Federal Monitor Finds “Mixed Results” in RI DD Employment; Urges Expansion Of Efforts

By Gina Macris

A federal court monitor says the state of Rhode Island has had “mixed results” in its efforts to find competitive employment for adults with developmental disabilities as required by a 2014 civil rights decree mandating the state correct violations of the Americans With Disabilities Act.

The monitor, Charles Moseley, has urged the state to take “immediate and tangible steps” to develop the capacity of both state agencies and private service providers “to sustain the high level of training and supported employment activity required by the Consent Decree both now and into the future. “

The state licenses about three dozen private agencies, most of them non-profits, to provide the direct services for adults with developmental disabilities that the state relies on to meet the goals of the consent decree, both for supported employment and non-work activities in the community.

The state has met employment goals for January 1, 2019 in two of three categories of adults with developmental disabilities, those who previously worked in sheltered workshops and those who historically were served in segregated day centers. But the pace of placements has slowed at a time when the requirements of the consent decree are set to accelerate, from 2020 to 2024, according to figures presented by Moseley.

In the first three months of 2019, a total of 18 adults with developmental disabilities landed jobs. That is the second-lowest quarterly total on record for the first five years of the consent decree. The lowest quarterly job placement rate occurred from July through September, 2018, when only 7 individuals got jobs.

Moseley’s report zeroed in on a third category in the consent decree, young adults recently out of high school. The state has never met target numbers for job placements for that group. As of March 31, the number of young adults with part-time jobs stood at 257, or about 62 percent of a population of 412 persons in their twenties.

Moseley said that the state’s performance-based supported employment program, launched in 2017, “did not significantly impact placement numbers” for young adults.

The state Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals (BHDDH) recently issued a request for proposals for a new iteration of the individualized supported employment program that appears to be tailored to young adults, in that that it seeks clients who have never held jobs.

“We continue to see PCSEPP (The Person-Centered Supported Employment Performance Program) as one of the strategies to increasing employment outcomes,” a BHDDH spokesman said in a statement July 29. “It has provided the state with two years of data-informed outcomes and continues to be responsive to providers’ requests for innovative and flexible resources to promote employment outcomes,” the statement said.

BHDDH set an Aug. 30 deadline for the submission of proposals from private providers, but those agencies have asked for an extension.

At a meeting July 12, representatives of private providers asked for at least three months to plan their programs, because of a requirement that the services reflect a formal collaboration between two or more agencies. The agencies need time to consider structural changes to their operations that may be required by the collaboration, their representatives said.

BHDDH has extended the application deadline to Oct. 4, according to a memo to providers dated July 19.

In his report, Moseley noted that the “state is taking important steps to rebuild the developmental disabilities service delivery system under the Consent Decree.”

He cited efforts by the Division of Developmental Disabilities and the Office of Rehabilitation Services to “establish important links” with providers, families, advocacy organizations and the state Department of Labor and Training to “achieve and sustain supported employment outcomes” among those facing intellectual or developmental challenges. BHDDH is also working with the special legislative commission studying the state’s fee-for-service reimbursement rate, Moseley said. He noted that there has been additional progress in the training of providers’ staff, quality improvement measures and other key areas.

But in a recent conference call with the Employment First Task Force, a community advisory group on implementation of the consent decree, he echoed the conclusion of his most recent quarterly report.

When members of the group thanked Moseley for his work -– he is stepping down as monitor Sept. 30 — and asked him for advice on their recently-completed strategic plan, Moseley said they should focus on one in the plan that concerns providers’ capacity to do their jobs.

Moseley said he has heard “a lot” about adults with developmental disabilities being unable to access any suitable services from a provider and instead choosing to “self-direct.” That means consumers and families design their own programs and hire and supervise staff. The phenomenon has sometimes been called “self-directed by default.”

This is one area that would benefit from a workgroup including providers and state officials to try to “capture” the problem, which can be difficult to document when one family applies to multiple agencies, he said.

Read Moseley’s report here.

(This article has been updated.)

RI Governor Raimondo Asks for Wage Hikes for Direct Care Workers in FY 2018 Budget

By Gina Macris

Governor Gina Raimondo is asking the General Assembly to approve a total of $11 million for raises for front-line human services workers who provide homecare or who work directly with adults with developmental disabilities.

