I recently had the honor of attending a conference and speaking to a group committed to this cause at the Annual Dinner for the Disability Rights Center in Maine. This is one example of a group that has been a strong voice for disabled Mainers and has made a difference in our state.
The turning point for disability rights has been reached. The question no longer is whether those with disabilities should have access to education, to employment, and to opportunity, but how that access can best be guaranteed and expanded. The original Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1975 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 created the foundation upon which we build today.
I have long been an advocate for the rights of disabled Americans. During my first term in the Senate, I served on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, which oversees these issues. But it was a series in a Maine newspaper that prompted me to redouble my efforts on behalf of children with serious mental illnesses. These articles described the many obstacles Maine families face in accessing desperately needed mental health services for their mentally ill children. These obstacles are so daunting that some parents actually have to relinquish custody of their children and place them in either the child welfare or juvenile justice system, just to obtain desperately needed mental health treatment.
As chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, I investigated this matter, and in the summer of 2003 conducted two days of hearings. What I learned from the investigation and the hearings was devastating. According to a Government Accountability Office report, in 2001, parents placed more than 12,700 children into the child welfare or juvenile justice systems just so their children could receive the care they need. Even worse, that disturbing number is just the tip of the iceberg, since 32 states – including the five states with the largest populations of children – did not provide any data.
The numbers are telling and sad, but even more so was the wrenching testimony at the hearings by three mothers, including one from Maine. They told us that they were advised by the officials they turned to for help that the only way to get the intensive care and services needed by their children was to relinquish custody. The title of that hearing was "Nowhere to Turn." I resolved then that these loving parents would have somewhere to turn.
The result is the Keeping Families Together Act, which I introduced with a bipartisan group of my colleagues. This bill would reduce the barriers to care for children with serious mental health needs and will assist states in serving these children more effectively and efficiently by providing grant money to establish community-based coordinated care. Most important, it will allow many of these children to stay at home, with their loving families, where they belong. The Keeping Families Together Act takes a crucial step forward to meeting the needs of these children without depriving them of an essential element of care, the love and support of their parents.
The need for this legislation became even more apparent this past summer, when Congressman Henry Waxman and I released a study we ordered on the use of juvenile detention centers as "holding areas" for children awaiting proper mental health services in their communities.
The findings were shocking. During the six-month period covered by our report, nearly 15,000 incarcerated youth – roughly 7 percent of all the children in the centers surveyed – were detained solely because they were waiting for mental health services outside the juvenile justice system, not because they had committed any crime. Many were held without any charges pending, and a few were as young as seven years old. The cost of this utterly shameful misuse of taxpayers' money is estimated at $100 million per year. The cost in human misery cannot be calculated. The urgent need for the Keeping Families Together Act is clear. I am hopeful that we will generate the support needed get this passed and signed into law in the coming year.
Another important issue facing Congress is the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. I have been working in the U.S. Senate to ensure that the federal share of IDEA is fully funded—an obligation that the federal government has never fulfilled. The Senate passed its version of this bill in May with overwhelming bipartisan support. IDEA is based on two fundamental principles: first, all disabled children are entitled to a free and appropriate public education; and, second, these children should be educated alongside their non-disabled peers to the maximum extent possible. To help states turn these ideas into reality, Congress in 1975 authorized funding at 40 percent of each state's "excess cost" of educating children with disabilities. Unfortunately, this promise has never been kept, leaving communities with insufficient resources. This cost is particularly burdensome to rural school districts, such as those in Maine that have limited resources.
In 1996, the year I was first elected to the Senate, the federal government provided only $2.3 billion for IDEA, just 7 percent of the excess cost. Through our efforts in the Senate, IDEA funding has steadily climbed, reaching $10.1 billion last year, an increase of more than 300 percent during the time I have been in office. Further, the Senate has passed an appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2005 which provides $11.3 billion for IDEA. Despite this considerable progress, IDEA funding still represents only half of the level promised in the law.
That is why during the IDEA reauthorization, I cosponsored an amendment that would provide mandatory funding increases of $2.2 billion each year over the next six years to reach the 40 percent level, and that would maintain this level in subsequent years. According to the Congressional Research Service, if IDEA were fully funded today, Maine would receive approximately $104 million this year, an increase of approximately $56 million over current funding. While I was disappointed that this amendment failed by only a few votes, I will continue to work with my colleagues to provide the resources necessary to support communities and special education students throughout Maine.
I will keep working alongside my colleagues in the Senate and with groups such as the Disability Rights Center in Maine to ensure that our disabled citizens have every opportunity.
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