Paid Family and Medical Leave – the Disability Angle

Recently, The Arc and the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality released a first of its kind paper, outlining why paid family and medical leave (PFML) is a necessity for the economic security and stability of people with disabilities and their families. The need for PFML is universal, and well documented. What’s been missing is the disability angle, and it’s huge – nearly 1 in 5 Americans and their families.
Meet Lauren, Steve, and Stephanie in a video featuring their family’s paid leave story, and read more stories profiling several workers whose paid leave stories highlight the disability perspective.
What can you do to get involved in this issue? Share your PFML story with us!

The Center for Future Planning Releases New Materials for People with Disabilities!

This week, The Arc’s Center for Future Planning released videos as well as easy-to-read and detailed information for people with disabilities.
These resources help people with disabilities learn about future planning.
They describe why future planning is important and how to make a future plan. They also help people learn how to build a career, find a next home, pay for the future, grow a social network, and build good relationships.
These materials also include stories and tips from other people with disabilities who have made successful future plans.
Questions? Contact Jennifer Sladen.

The Arc Mercer Introduces Special Needs Alliance for Pride (SNAP) 

This past June was LGBTQ Pride month in the U.S. In cities all across the country, members of the LGBTQ community celebrated their true selves by holding parades and other events, uniting the community in amazing ways. Yet, many LGBTQ individuals with I/DD, like Ray Truitt from New Jersey, still report feeling isolated from their peers. These experiences prompted him, along with the executive director of The Arc Mercer, to form a group called Special Needs Alliance for Pride (SNAP). Just last month, SNAP held its first official event, the Trenton Social. You can learn more and join in on the fun here.

Never Underestimate the Power of the Disability Community

In late July, the U.S. Senate failed to pass a dangerous bill that would have been devastating to people with disabilities and their families (read The Arc’s statement). At stake was access to health care for millions of people and massive cuts to Medicaid.
This victory is because of you! For months, disability rights activists have been calling their Members of Congress, sharing their stories, showing up to rallies and town hall events – and it made all the difference. The Arc is deeply grateful to each and every one of you for all your hard work to protect Medicaid.
While we celebrate this victory, we must continue our advocacy efforts. Did your Members of Congress vote to protect Medicaid, or vote for massive cuts? Either way, they need to hear from you.
In advocacy fights, volume matters. So please encourage your family and friends to join us. Ask them to go to thearc.org/joinourfight to sign up for email updates, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Health/Medicaid – Senate Forms Working Groups to Revise American Health Care Act

With the House passage of the American Health Care Act (AHCA), the bill is now being reviewed in the Senate. The Senate has formed a 13-member working group composed of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX), and Senators John Thune (R-SD), John Barrasso (R-WY), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Mike Enzi (R-WY), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Mike Lee (R-UT), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Cory Gardner (R-CO), Rob Portman (R-OH), and Pat Toomey (R-PA). Major areas of disagreement between Senate Republicans include the structure of tax credits, Medicaid per-capita caps, Medicaid expansion, essential health benefits, and pre-existing conditions. The Arc has released a fact sheet on the harmful impact of the AHCA on people with disabilities. The Congressional Budget Office is expected to provide cost information on the AHCA early in the week of May 22. 

Click here to watch the latest in The Arc’s series of videos on the critical importance of health care and Medicaid to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families. Please share with your networks.

Introducing The Arc@School Online Resource Center

Since its inception, The Arc has been on the forefront of special education advocacy. Many chapters of The Arc provide individual advocacy services for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). However, academic achievement and graduation rates of students with I/DD continue to lag far behind their peers without disabilities, making advocacy efforts more important than ever. To aid in this effort, The Arc@School launched an Online Resource Center in December 2016.
The Online Resource Center has several sections, including the “Know Your Rights” section, which provides information about special education laws and the rights of students and their families in special education. The site also has a best practices section describing special education advocacy throughout our chapter network, as well as a resource directory to help students and their families find advocates in their state. To learn more, visit our blog.

Medicaid Cuts Looming – What You Can Do Now to Stop It

Congress has begun the process of repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and it now is on the fast track to include drastic cuts to the Medicaid program as part of the replacement plan. The House of Representatives will start on legislation in the next few weeks.

People’s health, services, and lives are at stake! What can you do now?

  1. Join Our Advocacy Email List and Act. Sign up and take action today. Don’t let Congress take away health care and services for millions of people and replace it with a plan that cuts Medicaid. Share widely – Congress is starting this process next week!
  2. Attend Town Hall Meetings. Check out this great resource listing all scheduled town hall meetings across the country. If your Senators or Representative has one scheduled soon, attend and tell them what Medicaid and the ACA mean to you – tell them NO on cuts.

Celebrating Achievement!

As 2016 comes to a close, families and individuals with autism are reflecting on all they have accomplished this year.  The Arc is also looking back on all it has achieved through their chapters and members. We recently asked members to think about their own lives and answer what achievement means to them. Here are some of their responses:

  • #AchievementIs…inclusion, community, & education!
  • #AchievementIs…having a paid job
  • #AchievementIs…being my own person
  • #AchievementIs…working with everyone as a team!
  • #AchievementIs…owning a hair salon

Achievement means many things to different people. We hope you will take a moment to consider making a gift to make achievement possible for millions of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families this year.

The Arc Prince George’s County Hosts Tour of New Learning Lab

Lab class

For people with autism, assistive technology can be an avenue to independence. This past October, one chapter took a giant step in ensuring this vital resource is available to people on the spectrum for years to come. Thanks to the Comcast Foundation, The Arc Prince George’s County now has funding to create a Learning Lab, offering assistive technology (AT) training for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD).

Shortly after receiving the award, the organization hosted an open house on October 18. Attendees received a tour of the Comcast NBCUniversal Learning Lab, as well as listened to remarks from Jim Coleman, President and CEO of Prince George’s County Economic Development; Rob Malone, Executive Director of The Arc Prince George’s County; and Deborah Goins, Director of Employment Services for the Arc Prince George’s County. If you would like to learn more, please view this video.

Three ABLE Act Amendments Introduced

Building upon the ABLE Act of 2014, three amendments were introduced in the House and Senate in March 2016, and referred to the appropriate committees of jurisdiction. Unfortunately, they have not seen any legislative progress since that time. With time running out for Congress to act this year, we can’t be complacent — we must educate ourselves and others on their significance. Here is a brief summary of each:

  • The ABLE Age Adjustment Act would raise the age limit for eligibility to before age 46.
  • The ABLE Financial Planning Act would allow tax-free rollovers between a 529 college savings account and an ABLE account.
  • The ABLE to Work Act would allow individuals to exceed the annual contribution limit and save more money in an ABLE account if the individual earns income.