In Memory of Marilyn Golden

43 Replies

September 22, 2021
Marilyn Golden, senior policy analyst for DREDF, died at home on September 21, 2021, surrounded by her family. A long-time disability rights advocate, she played a key role in the development, passage, and implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). Her advocacy molded and shaped accessibility in the United States and improved architectural access and standards worldwide. She spent more than three decades working to see that the ADA was implemented and enforced, and teaching others the value of disability civil rights via, and beyond the law. [...]

Complaint Filed on Behalf of Students with Disabilities for Discrimination from New California Distance Learning Law

2 Replies

September 21, 2021
The State of California is excluding students with disabilities from alternatives to in-person classes, forcing vulnerable students and their families to choose between risking COVID-19 exposure or remaining at home without access to the educational services they need to learn and succeed. California’s newly adopted AB 130 limits alternatives to in-person classes to independent studies. Alarmingly, families of students with disabilities have found that California’s Independent Study Program is effectively closed to them because of the program design or lack of needed accommodations. As a result, the state education system is denying students with disabilities the alternative to in-person classes that state law provides to other students.

DREDF joined Disability Rights California, Vanaman German LLP, and The Arc of California to file this civil rights complaint with to the U.S. Department of Justice, seeking an end to this unlawful discrimination under the American with Disabilities Act. [...]

DREDF Comments on Approved TennCare III Demonstration

Leave a reply

September 9, 2021
DREDF submitted comments to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS"), urging rescission of HHS’ approved Section 1115 waiver permitting the State of Tennessee to fundamentally alter its Medicaid program, to the detriment of low-income people with disabilities and chronic conditions. The comments explain how the approval was unlawful under the requirements of the Medicaid Act and how it will disproportionately harm disabled enrollees by reducing access to Long-Term Services and Supports (“LTSS”), needed prescription drugs, and retroactive healthcare coverage. [...]

Mark S., et al. v. State of California, et al.

1 Reply

September 13, 2021
The State of California and Pittsburg Unified School District have maintained a separate, unequal, and illegal educational system where Black students, children of color with disabilities and English learners have been segregated in substandard learning environments, excluded from classrooms altogether through the use of unwarranted suspensions and expulsions, and as a result, denied their constitutional right to a public education. Two students, two parents of former students, and a current teacher, filed a claim in Contra Costa County Superior Court, against the State Board of Education, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, the State of California, and Pittsburg Unified School District. The complaint alleges the state and district's unlawful practices harm thousands of its most marginalized students, primarily children of color. [...]

Black, English Learners and Disabled Students Denied Constitutional Right to Public Education, Lawsuit Charges

1 Reply

September 13, 2021
SAN FRANCISCO – The State of California and Pittsburg Unified School District have maintained a separate, unequal, and illegal educational system where Black students, children of color with disabilities and English learners have been segregated in substandard learning environments, excluded from classrooms altogether through the use of unwarranted suspensions and expulsions, and as a result, denied their constitutional right to a public education. [...]

Disability, Patients’ Rights Groups Issue Joint Statement Opposing the Expansion of Assisted Suicide in Observance of Suicide Prevention Month

2 Replies

September 2, 2021
Berkeley, California – In observance of Suicide Prevention Month this September, disability and patients' rights leaders from California and across the United States joined together in solidarity to voice clear, unequivocable opposition to a lawsuit which seeks to relax already weak safeguards which protect against bias and abuse in physician-assisted suicide. [...]

Disability Rights and Health Advocacy Organizations Urge Recission of TennCare III Demonstration

2 Replies

July 12, 2021
In the dying days of the Trump adminsitration, CMS approved Tennessee's latest Medicaid 1115 waiver proposal which establishes TennCare III under a federal spending cap rather than a program that provides healthcare to all low-income Tennesseans who qualify. The National Health Law Program, the Tennessee Justice Center, and King and Spalding filed a complaint April 22, 2021 in the DC District Court on behalf of thirteen TennCare enrollees, arguing that the Trump administration failed to follow the proper rules before approving the waiver. and that the waiver cannot be approved under 1115's authority to conduct an experiment when Tennessee's proposal affects nearly all TennCare's 1.5 million enrollees for a ten year period. DREDF and 14 other disability rights and healthcare advocy organizations who are concerned about the negative impact on Tennessee's Medicaid enrolless and the bad precedent established for other states sent a letter to CMS asking the agency to take back approval for the changes to Tennessee's medicaid program. [...]

  1. Pages:
  3. 1
  4. ...
  5. 10
  6. 11
  7. 12
  8. 13
  9. 14
  10. 15
  11. 16
  12. ...
  13. 65