ASSEMBLY, No. 781
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 1996 SESSION
By Assemblywoman FARRAGHER
An Act establishing a commission to study the need for additional community residential services for people with mental retardation and to develop a plan to address that need.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. The Legislature finds and declares that:
a. New Jersey has made commendable progress in its provision of residential services to people with mental retardation during the past decade by evolving from a system that emphasized large State-operated developmental centers to one that directs most new admissions into community-based settings, as reflected in the decline in the number of developmental center residents from about 7,600 in 1977 to about 5,200 in 1988, and the increased population in other out-of-home placements such as private residential facilities, group homes, skilled development homes and family care.
b. In spite of this progress, the waiting list for out-of-home community residential services for people with mental retardation now totals approximately 1,800 persons living in the community, with another 1,000 in the developmental centers, and is rapidly expanding because of insufficient capacity in the existing group homes throughout the State, and because the developmental centers are no longer deemed an appropriate placement for the overwhelming majority of current and potential clients of the residential services system for people with mental retardation.
c. In 1985, the Departments of Human Services and the Public Advocate signed an agreement that established a schedule for the elimination by July 1, 1987 of the waiting list for out-of-home community residential placements for people with mental retardation, which then consisted of 550 persons residing with their families in the community; however, the waiting list is today more than three times as large as it was four years ago.
d. The budget recently proposed by the Governor for fiscal year 1990 contains no funding for the long-awaited and critically needed expansion of community residential services for people with mental retardation.
e. The Division of Developmental Disabilities in the Department of Human Services classifies the persons on the waiting list for community residential placements by the degree of urgency of their need for removal from their current living situations; and the vast majority of persons on this waiting list, who are currently living with members of their own families and who may be at risk of abuse or neglect or may become homeless at any moment, are in serious or emergent need of an out-of-home placement or have families who have requested assistance in placing the person in an out-of-home residential setting in the community.
f. Many of the parents of people with mental retardation who are in the most urgent categories of need on the waiting list are leading lives of quiet desperation which becomes more acute with each passing day as these parents, many of whom are now senior citizens or nearing that time in their lives, struggle to cope with the emotional and financial burdens of caring for their children at home, long after their children have become adults, and the psychological stress which results from uncertainty about their children's future living arrangements and the knowledge that there will come a time when they are no longer able to care for their children.
2. There is established a commission to be known as the "Community Residential Services for People with Mental Retardation Study Commission."
The commission shall consist of seven members as follows: the Director of the Division of Developmental Disabilities in the Department of Human Services, the Director of the Division of Advocacy for the Developmentally Disabled in the Department of the Public Advocate, and the Executive Director of the New Jersey State Developmental Disabilities Council, or their designated representatives, who shall serve as ex officio members; one public member who shall be a representative of the Association for Retarded Citizens/New Jersey, to be appointed by the Governor; and three additional public members who shall be persons with a demonstrated interest or expertise in the provision of community residential services to people with mental retardation, one of whom shall be appointed by the Governor, one by the Speaker of the General Assembly and one by the President of the Senate.
All members of the commission shall serve without compensation but shall be reimbursed for the necessary expenses incurred in the performance of their duties. A vacancy in the membership shall be filled in the same manner as the original appointment.
3. The commission shall organize as soon as possible after the appointment of its members but in any case no later than the 90th day after the effective date of this act, and shall elect a chairman and vice-chairman from among its members. The chairman shall appoint a secretary who need not be a member of the commission.
4. The commission shall be entitled to call to its assistance and avail itself of the services of employees of any State, county or municipal department, board, bureau, commission or agency as it may require and as may be available to it for its purposes. The commission shall further be entitled to employ counsel and stenographic and clerical assistance and incur traveling and other miscellaneous expenses as it may deem necessary in order to perform its duties, within the limits of funds appropriated or otherwise made available to it for its purposes.
The commission shall meet and hold public hearings at such place or places as it shall designate.
5. It shall be the duty of the commission to study the current and projected need for community residential services for people with mental retardation and, at a minimum, to develop a plan for eliminating by a date certain the waiting list among the two most urgent categories of need for out-of-home community residential placements as classified by the Division of Developmental Disabilities in the Department of Human Services. The plan shall include a specific schedule for its implementation and shall specify the source of funding and the kinds of residential settings to be utilized for this purpose. The plan shall also describe the steps to be taken to reduce the balance of the waiting list as classified by the Division of Developmental Disabilities.
6. The commission shall issue a report of its findings and recommendations to the Governor and the Legislature no later than nine months after the effective date of this act and shall accompany that report with any drafts of legislation that the commission desires to present for consideration.
7. This act shall take effect immediately and shall expire upon the issuance by the commission of its report to the Governor and the Legislature.
STATEMENT
This bill establishes a seven-member "Community Residential Services for People with Mental Retardation Study Commission."
The commission is directed to study the current and projected need for community residential services for people with mental retardation and, at a minimum, to develop a plan for eliminating by a date certain the waiting list among the two most urgent categories of need for out-of-home community residential placements as classified by the Division of Developmental Disabilities in the Department of Human Services. The plan shall include a specific schedule for its implementation and shall specify the source of funding and the kinds of residential settings to be utilized for this purpose. The plan shall also describe the steps to be taken to reduce the balance of the waiting list as classified by the Division of Developmental Disabilities.
The study commission shall report its findings and recommendations to the Governor and the Legislature no later than nine months after the effective date of this bill and shall dissolve upon the issuance of that report.
Establishes "Community Residential Services for People with Mental Retardation Study Commission."