Wednesday, September 9th, 2015
The U.S. Justice Department announced today that it has entered into a proposed settlement agreement with the State of Oregon. The proposed agreement will resolve violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), as interpreted by the Supreme Court in Olmstead v. L.C., and will impact more than 7,000 Oregonians with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) who can and want to work in typical employment settings in the community. The proposed agreement resolves a class action lawsuit by private plaintiffs, represented by the Center for Public Representation, Disability Rights Oregon, and the law firms of Miller Nash Graham & Dunn, LLP and Perkins Coie, LLP, in which the Department intervened. The parties’ proposed settlement agreement must still be approved by U.S. Magistrate Judge Janice Stewart, who is presiding over the lawsuit.
The statewide agreement addresses the rights of people with disabilities to receive state-funded employment services in integrated settings, such as supported employment services provided in typical employment settings, rather than in segregated sheltered workshops. The agreement also provides relief to transition-age youth at risk of segregation. Under the agreement, transition-age youth will have access to the employment services necessary to choose, prepare for, get, and keep work in a typical work setting. The parties plan to jointly file the settlement in federal district court and will request that it be entered as a court-enforceable settlement agreement.
Learn more about the proposed settlement agreement in Lane v. Brown. For more general information about the Justice Department’s ADA Olmstead enforcement efforts, visit the Civil Rights Division’s Olmstead: Community Integration for Everyone website. To find out more about the ADA, call the Justice Department’s toll-free ADA Information Line at 1-800-514-0301 or 1-800-514-0383 (TDD), or access its ADA.gov website.
Article Credit: U.S. Department of Justice