client's parents, who in a two-year span, had gradually shifted from adamant opposition toward warm embrace of the idea of employment. The client ow volunteers at the Rhode Island Community Food Bank and a local food pantry and meets with a job developer each week to explore part-time job opportunities, Zanchi said.  

CWS Nearly Lost License

In May, CWS had come under fire – and was close to losing its license to operate in Rhode Island – for substandard programming, according to Moseley.

Since then, there has been a nearly complete turnover of staff and management at CWS, which has drawn up a new blueprint for change in keeping with principles of “person-centered planning,” putting the individual’s needs and preferences at the center of customized plans for immediate services and long-term goals. 

CWS also has begun a pilot program called “Employment Without Walls” with 7 clients who are hunting for jobs. 

The CWS plan was included in a 59-page report to the court from Moseley. Also included in Moseley's report was an evaluation from William Ashe, a Vermont-based consultant, who worked with Moseley in conducting a three-day, on-site review of CWS in early October.

Ashe, who had first evaluated CWS in October, 2015, said that “CWS is very different from the organization that was visited some two years ago.”

At the same time, Ashe said that “It was my hope that more gains would have been made over these 24 months than has been the case, particularly in the degree of sophistication of the person-centered planning process.” He noted that CWS, led by program director Lori Norris, “appears committed to restructuring the services and supports that it provides to comply with the ISA (Interim Settlement Agreement of 2013) and state regulations.“

In an interview, Ashe said, Norris also touched on financial challenges, which plague all service providers in Rhode Island as they struggle to help BHDDH meet the requirements of the federal mandates and still remain solvent.

According to Ashe’s report, Norris said “her superiors at FedCap are committed to success and will assure the proper level of staffing support even if this resource level is greater than what the current billing authorizations will support.”

CWS’ probationary license ends Dec. 31 and BHDDH must decide whether the agency will continue operating in Rhode Island.

The Massachusetts operations of CWS, a Boston-based agency, are now headed by Craig Stenning, Rhode Island’s former BHDDH director, who is also listed as Fedcap’s Senior Vice President for the New England region on the Fedcap website.  

In his report, Ashe said Norris “was candid in her comments” during the October interview, “stating that the CWS program status at the time of her appointment (six months earlier) was very inadequate across most areas of performance.

“She described her efforts over this past six-month period to change the culture of CWS,” a drive that included a large turnover of staff.

CWS Tries Turnaround

After visiting KFI, a model program for integrated services in Maine, Norris told Ashe, she took several steps at CWS.

Norris, according to Ashe’s report, has:

• Stopped renovations at the former TTP building, instead planning to abandon any reliance on a facility for integrated services as of Jan. 1. (The former TTP building had been ordered closed to clients by the state in March, 2017 because of unsafe conditions. CWS’ license was suspended for a few days until it found a substitute location in quarters owned by the Fogarty Center.)  
• Discontinued the use of vans to transport clients, instead opting to arrange for staff members to use their own cars on the job.
• Changed the job title of direct support staff to community advocate, saying she believes “this title better reflects the culture change she wishes to establish and more accurately conforms to the expectation for how she wants staff to approach their work.”
• Adopted a flexible work schedule for staff, so that they are available evenings and weekends to support clients who work outside normal business hours.

Problems Extend Beyond CWS

Moseley, the monitor, noted in his report that the non-work services received by CWS clients do not meet the requirements of the interim agreement or the statewide consent decree for integrated activities. 

These activities are intended to “provide individuals with disabilities with opportunities to fully engage with people without disabilities in the mainstream” of social life as well as work, he said.

Practical and effective strategies for achieving these goals are not clear, not only at CWS but across the developmental disability service system, Moseley said.

To address the problem, the state Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD) has articulated guiding principles and standards for integrated day services. Through the Sherlock Center at Rhode Island College, DDD also offers training in implementing successful strategies for integration, Moseley said, but he recommended the training be expanded.

Another, related problem is a mismatch between existing services for individuals and their long-range plans.

In a court-ordered review of individual records documenting current services and future plans, DDD found that in 58 percent of the cases, individuals’ ongoing activities didn’t necessarily help them achieve their goals, Zanchi told the judge.

As a result, DDD has taken steps to merge short-range and long-range planning into one streamlined and holistic process that encourages providers to think in terms of individualized services that can help develop skills and interests that will help a particular person realize long-term aspirations.  

In addition, Zanchi said, DDD has developed a separate written guide, or rubric, for reviewing the quality of these individualized plans.

Zanchi Praises 'Collective Vision'

Zanchi concluded that she is “confident that there continues to be many areas where progress is clear,” recognizing that “quality is still developing” in services available to adults with developmental disabilities.

Zanchi said the progress is the direct result of a “collective vision that is guiding the work and transforming services.”

“We are building a remarkable partnership with the true experts of the DD system,” she said, referring to consumers, families, providers, business partners, community advocates as well as DD and ORS staffers.

They are all “invested in this progress and are at our table to strengthen our system to achieve these outcomes,” Zanchi said.

Click here to read the monitor's report.