News and Alerts

The Center for Public Representation, together with The Arc of the United States, the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund, and Professor Samuel Bagenstos, released critical guidance to states and healthcare providers about how to avoid discriminating against people with disabilities if rationing access to COVID-19 treatment becomes necessary. The guidance is endorsed by 90 national disability and health advocacy organizations.

Today, CPR and other advocates urged leaders at the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association, the College of Boston Teaching Hospitals, and the Massachusetts Medical Society to ensure that life-saving medical care is allocated consistent with federal disability law and recent directives from the Office of Civil Rights.

The US Department of Labor (DOL) is hosting an online dialogue right now that ends this Friday, April 10 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! Instructions and template comments, drafted together with our friends at The Arc, are below.

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.

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.

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.

The Center for Public Representation, Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program, The Arc, 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. A similar complaint was filed in Washington state yesterday.

The Center for Public Representation, Disability Rights Washington, The Arc, and partners filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Civil Rights (OCR) this morning regarding illegal disability discrimination in treatment rationing protocols being developed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. CPR and our partners call on HHS OCR to take immediate action to provide guidance on what health care providers must do to comply with federal laws protecting the rights of all patients, including those with disabilities, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now is the time for Congress to act to protect people with disabilities, who are particularly at risk as the coronavirus pandemic spreads. Late yesterday, Congress passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act and President Trump signed it into law. The bill is an important first step, with increased Medicaid funding, emergency paid leave, increased funding for food assistance, and free coronavirus testing. But more must be done to support people with disabilities throughout this crisis. We need to make our voices heard NOW to ensure future legislation already in the works responding to the COVID-19 crisis addresses the needs of people with disabilities.

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.