Today I am reaching out to talk to you about our efforts to empower people with disabilities to ensure that they can thrive as full members of the community. NCLEJ was proudly among the very first to apply disability rights law to the domain of public benefits, because we believe that no one should be left behind.

According to the Century Foundation, disabled people are twice as likely to live in poverty. Additionally, the US Census Bureau tells us that nearly half of the families receiving welfare assistance have a parent or child with a disability, a rate three times higher compared to those not receiving welfare.

People with disabilities are among the most vulnerable in our society. Their economic security, including access to food, water, healthcare, and basic income, is threatened when public benefits systems fail to provide adequate accommodations in violation of the ADA.

NCLEJ is fighting to create equitable access to public benefits for people with disabilities. Here are a few examples of our recent work:

• In R.H. v. Rawlings, NCLEJ and other co-counsel secured a 2019 federal court settlement requiring the State of Georgia to provide a uniform system of providing reasonable accommodations to persons with disabilities, to assist them in navigating complex public benefits compliance procedures, to allow them to access critically needed public benefits.
• In 2022, NCLEJ transformed every aspect of public benefits administration in Suffolk County, NY, so that disabled people now have an equal opportunity to receive and maintain public benefits.
• NCLEJ is challenging Louisiana’s failure to provide intensive home and community-based services to Medicaid-eligible youth with mental health or behavioral needs. NCLEJ partnered with the Southern Poverty Law Center, National Health Law Program, Disability Rights Louisiana, and O’Melveny & Myers LLP to fight to make sure youth with mental health needs get emergency mental health treatment and crisis intervention services.