The proposal was one of the highlights of a budget plan that includes nearly $1.4 billion in human services funding in an overall fiscal package totaling about $9.3 billion for the2018 fiscal year, which begins July 1. The budget was delivered to the General Assembly Thursday, Jan. 19.

“For home and community-based placements to be successful, the state must have a robust provider network and support system, “ Raimondo said in a statement. ” To build this capacity, workers with the right skills must be paid enough to fill those jobs,” she said.

Jonathan Womer, director of the Office of Management and Budget, told reporters at a budget briefing that keeping direct care workers on the job has been “really difficult.”  Workers in equivalent jobs in Massachusetts make about $13.00 an hour.

The added money for wages includes a 5 percent hike for workers who provide direct services to adults with developmental disabilities, or 56 cents an hour, bringing their average hourly pay to $11.74. Homecare workers would see a 7 percent, or 78-cents-an-hour increase, for a new average hourly rate of $11.96

Raimondo also has proposed raising the minimum wage from $9.60 to $10.50 an hour, an increase of 90 cents.

Since July 1, developmental disability and home care workers have been paid an average of $11.18 an hour, according to figures released by State Sen. Louis DiPalma, D-Middletown. In October, DiPalma asked the Governor to include additional raises in her next budget as part of a five-year plan to raise the pay of front-line workers to $15.

Last May, Raimondo proposed pay hikes in apparent response to pressure from the U.S. District Court, which is monitoring implementation of a 2014 consent decree designed to desegregate day services for adults with developmental disabilities.

Judge John J. McConnell, Jr. earlier had ruled that the state did not spend enough money to provide the community-based services required by the consent decree and risked being held in contempt of court if it did not sufficiently fund supported employment programs.

The consent decree runs out in 2024, and McConnell is still holding periodic reviews of the case. The next hearing is Friday, Jan. 27.

To encourage supported employment, the General Assembly added $6.8 million in the current budget for job coaching and related activities, but that performance-based incentive program is just getting off the ground, five months after a court-ordered deadline.

Budget briefing materials released Thursday were silent on whether the program will continue, and state officials were not immediately able to respond to detailed questions.

Service providers have said the incentive program, set up to provide one-time bonuses for staff training, new job placements, and job retention, is a distraction from the fundamental problem that agencies continue to be chronically underfunded.

Raimondo asked the General Assembly for an additional $4.9 million for caseload growth in fiscal 2018. The General Assembly spurned a similar request last year, with the House leadership saying the numbers showed a stable caseload, at about  4,000 clients. 

House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello has said that if and when the caseload increases, the General Assembly will listen.

In the last few months, the independent court monitor in the consent decree case has required the state to identify all young people over the age of 14 who likely will be eligible for adult developmental disability services in the next seven years, but the state has not yet released firm numbers.

In all, Raimondo would add nearly $4.4 million to the bottom line to cover developmental disability spending for the remainder of the current fiscal year and $6 million more in the next budget.

Those increases in developmental disabilities apparently would by offset by cost-shifting to The Department of Human Services, as well as cuts in funding authorizations to individuals who receive developmental disability services.

Raimondo’s budget message suggested that developmental disability officials plan to save about $850,000 in state revenue during the remainder of the current fiscal year and an equal amount in the next one by cutting individual funding authorizations to adults with developmental disabilities to “appropriate resource allocation tiers.”  

In the past few years, such attempted cuts have been routinely contested  -- often successfully -- by service providers and families in time-consuming appeals involving a controversial individual assessment called the Supports Intensity Scale.

All developmental disability services are funded by a combination of federal Medicaid and state revenue at a rate of roughly 1 to 1, and the governor’s request for increases come in spite of increased pressure on overall Medicaid costs.

The current authorized spending level for all developmental disability services is $246,242,419. Raimondo’s supplemental budget would raise that total to $250,626,970 by June 30. The spending limit for Fiscal 2018 would increase yet again to $256,707,760, according to her plan.

Developmental disability services make up more than 60 percent of the total BHDDH budget, which is currently $385,632,555. Raimondo would like an additional $15,457,021 for a total of $401,089,575 to close out the current fiscal year. The bottom line for the next fiscal year would be $394,366,931.

RI Job Seekers with DD May Seek Help at Provider Fair Friday as State Tries to Boost Employment

 By Gina Macris

Rhode Islanders with developmental or intellectual disabilities who want to work can explore the job-development services of 14 private agencies during a fair Friday, Jan. 6, at the Arnold Conference Center on the campus of the state Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals in Cranston. 

