MADISON – The Wisconsin Board for People with Developmental Disabilities (BPDD) released legislative policy priorities Tuesday that focus on upholding the rights of people with disabilities to receive care at home, get an education, and live and work in their communities.
People with disabilities fought for decades for laws that ensure that we cannot be set aside and locked away in institutions. A recent U.S. Department of Justice memo says these laws do not give people the right to live in their own homes and communities. Medicaid cuts and federal actions targeting home care funding threaten the care infrastructure Wisconsin has built to prevent people with disabilities and older adults from unnecessarily ending up in costly Medicaid-funded nursing homes and other institutional settings.
“We need state legislation to keep us from being segregated into institutions or nursing homes, get us the help we need at home and in the community, and make sure we have a voice when not enough is done to help us stay in our own homes,” said Sydney Badeau, BPDD Board Chair.
“People with disabilities and their families contribute to their communities as workers and taxpayers. We belong with our friends, neighbors, and families,” said BPDD Executive Director Jenny Price. “We need Wisconsin’s state law to uphold the promises that are being broken at the federal level.”
BPDD’s policy and budget agenda includes policies for strengthening home care, special education and employment opportunities for people with disabilities, as well as incentivizing creation of affordable and accessible housing and increasing transportation options for non-drivers.
“These priorities are not targeted at a small group of people. Half of Wisconsin residents are family caregivers, older adults, or people with disabilities. Our issues are everyone’s issues,” Badeau said.
Specific priorities (see full list for details) include:
- Create a separate insurance pool for unpaid family caregivers, care workers, small businesses and co-ops that employ caregivers.
- Require private schools that receive public money to educate students with disabilities to follow the same rules as public schools and cover the actual cost of educating students with disabilities.
- Lift the income cap from the work incentive program for people with disabilities (MAPP) so they can work, earn, and save more to cover their costs, like housing, without losing health or home care.
- Incentivize all new home builds to be accessible and incentivize renovations of existing housing and properties to meet minimum accessibility requirements.
BPDD is Wisconsin’s Developmental Disabilities Council, an independent state agency established by the federal Developmental Disabilities Act, charged with improving the lives of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. We advise policymakers on issues that directly affect people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families, including education, employment, health care, home care, and transportation.
