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CONTENTS SILC Introduces New Executive Director DADS Awards Relocation Contracts to Texas CILS CALL TO ACTION SILC Briefs SILC Member Recognized By Alma Mata Pilot Relocation Project Becomes Permanent Judge Determines That Blind Are Being “Short Changed” By Treasury HHSC announces partial cancellation of IEES/Accenture project STAR+PLUS On Hold

SILC MEMBERS OFFICERS Paula Margeson, Chair Morgan Talbot, Vice-Chair Kristen Jones, Secretary MEMBERS Dennis Borel Michelle Crain Sue Ford Robert Hawkins Marcia Ingram Donald Landry Tracey Michol Scotty Sherrill EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS Glenda Embree, DBS Larry Gardner, DRS Marc Gold, DADS ADMINISTRATION Regina Blye, Executive Director

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The contents of the SILC Spiel newsletter were developed in part under grants from the Dept. of Education (DOE) and the Department for Assistive and Rehabilitative Services (DARS). However, these contents do not necessarily represent the policy of DOE or DARS and you should not assume endorsement by Local, State or Federal Government.

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SILC Introduces New
Executive Director

Regina Blye, Texas SILC Executive Director

Following a national recruitment, the State Independent Living Council was pleased to hire Regina Blye as the organization’s new Executive

Director, a young woman with a significant disability. Regina has both a personal and a professional commitment to the Independent Living philosophy and approach. She has served on the Board of Directors and been a member of the staff of LIFE/RUN CIL in Lubbock. Ms. Blye attended West Texas A&M University, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mass Communications. She has been a news producer and an on-air personality for both radio and television, and is an experienced special events coordinator and fundraiser. Most importantly, she is a willing and effective advocate for the rights of people with disabilities. In 2001, the city of Amarillo honored Regina with the “Achievement in Independent Living” Award; in 2002, the Texas Governor's Committee on People with Disabilities recognized her as “Media Professional with a Disability” through the distinguished Barbara Jordan Media Award, and in 2003, she served as Miss Wheelchair Texas for the year. Regina became a C6-C7 quadriplegic as a result of an intentional rifle shot to the neck when she was ten years old. Of this experience, she writes: “In 1987, a childhood slumber party changed my life forever; it was as if the old me died and a new stronger person was born.” This resolve was certainly evident on Regina’s first day of work when she was side-swiped by an eighteen wheeler, totaling her van and her wheelchair. Despite such a setback, she “hit the ground rolling” and plunged into council activities. The SILC is looking forward to the role that Regina Blye will play in helping to advance the Independent Living Movement in Texas.

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DADS Awards Relocation Contracts
to Texas CILS

The SILC would like to congratulate Texas CILs on their successful relocation proposals to the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services (DADS). This past December, ARCIL, LIFE/RUN, VAIL, and HCIL accepted contracts from DADS to provide relocation services throughout the State. These CILs partnered with Volar, HOCTIL, ETCIL, CRCIL, RISE, ABLE, PILC, and COIL in an effort to ensure an optimal number of Texans with disabilities the opportunity to transition into community-based living from long-term care facilities.

Though CILs have always provided relocation services, a lack of funding from existing grantors has made it difficult to provide the full range of services that the DADS’ relocation contracts have enabled many of the Centers to deliver. Under these contracts, Texas CILs have transitions over 600 individuals from nursing homes into the community. Though the highly anticipated Reauthorization of the Rehabilitation Act will establish transition services from long-term care facilities into community settings as a 5th core service, additional funding is not expected.

The SILC commends DADS on its continued support of Texas CILs and its positive response to previous recommendations for increased funding and additional contracts for relocation services. The collaboration between DADS, Texas CILs, and other community stakeholders will further advance our State’s success with Money Follows the Person and serve as a paradigm for other states. Way to go, Texas!

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CALL TO ACTION

Participants in, and supporters of, independent living in Texas should aggressively work to educate their legislators regarding the importance of approving the Exceptional Items in the Legislative Appropriation Request submitted by the Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services, (DARS). Inform lawmakers of these crucial issues:

Vocational Rehabilitation, (VR), programs rehabilitate Texans who are disabled and help them find employment. Every state $1 draws down nearly $4 in federal funds.

There is a dollar-for-dollar Maintenance of Effort (MOE) penalty if Texas fails to provide at least the same level of non-federal funding in the current year as it did two years prior.

• Needed Action: restore mandated cut in state VR funding.

