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Petition
To Support Principles that Protect Persons with Developmental
Disabilities
We, the undersigned, urge you, as a member of the state legislature to keep in mind the needs
of citizens with developmental disabilities as you work on the 2009 – 10 budget. We urge you to embrace the following principles that are essential for maintaining meaningful, effective service to our most vulnerable
citizens.
- Any cuts must be as far from the lives of people with disabilities as possible. Before we reduce services to people with developmental disabilities, we must look at areas of underutilized resources, redundancy, unnecessary bureaucracy, and paper
compliance.
- The Individual Program Plan, the central element that drives our system, must be honored. Decisions made by people with disabilities, their families, and those who know them best must drive services.No bureaucratic process should substitute for their
judgment.
- All people, regardless of the severity of their disabilities, are entitled to community living. No one should be in a place that prohibits them from the ability to access and participate in community options. Institutions are such places. While we realize
this could be a choice for some persons and their families, by the nature of their physical location and isolation, they may inherently and unnecessarily limit the life choices of people with disabilities.
- The Crisis Impacts the Entire System – No component, including DDS Headquarters, Developmental Centers, Regional Center
operations or Purchase of Services, should be automatically exempt from review and appropriate reform. Not all elements of the
system were subjected to the 3% cut. Notable was the fact that the state-owned and -operated developmental centers were not included.
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