CPR uses legal strategies, advocacy, and policy to promote the integration and full community participation of people with disabilities and all others who are devalued in today’s society.

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    Litigation

    Expanding and protecting the rights of people with disabilities.

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    Advocacy

    Stay current on disability issues, educate yourself about the impact of proposed policy changes, and learn how to take action.

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    SSI/SSDI

    Representing individuals in western Massachusetts (Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin counties) who have been denied Social Security disability benefits.

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    Supported Decision-Making

    Learn about SDM, read how SDM transforms lives, and become a participant, supporter or advocate.

News

  • URGENT: Please submit comments by Friday, April 10, to encourage DOL to provide all caregivers impacted by COVID-19 with paid leave!
    March 27, 2020
    The US Department of Labor (DOL) is hosting an online dialogue right now that ends this Sunday, March 29 to gather ideas it will use in developing its guidance, resources, tools, and outreach related to changes in paid leave made by the Families First Act in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We encourage everyone to please comment and instructions and template comments, drafted together with our friends at The Arc below.
  • CPR and Partners File Additional Complaints Regarding Illegal Disability Discrimination in Treatment Rationing During COVID-19 Pandemic
    March 27, 2020
    CPR, Disability Rights Center of Kansas, Topeka Independent Living Resource Center, and partners filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Civil Rights (OCR) today regarding illegal disability discrimination in treatment rationing protocols being developed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We also, along with Disability Rights Tennessee, The Arc, and other partners, filed a complaint regarding illegal disability discrimination in treatment rationing today in Tennessee.
  • CPR and local partners send letter to Governor on need for statewide guidelines preventing discriminatory allocation of life-saving medical care
    March 26, 2020
    Today, CPR and 18 Massachusetts disability and legal services organizations urged Governor Baker to immediately adopt and disseminate mandatory statewide guidelines to ensure that life-saving care is not illegally withheld or removed from disabled residents due to discriminatory resource allocation or altered standards of care.
  • Negotiations are happening now! Tell Congress any COVID-19 response needs to include disability priorities!
    March 24, 2020
    We need to make our voices heard NOW to ensure the coronavirus response package currently being negotiated addresses disability community priorities. We need you to contact your members of Congress and Congressional leadership now to tell them that their response must address the needs of people with disabilities. This cannot wait.
  • CPR and Litigation Partners Win Motion to Dismiss in GNETS Case
    March 19, 2020
    A federal judge denied the Motion to Dismiss in State of Georgia v. The Georgia Advocacy Office, the case filed by CPR and its partners alleging that the State of Georgia discriminates against thousands of public school students with disabilities by providing them with a separate and unequal education via the Georgia Network for Educational and Therapeutic Supports Program (GNETS). As a result, we can now move ahead in our efforts to demonstrate that the GNETS system violates the rights of students with disabilities under the ADA, Section 504, and the U.S. Constitution.
  • CPR Commends the FDA for Banning the Use of Shock Devices on People with Disabilities
    March 4, 2020
    Today the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a long-awaited final rule banning the use of electrical stimulation devices (ESDs) on people with disabilities to control self-injurious or aggressive behaviors, finding that the devices present an “unreasonable and substantial” risk of serious harm to the people subjected to them. Today’s landmark victory is the culmination of years of advocacy by the disability community to end this dangerous and harmful practice.
  • The Public Charge Rule Is Now in Effect Nationwide
    February 24, 2020
    Today, the Department of Homeland Security’s discriminatory public charge rule goes into effect. The rule will exclude many people with disabilities from this country and discourage those already in the US from using critical public benefits, including Medicaid-funded home and community-based services on which many people with disabilities rely to fully participate in their communities. Although the rule is now in effect, efforts to overturn it continue and CPR and other disability organizations have supported those efforts, filing several amicus briefs in the litigation.
  • HCBS Advocacy Coalition Releases White Paper on Outcomes and Metrics to Support States’ Implementation of the HCBS Settings Rule
    January 21, 2020
    CPR and other members of the HCBS Advocacy Coalition, with support from the Community Living Policy Center, released a white paper to assist states and stakeholders in tracking progress and outcomes from implementation of the Medicaid Home and Community Based (HCBS) Settings Rule, available here: https://hcbsadvocacy.org/2020-outcomes-paper.
  • National Medical and Legal Organizations File Brief Supporting Children
    December 20, 2019
    The brief urges the Court of Appeals to affirm the district court’s decision finding that Massachusetts continues to violate the Medicaid Act when it fails to promptly provide critical home-based services.
  • CPR Files Brief in Appeals Court in Landmark Children’s Mental Health Case
    December 13, 2019
    Today we filed a brief in the federal court of appeals in our Massachusetts children’s mental health case, on behalf of 30,000 children with serious emotional disturbance (SED). We argued that the court should not end monitoring and oversight of its remedial order designed to address ongoing violations of the Medicaid Act. Since children are still waiting weeks, if not months for intensive home-based services, that enable them to remain in their own homes and communities, the state is not in compliance with either federal law or the remedial order.