Comprehensive Rehabilitation Services, (CRS), provides assistance to people with spinal cord and/or traumatic brain injuries Leading to less institutionalization and cost avoidance in areas such as Medicaid, nursing homes, county indigent health programs and correctional institutions. Funding for CRS is generated through surcharges and fees on felony and misdemeanor convictions.

• Needed Action: Restore mandated cut so that the waiting list for comprehensive rehabilitation services does not increase.

Blindness, Education, Screening, Treatment, (BEST), assists uninsured, visually-impaired adults by paying for urgently needed medical treatment to prevent blindness, and is funded solely through voluntary Driver License renewal donations. Other programs compete for these funds.

• Needed Action: Restore mandated cut so that at-risk Texans do not loose a part or all of their vision unnecessarily.

Independent Living Centers, (ILC’s), are nonprofit organizations operated by, for, and with persons, who are disabled. Centers offer an array of services designed to aid consumers to fully integrate into the community and to lead self-directed lives. A network of forty ILC’s is needed for a state as large as Texas, yet only twenty-one such organizations are currently available. Furthermore, almost half of the existing centers do not have the base funding essential for the provision of core services. With the rapidly aging population and the rising occurrence of disability, experts estimate that the need for independent living services will increase seven percent in Texas between 2005 and 2009.

• Needed Action: Approve funding for the establishment of two additional ILC’s in unserved areas of the state and to bring all of the existing centers to the required funding base of $250,000.

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SILC Briefs

SILC Member Recognized By Alma Mata
Dennis Borel received the 2006 James Neubacher Award from the University of Michigan at a ceremony in Ann Arbor on October 27, 2006. The University’s Council for Disability Concerns established the Award in 1990 as a memorial to the alumnus, who was a columnist for The Detroit Free Press and an advocate for equal rights and opportunities for people with disabilities. Dennis, a 1974 Michigan University graduate, has headed the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities since 2000 and has served on the SILC since 2001. A worthy recipient of the James Neubacher Award he is an outstanding humanitarian, who has done much to advance the quality of life for individuals, who are disabled.

Pilot Relocation Project Becomes Permanent
The relocation program, Institution to Community Coordination ICC) at Division for Rehabilitation Services (DRS) was launched on December 1, 2006. Initially piloted in the Dallas area, the ongoing program will be implemented statewide. Similar to the relocation program administered by DADS, (Department of Aging and Disability Services), The ICC differs in the following manner:

• Contractors are required to reached specified benchmarks prior to receiving payment for services rendered, while the DADS program reimburses expenses; and,

• Consumers must be determined eligible for services by a DRS counselor prior to the provision of relocation assistance and have an ultimate goal of employment.

Judge Determines That Blind Are Being “Short Changed” By Treasury
In a recent ruling, U.S. District Judge James Robertson declared that the government discriminates against blind people by printing money that all looks and feels the same. Of the more than 180 countries that issue paper currency, only the United States prints bills that are identical in size and color in all their Denominations. Judge Robertson found the government in violation of the Rehabilitation Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in government programs, and ordered the Treasury Department to initiate methods that will enable citizens, who are blind, to tell bills apart. The opinion came after a four-year legal fight. Techniques currently being used by other countries include printing bills of differing sizes, adding embossed dots or foil to the paper or using raised ink. Judge Robertson noted that the present use of these features suggests that such accommodations are reasonable. The Bush administration is appealing this ruling.

HHSC announces partial cancellation of IEES/Accenture project
The Health and Human Services Commission, (HSSC), announced a new strategy for the call center experiment. HHSC has Dropped most plans for Accenture to do eligibility work. The commission announced a "rebalanced model" in which Accenture will scan the case documents into the system, run data-broker checks, and report the information to state staff, who will proceed with the case. Nine hundred Texas Works positions that are currently considered temporary will be converted to regular full-time positions. The contract with Accenture will be reduced $356 million and in 2008 instead of 2010. No further roll-out with Accenture will be implemented. The pilot in Travis, Hays, and Williamson counties will be resumed "after a rigorous readiness review and "with a more limited role for the vendor".

STAR+PLUS On Hold
The expansion of STAR+PLUS scheduled for January 1 of this year has been delayed until February. STAR+PLUS is a managed health care system, which provides acute medical care and long-term services and supports for Medicaid beneficiaries. Originally in Harris County, the system is slated to become operable in the counties of Bastrop, Burnet, Caldwell, Hays, Lee, Travis, Williamson, Brazoria, Fort Bend, Galveston, Montgomery, Waller, Atascosa, