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HomeRIGHTSJustice Department Reaches Agreement With Nevada to Ensure Children With Behavioural Health...

Justice Department Reaches Agreement With Nevada to Ensure Children With Behavioural Health Disabilities Can Live in Their Homes, Communities

The Justice Department announced today that it secured a settlement agreement with the State of Nevada to resolve the department’s findings that Nevada violates the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Supreme Court’s decision in Olmstead v. L.C. by unnecessarily segregating children with behavioural health disabilities in institutional settings like hospitals and residential treatment facilities.

“Children with disabilities deserve to live with their families and in the communities they call home,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

Clarke also mentioned that these children should not be isolated in hospitals and residential treatment facilities, far from their homes.

He added, “In this settlement, Nevada has committed that children with behavioural health disabilities will receive the services they need to remain in their communities. We look forward to partnering with Nevada as it implements this agreement and ushers in a new era of meaningful reform.”

Under the ADA and the Olmstead decision, states must administer their services to people with disabilities in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs.

This agreement, filed this week in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, will allow Nevada’s children with behavioural health disabilities to access the services they need without being forced to leave their homes, schools, and communities.

To increase community integration for these children, Nevada has made significant commitments in this agreement, including children who may have a behavioural health disability, who will be screened and assessed and provided with service coordination; children with behavioural health disabilities will have access to expanded home-and community-based services.

These services include wraparound facilitation, mobile crisis and stabilisation services, respite care, individual and family therapy, behavioural support services, family peer support and youth peer support. Nevada will improve diversion and transition processes to ensure children with behavioural health disabilities are being diverted from, and transitioned as quickly as possible from, segregated placements and Nevada will strengthen its quality assurance and performance improvement system.

This week, the department filed a complaint. At the same time, the parties asked the court to dismiss the complaint but retain jurisdiction to enforce the agreement. An independent reviewer will evaluate the state’s compliance with the agreement.

Children with disabilities have been a significant focus of the Civil Rights Division’s Olmstead enforcement work.

In November 2024, the division entered an agreement with Maine resolving a lawsuit that alleged that Maine failed to serve children with behavioural health disabilities in the most integrated setting appropriate; in July 2023, the division secured a court victory in a case challenging Florida’s unnecessary institutionalisation of children with complex medical needs; and in December 2022, the division issued a report finding that Alaska violated Title II of the ADA by unnecessarily institutionalizing children with behavioural health disabilities.

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