2015: Court Rejects Minnesota's Olmstead Plan
Judge: "Olmstead" Disability Plan Lacks "Realistic Commitments"
By Riham Feshir· Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), St. Paul, MN, May 7, 2015
A federal judge has taken a Minnesota state agency to task over its plan to integrate people with disabilities into the broader community. In his ruling Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank said Minnesota's proposed "Olmstead Plan" was too vague and lacks "concrete, reliable and realistic commitments" on firm timelines and deadlines for implementation.
The MN Department of Human Services is required to say how it will provide the means for people with disabilities to live as independently as possible, which it agreed to do in a 2011 court settlement. The state had been sued over use of restraints in an institution.
"Olmstead Plan" refers to a 1999 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Olmstead v. L.C., that made it unlawful to keep people with disabilities in institutions when they could live in the community.
Frank said the state's plan doesn't show the same "passion and care" for people with disabilities as it did in the settlement. "Nearly three years have passed since the court approved the settlement agreement, and yet the record before the court indicates that many of the improvements heralded by the state have yet to be realized," he wrote.
The judge's ruling sets back a process that Gov. Mark Dayton tried to push forward by forming a group, the Olmstead Sub-Cabinet, to focus on securing federal court approval. Frank ordered a revised Olmstead Plan by July 10. For more of the article, see the MPR website.