The fair runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., according to a spokeswoman for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services. 

Of the state’s 36 private providers of developmental disability services, 14 have confirmed their attendance, the spokeswoman, Sophie O’Connell, said Wednesday. 

They are:

·         Avatar Residential, Inc.

·         Bridges, Inc.

·         Community Living of Rhode Island, Inc.

·         Community Work Services

·         Frank Olean Center, Inc.

·         Gateways to Change, Inc.

·         James L. Maher Center

·         Looking Upwards, Inc.

·         Perspectives Corporation

·         J. Arthur Trudeau Memorial Center

·         West Bay Residential Services, Inc.

·         WORK Inc.

·         Work Opportunities Unlimited Contracts, Inc.

·         Seven Hills Rhode Island 

A total of 17 agencies have finalized contracts with the state that will reward them with one-time stipends for staff training in supported employment, the placement of clients, and job retention for six months, according to O’Connell.  

A federal court order required the state to have performance-based contracts in place by Aug. 1, 2016 but negotiations between the provider agencies and the state on the performance-based supported employment contracts dragged on  through December. 

The contracts are intended to help the state comply with a 2014 federal consent decree requiring it to desegregate daytime services that emphasized sheltered workshops and isolated day programs. 

The original job fair flier put out by BHDDH in early December said more than 20 providers would attend Friday’s event, but that projection now appears to have been overly optimistic. O’Connell said the state hopes additional providers will commit to the fair before Friday morning. 

As recently as three weeks ago, members of the community-based Employment Force Task Force created by consent decree expressed concerns that the one-time bonuses in the incentive program were not enough to sustain expansion of job development and supported employment services. 

O’Connell, however, later said that agencies submitting applications for the program were able to “outline their ability to serve both their current clients and new populations.” 

She said Jan. 4 that the state hopes to finalize contracts with all the agencies soon. The state will monitor the agencies’ work in job-hunting and job retention as part of an effort to evaluate the impact of the program in the community, she said. 

Individuals who already are served by a private agency, as well as those who direct their own services, with family support, are welcome to attend.  Questions regarding the event may be directed to Tracey Cunningham, Associate Director of Employment in the Division of Disabilities, at 401 462-3857 or by email at tracey.cunningham@bhddh.ri.gov.

Toward a Smoother Transition: RI Will Decide Early, By Age 17, Who Will Qualify for Adult DD Services

By Gina Macris

(This article has been updated.) 

For some Rhode Islanders with developmental disabilities, the shift between high school and the adult world has been likened to falling off a cliff.

Now, changes are underway to lay the groundwork for a smoother transition from high school to adult living, the latest being a new policy that the state will accept applications from individuals aged 16 and will determine their eligibility by the time they turn 17.

But it remains to be seen how far the state gets in delivering on its promise to a federal court to find jobs for every eligible young adult who can and wants to work by next June 30.  

One potential problem is that, despite small raises recently granted to direct care workers, their employers still may not be able to hire the staff necessary to add new clients. 

New, slightly higher reimbursement rates to private service providers reflect the raises but do not address continuing shortfalls in overhead costs borne by employers, according to a spokeswoman for some two dozen agencies.

For years, private providers have had trouble recruiting and retaining competent staff. A new employment incentive program, with a few exceptions, requires agencies to use existing funding to train workers, if necessary, and make job placements before collecting one-time bonuses. 

According to evidence presented in U.S. District Court last April, young adults with developmental disabilities have been dismissed abruptly from high school on their 21st birthdays and have tended to sit at home for weeks or months because adult services were not in place.

Rhode Island law says individuals with developmental disabilities are eligible for adult services at age 18, although decisions on eligibility often have been made a few months before the young people turned 21.

With many agencies declining to accept new clients, families found it difficult and time-consuming to arrange services.

When services finally were pulled together, they often fell short of participants’ and families’ expectations, according to what U.S. District Court Judge John J. McConnell heard in April.

Since the April hearing, the General Assembly has enacted a law sponsored by the Senate Finance Committee chairman, Daniel DaPonte, that requires school districts to keep those 21-year-olds in class until the end of the academic year.

