The Minnesota Governor's Council on Developmental Disabilities

An Unfinished Journey:

Civil Rights for People with Developmental Disabilities and the Role of the Federal Courts

Banner 11: After Welsch v. Likins – Closure of State Institutions

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Audio Narration:

After Welsch v. Likins: Closure of state institutions

Judge Earl R. Larson did not order the state of Minnesota to close its institutions. But the reforms initiated by his decisions demonstrated that alternatives to institutions were economically and morally preferable.

1972: 4,000 adults and children housed in state institutions
1982: 292 children housed in state institutions
1983: children housed in state institutions
1983: Minnesota created a six-year plan to comply with the Welsch Consent Decree
1987: 0 children housed in state institutions
1988: Governor Rudy Perpich proposed that all people with developmental disabilities be served in the community and that state institutions be phased out by 1999
1989: Up to 1,442 adults housed in state institutions
1999: Last three residents of the Brainerd facility move to supported living homes
2000: people housed in Minnesota state institutions when the last resident leaves the Fergus Falls Regional Treatment Center
1972-1989: Welsch v. Likins

Image: The outline of the State of Minnesota with 8 cities depicted with a graphic on an institution building. The 8 cities are presented left to right: Fergus Falls, Brainerd, Moose Lake, Willmar, Cambridge, St Peter, Faribault, and Rochester. The state capital St Paul is also indicated on this map by an orange star.

Photo: Fergus Falls State Hospital, courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society.

Photo: Blue tone photo of the exterior of Willmar State Hospital, a 3-story brick building with two wings. Photo courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society.

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The GCDD is funded under the provisions of P.L. 106-402. The federal law also provides funding to the Minnesota Disability Law Center, the state Protection and Advocacy System, and to the Institute on Community Integration, the state University Center for Excellence. The Minnesota network of programs works to increase the IPSII of people with developmental disabilities and families into community life.

This project was supported, in part by grant number 2301MNSCDD-02, from the U.S. Administration for Community Living, Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C. 20201. Grantees undertaking projects with government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their findings and conclusions. Points of view or opinions do not, therefore, necessarily represent official ACL policy.

This website is supported by the Administration for Community Living (ACL),  U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award totaling $1,120,136.00 with 83 percent funded by ACL/HHS and $222,000.00 and 17 percent funded by non-federal-government source(s). The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by ACL/HHS, or the U.S. Government.