In 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act, stating that the law meant “the end to the unjustified segregation and exclusion of persons with disabilities from the mainstream of American life.”
Last Friday, Judge Middlebrooks quoted these words in the introduction to a 79-page order ruling that the state of Florida violated the ADA by effectively forcing families to keep their disabled children in state-funded nursing homes instead of at home. The Court’s order focused on Florida’s failure to provide sufficient access to private duty nursing, a service that would help enable home care.
The Agency for Health Care Administration, the state agency which oversees the Medicaid program, has appealed and is seeking a stay of the Court’s order. Order excerpted below and Herald covers it here.
Middlebrooks Order by John Byrne on Scribd