New Report Summarizes States' Medicaid Policy Choices under Deficit Reduction Act (3/20/08)

Disability Groups Urge Senators Not to Confirm Federal Judges in Election Year (3/4/08)

Advocates Renew Request for Effective Mental Health Services to Children in California Foster Care (1/17/08)

Lawsuit Yields Agreement to Create New Housing and Community Services
Mark Chambers’ dream “to be part of the world outside” the nursing home he’s lived in for eight years will soon come true. Over the next five years, Chambers and several hundred other residents of the Laguna Honda Hospital in San Francisco will move from open wards (see photo) to independent apartments linked to the supportive services they need, assuming approval by the court of a settlement announced on November 27, 2007. Read more...

New Agreement Mandates Sweeping Changes in D.C. Special Education
December 13, 2007—District of Columbia officials announced that the city will make sweeping changes in its special education program to comply with a new consent decree in a 10-year-old class action, Blackman & Jones v. District of Columbia. When approved by the court, the decree will require the school system to address the needs of hundreds of students with mental or physical disabilities who await services. Read more...

Appeals Court Favors Individual Determination of Voting Rights for Disenfranchised Citizens with Mental Disabilities
August 23, 2007—The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that Missouri law allows citizens who are under full guardianship to retain their voting rights if they demonstrate a capacity to vote. Read more...

Bazelon Center Offers Educational Institutions a Model Policy for Addressing Student Mental Health Issues
Washington DC, May 16, 2007--The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law today released a model policy to help colleges and universities develop a non-discriminatory, non-punitive approach to students in crisis because of mental health problems. Read more...

Way to Go: School Success for Children with Mental Health Care Needs
“Way to Go"—It means praise for a child and a roadmap for policymakers and is the title of a new Bazelon Center report that lays out a new direction for child mental health systems linked to a new movement in education. Read more...

Courts Order Reforms in Children's Mental Health Systems

Deadline Extended for Reform of Arizona Mental Health System for Children

November 21, 2006 – Facing a 2007 deadline for reform of the mental health system serving 40,000 poor Arizona children, state officials and children’s advocates today agreed to a three-year extension of the terms of a settlement in the federal class-action lawsuit known currently as J.K. v. Gerard. Read more...

Community Mental Health Services Ordered for Thousands of California Foster Children

March 14, 2006—The federal district court in Los Angeles ordered the state of California to provide mental health services that will enable tens of thousands of foster children to avoid institutional care. Read more.

Updates:

• January 11, 2008--The plaintiffs returned to federal court renewing their request that the judge order the state to provide effective services--specifically, wraparound services and therapeutic foster care--to all children with mental health needs who are in or at risk of entering foster care. Read more...
• July 26, 2006—The federal appeals court for the 9th Circuit has denied California’s request for an emergency stay of the March 14th district court order that the state must provide the community services needed by tens of thousands of children with mental health needs. See the plaintiffs’ brief opposing the request, and the court's decision to deny the request.
• New fact sheet on research showing why group placements are a very bad idea for kids.
• Order a CD of our conference call on the Katie A. and Rosie D. lawsuits regarding children’s entitlement to community-based mental health services under Medicaid’s EPSDT mandate.