More recently, the Executive Office of Human Services (EOHHS) has updated plans to better identify, enroll, and serve young adults eligible for developmental disability services provided by the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals (BHDDH) and the Office of Rehabilitation Services (ORS). Those plans include the new “eligibility determination by 17” policy.

In a dramatic departure from past practice, parents of youngsters who are likely to be eligible will be encouraged to apply for adult services when their sons and daughters turn 16.

Consent Decree Drives Change

The changes respond to requirements of a 2014 federal consent decree which aims to move adults with developmental disabilities out of sheltered workshops and segregated day programs that violate the Olmstead decision of the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 1999, the high court found that services for individuals with disabilities must be provided in the least restrictive environment that is therapeutically appropriate, with that environment presumed to be the community.

During the latest judicial review of the consent decree in September, an independent court monitor, Charles Moseley, noted that since the consent decree went into effect in April, 2014, the state has failed to meet targets for placing young adults in regular jobs in the community, with the necessary supports. 

By July 1, 2016, the state was required to have placed all young adults who have left high school during the 2013-2014 academic year or later. At the time, 151 people were reported to be eligible, but the state’s total number of placements was 29.

Rather than hold a contempt hearing against the state, Judge McConnell has deferred to Moseley, who said was confident he could work with state officials to meet the employment goals.

Complicating the issue, the number of young adults in question has risen since July from 151 to 259. The Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) has updated its count of individuals with developmental disabilities who left school during the 2015-2016 school year and will continue to do so through June 30, 2017.

RIDE also has promised to expand the categories of individuals whose names it reports to BHDDH to more accurately reflect the total population of young people likely protected by the consent decree, according to Moseley’s most recent report to Judge McConnell Nov. 1.

Since the consent decree went into effect in 2014, RIDE has reported to BHDDH only the names of those with developmental disabilities who turn 21 and leave school.

Going forward, its count will include all those between the ages of 14 and 21 who have developmental disabilities, autism, or multiple disabilities that can be expected to restrict their ability to function independently as adults. The monitor wants RIDE to identify all those students by Nov. 15.

In the meantime, BHDDH, ORS, and RIDE will work together to notify all affected families of their protected status under terms of the consent decree and give them information about applying for services. (Click here for eligibility criteria in state law.) 

General Assembly Increased DD Budget

To shore up the state’s ability to provide services once adults are found eligible, the General Assembly has approved an hourly wage increase of 36 cents for direct care workers – a total of $5 million – and allocated another $6.8 million to foster supported employment.

In addition RI Senate leaders have said they want to raise the current average wage of front line workers from $11.18 to $15 an hour over five years.

But the state still faces continuing consent decree deadlines for placing adults with developmental disabilities in jobs, including about 50 former sheltered workshop employees by Jan. 1, as well as a yet-to-be–determined number of eligible young adults by June 30.  

The new $6.8 million supported employment program expects to begin disbursing funds in mid-November, according to an EOHHS document attached to Moseley’s latest filing with the court.

The program requires providers to have specially-trained employment teams in place to quality for the program and begin receiving a series of one-time bonuses. The bonuses reward the certification of employment specialists, job placements, and job retention for six months with totals that vary from about $3,500 to $15,750 per person, depending on the client’s age and the complexity of the disability.

The recent wage increases

The recent wage increases cover payroll–related taxes but do not add to the state’s reimbursement to private agencies for other aspects of employee overhead costs-taxes. Nor do the raises increase the pay of front-line supervisors or mid-level managers, according to Donna Martin., executive director of the Community Provider Network of Rhode Island, an association of 26 agencies.

Martin says the state allows agencies  35 percent of direct care workers’ salaries for such overhead costs, but CPNRI data “shows actual employee-related expense is in excess of 60 percent.”

Last spring, she told the General Assembly that her membership operates at an average loss of $5,500 a year for each employee.

do not change state’s reimbursement to private agencies for employer-related taxes and other costs, according to Donna Martin, executive director of the Community Provider Network of Rhode Island, an association of 26 agencies.

Last spring, she told the General Assembly that her membership operates at an average loss of $5,500 for each employee.

Because many agencies are not expanding their staff or accepting new clients, the parents of newly-eligible young adults increasingly are turning to so-called “self-directed” services, which allow them to design customized programs for their sons and daughters, a time-consuming process. The parents are responsible for organizing a program within their budget and choosing and supervising workers. A fiscal intermediary pays the bills.

