Advocates for disabled unhappy with Texas state school settlement

AUSTIN – A settlement Texas officials signed with the U.S. Justice Department to improve conditions at the state schools for the mentally disabled doesn't do enough to move people out of institutions and into the community, advocates for the disabled said Thursday.

The advocates, complaining that they were left out of the negotiations, are asking Gov. Rick Perry to ensure they play a role in the agreement's implementation and monitoring.

"We're not here to impede this settlement," said Dennis Borel, executive director for the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities. "But we are interested in ensuring nobody stays in an institution who is able and wants to get out."

The five-year, $112 million agreement, signed this spring after a four-year federal investigation into civil rights violations at Texas' 13 state schools for the disabled, calls for hiring more than 1,000 new workers, and drastically improving living conditions at the facilities.

It's a response to years of media reports about abuse and neglect inside the facilities, culminating with news this winter that employees orchestrated a "fight club" at the Corpus Christi State School.

But the advocates for the disabled say the measure simply pours millions of dollars into a system that is broken, and will do little to move institutionalized people into more integrated settings.

Officials with the Department of Aging and Disability Services, who oversee the state schools and helped craft the settlement agreement, say advocacy groups had ample time to play a role in the process.

"There were legislative hearings, interim committee hearings, public meetings where input was welcomed and considered," said Laura Albrecht, spokeswoman for the agency.

And they say the agency continues to try to move people who want to live in the community out of the state schools, reporting the facilities' population has dropped by nearly 80 people since February.

But advocates say that pumping more than $100 million into the state schools through the settlement agreement merely delays emptying out the facilities all together.

"We are talking about more than money and bricks and mortar," said Tanya Winters, director of the Texas Advocates Peer To Peer project, which trains people with disabilities to be their own advocates. "We're talking about peoples' lives and happiness." - Dallas Morning News