Earlier this month, two people with disabilities filed a class action lawsuit challenging New York State’s unlawful practice of denying them—without due process—the opportunity to take community classes. The plaintiffs are participants in the Office of People with Developmental Disabilities’ Medicaid-funded Self-Direction Program (“Self-Direction Program”). The Self-Direction Program is designed to empower people with developmental disabilities to choose their own services, activities, and schedules, so they can live integrated lives in their communities, build their own skills, and chart their own futures. Unfortunately, the plaintiffs, as well as many others, have been denied access to appropriate community classes that would provide them with essential skills, and they have not been given the opportunity to challenge these denials that the Constitution and federal law require.
Mobilization for Justice and the law firm, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, represent the plaintiffs, who filed this lawsuit against the Commissioners of the New York State Department of Health and the Office of People with Developmental Disabilities, as well as against the non-profit fiscal intermediaries Hamaspik and HASC Center (collectively, “Defendants”). For years, people with disabilities and their families have been severely hurt by defendants’ actions.
“These are not just ‘classes’ on a budget line,” said David Folender, the father of plaintiff Lucien Folender. “For my son, they are friendships. They are community. They are the structure of his week, the people he looks forward to seeing, and a path toward a more independent future.”
Classes at Invictus Bakery provide plaintiff Katie Lawrence with an “environment in which she learns collaboration and cooperation” and in which she “is able to build her social skills, work with others towards a common goal, boosting her self-confidence and enhancing her emotional health,” according to her mother, Nancy. Yet, Nancy added, “HASC refuses to approve the front-of-the-house class” for Katie, and it has refused to provide the family with a valid justification for the denial or an opportunity to challenge it.
Plaintiffs hope the court will force Defendants to stop this illegal practice and give plaintiffs, and many others, the due process they rightfully deserve.
* * *
Mobilization for Justice’s (MFJ) mission is to achieve justice for all. MFJ prioritizes the needs of people who are low-income, disenfranchised, or have disabilities as they struggle to overcome the effects of social injustice and systemic racism. It provides the highest-quality free, direct civil legal assistance, conduct community education and build partnerships, engage in policy advocacy, and bring impact litigation.
Cleary Gottlieb’s award-winning pro bono practice was founded in a spirit of personal and professional responsibility, compassion for the needs of others, and dedication to improving the communities in which we live and work.