BHDDH is encouraging these “self-directed” providers, as well as the established agencies, to apply for the one-time supported employment bonuses.  

The next opportunity for consumers and families to speak to state officials about the consent decree and developmental disability services in general is Wednesday, Nov.9 from 4 to 6 p.m at the Cherry Hill Manor Nursing and Rehab Center, 2 Cherry Hill Rd., Johnston.  

Judge McConnell has scheduled his next review of the consent decree for January 27 in U.S. District Court, Providence.

(The original version of this article inaccurately stated that recent raises to direct care workers did not include an increase for any aspect of employer-related costs.)  

Despite Missed Deadlines, Consent Decree Monitor Says Rhode Island Moving in the Right Direction

By Gina Macris

Rhode Island has not met all the deadlines so far in shifting toward integrated, community-based services for adults with developmental disabilities as required in a 2014 federal consent decree, according to the independent court monitor in the case.

But because the state has taken important steps in the right direction in the last few months, the monitor, Charles Moseley, says he believes it is appropriate to delay evaluating the state’s performance on the deadlines.

Even one missed deadline gives Moseley the option of asking U.S. District Court Judge John J. McConnell, Jr. to conduct a show cause hearing as to why the state should not be held in contempt, according to an order McConnell issued in May.

The order says that the state must comply with every deadline contained in it and in the consent decree from May 18 forward or face possible contempt proceedings and fines. The consent decree contains deadlines running until 2024.

McConnell’s highly prescriptive order came after the state made little progress in complying with the consent decree in the two years since it had been put into effect. The judicial order lit a fire under a team of state administrators led by Jennifer Wood, Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Moseley submitted his latest assessment to McConnell Sept. 9, in anticipation of a status conference on the case Sept. 16. Typically, lawyers for the U.S. Department of Justice also submit statements to the judge before a hearing, but any submissions from the DOJ have not yet surfaced in the case file.

Moseley, meanwhile, said in his report that the state missed job placement deadlines.  The most recent was a July 1 deadline for finding employment for all young adults with developmental disabilities who left high school during the 2015-2016 academic year. That class is estimated at a minimum of 74 individuals, according to the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE). Many of them would be seeking part-time jobs.  

Eligibility specialists at the state Division of Disabilities have been working intensely to try to eliminate a backlog of applications from more than 200 individuals – most of them young adults – who seek developmental disability services.

In his report, Moseley said the state “is implementing substantive changes across the array of day and employment services furnished to individuals with I/DD (intellectual or developmental disabilities).”

He said continued refinements are needed in the data system that enables him and the DOJ to track compliance, and additional policies and practices must be implemented to expand the availability of high quality integrated and individualized day services.

“While challenges remain,” he said, “the foundational steps taken by the state to address key areas related to funding, administrative oversight, training and documentation” are moving Rhode Island “on a path toward achieving the requirements of the consent decree.”

Among the steps forward, Moseley cited the General Assembly’s approval of slightly more than $11 million in added revenue to increase salaries to underpaid direct service workers and implement performance-based contracts with financial incentives for private providers who help their clients find jobs.  

With that funding, the state has agreed to raise pay for direct service workers and job coaches to a minimum of $11.55 an hour, an average of 3.1 percent, Moseley said. The workers are still waiting for that increase to kick in. Wood, the Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services, has promised the pay increase, retroactive to July 1, would be processed by Oct. 1.

Moseley said the pay raise plan submitted to him by the state needs to be more specific to ensure that the added funding will be used to “increase salaries, benefits, training and supervision”  as required by McConnell’s May 18 order.                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Summarizing what he describes as other“substantive efforts” to comply with the consent decree, Moseley cited the development of performance-based contracts intended to give providers incentives to help clients find and retain jobs, as well as training for professionals and parents in career development planning that will guide individuals’ job searches.

He said funding for start-up costs – a total of $800,000 – has been distributed to nine private service providerswhich are planning to shift from segregated to community-based programs, and the Sherlock Center on Disabilities at Rhode Island College is working closely with private service agencies  to help them make that change.

In addition, Moseley said, the state has provided heightened technical assistance and hired key staff, including an employment specialist and a program improvement officer, to beef up the leadership at the state Division of Disabilities.

Click here to read the monitor's report. 

Click here to read related article