Senate sends state schools reforms to Perry

Link to article

By JIM VERTUNO Associated Press Writer © 2009 The Associated Press

May 29, 2009, 3:57PM

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Senate on Friday gave final approval to improving security and oversight of the state's large institutions for the mentally disabled, which have been hit with allegations of widespread abuse and neglect.

The unanimous vote sends the bill to Gov. Rick Perry, who had declared fixing problems at the state schools a top priority of the legislative session.

If signed into law, the state will install video surveillance in common areas and give new powers to the state Office of Inspector General to help local prosecutors pursue cases of abuse, neglect or exploitation. Staff would be subject to drug tests and criminal background checks. The bill also renames the institutions as "state schools" as "state supported living centers"

Texas has nearly 5,000 residents at the state's 13 state schools and the changes approved by lawmakers come on the heels of scathing reports of neglect and abuse, including fights between residents staged by workers.

Dozens of people have died under questionable circumstances and hundreds of employees have been disciplined for mistreating residents. A 2008 review by the federal Department of Justice reported that residents' civil rights were being violated.

"The abuse and neglect that has taken place at our state schools will stop," said Sen. Jane Nelson, the Flower Mound Republican who led the Senate's reform efforts.

Lawmakers are expected to give final approval to a five-year, $112 million settlement with the federal government to improve conditions and medical care, including hiring more than 1,000 new direct care workers and placing monitors in each school.

A provision in the state budget would move 500 people out of state schools in the next two years to community-based care and identify more than 1,000 others who could be better served in other facilities. It also would create more community-based slots for care.

The bill passed Friday also strengthens oversight over those community care facilities, said Rep. Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs, who sponsored the bill in the House.

For example, those homes will no longer be allowed to investigate claims of abuse and neglect at their facilities, Rose said. That job now reverts to the state. Community homes also will be subject to unannounced inspections by the state Department of Family and Protective Services.

Lawmakers agreed to give the state new investigation powers into abuse claims at community homes and creates a database of abuse cases that can be reviewed by the public.

Some advocates for the disabled had called for closing state schools or ending admissions, two ideas that ran into fierce resistance from some families of residents.

Jeff Garrison-Tate of the advocacy group Community Now! said the state schools system is beyond repair.

"These facilities have created an environment and culture that breeds abuse and neglect," Garrison-Tate said. "It is past time for Texas to develop a plan to get people out of these places and close the facilities no longer needed."