Reeve Hamilton | The Texas Observer

Monday, Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, and Rep. Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs, filed Senate Bill 1060 and House Bill 1589, which require the Health and Human Service Commission to develop a 10-year strategic plan for reforming services for persons with disabilities.

The bills lay out certain actions that this plan must include, the most controversial of which is the closing of some state schools to help reduce Texas’ institutionalization rate so that it is more in line with the national average.

Rose and Ellis are pushing a shift toward housing mentally disabled Texans in community settings, such as small two-and-three-bedroom group homes set in residential neighborhoods rather than the state’s sprawling—and financially starved—institutions. But the families of many state school residents prefer the institutions, which have cared for their loved ones, in some cases, for decades. They distrust small group homes, which without proper oversight, have abused disabled residents in Texas and many other states.

The bills call for an expansion of these community-based services, because, as Rose put it, “the demand is trending away from institutional settings” and “for our highest functioning Texans with disabilities, community settings are less expensive.”

Another benefit Rose plugged in a press conference today was the “substantial savings” that would result from closing some state schools.

“This bill is not about closing state schools purely for the sake of saving money,” says Ellis, perhaps referring to Sen. Bob Deuell’s Senate Bill 336, which does precisely that. “It is about providing current residents, and family members of current residents, with the choice and giving them every tool possible to be comfortable with that choice.”

“It’s important that the state school system be viable in the short, middle, and long-term,” Rose says. “The point of this legislation, however, is to make sure that we have the right amount of infrastructure. We have 13 state schools today because we’ve had 13 state schools, not because it’s the right number.”

This legislation comes after a Department of Justice report released at the end of 2008 that cited 450 confirmed cases of abuse and neglect, and 53 deaths from generally preventable conditions in fiscal year 2007. The state was threatened with legal action if it doesn’t address the issues in the system. The state schools have been chronically shorted of resources in recent years, which has led to employee turnover rates as high as 70 percent.

Rose filed House Bill 1317 last week, which provides more of a short-term response to the DOJ’s complaints.

“We ought not to wait until the federal government has a club against our heads or a lawsuit that forces us to do what we know we need to do anyway,” Ellis said.

Some of the bills other requirements include that strategies be developed to reduce the time spent on waiting lists, to transfer resources from institution to community-based services through a Money Follows the Person system, and to prohibit the institutionalization of people under 22 years old.

This is the beginning of what will be an emotional debate this session. There is wide-spread agreement that the state school population is too large and that lawmakers should shift more residents to community settings. The debate will be how many residents (and which ones) should remain institutionalized.

Then there’s the larger question: Will the Legislature provide the funding and oversight necessary to ensure that private group homes, some of which are run by for-profit companies, will treat disabled Texans well?