News and Alerts

On June 16, 2025, CPR submitted comments opposing the Trump Administration’s planned recission of regulations implementing Section 504 that ensure that facilities that receive funding from the Department of Energy (DoE) are accessible to people with disabilities.

On July 24, 2025, CPR and the National Health Law Program (NHeLP) filed a friend of the court brief in support of litigation challenging the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Final Rule titled “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Marketplace Integrity and Affordability” (June 25, 2025).

For decades CPR has worked tirelessly to ensure that people with mental illness can live, work, and participate in the community, free from coercion and forced treatment. This Executive Order is exactly wrong, and seeks to undo both the constitutional rights as well as the voluntary services that people need and deserve.  CPR is committed to defend those rights, oppose this Executive Order and stand with people with disabilities who want to control their own lives without government interference. 

Under the auspices of the federal Disability Employment Technical Assistance Center (DETAC), Steven Schwartz, CPR’s Special Counsel, just published a paper outlining the 14 components of an employment system transformation plan, and previously authored three seminal papers for DETAC on advocacy strategies for replacing segregated employment with CIE.   

July 23rd marked the 35th anniversary of the ADA.  It is a time for reflecting on the amazing accomplishments of the disability community and the stark threats to these recent gains.  As Steven Schwartz, CPR Special Counsel noted in a PBS news story.

This paper, prepared by CPR, the Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee, the Committee for Public Counsel Services, and the Disability Law Center, addresses key problems with involuntary outpatient commitment laws.

Despite ongoing federal threats to the rights of people with disabilities, CPR has achieved impressive outcomes and dramatic progress in both our litigation and advocacy efforts.

Texas Public Radio airs feature following the landmark disability decision in Steward v. Young. CPR special counsel, Steven Schwartz, remarked on the decision, "It is clear that this court cares about people who told their stories, elevated their sometimes-tragic situations, and was really compassionate in understanding what sort of terrible lives people were forced into, unwittingly, unknowingly and really against their will."

Texas Tribune article following a favorable decision in Steward v. Young, on behalf on Texans with IDD living in nursing facilities

A Texas federal judge has just ruled that State officials are violating federal law, causing irreparable harm to thousands of Texans with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) whom they segregate in nursing facilities without mandated services or opportunities for community living.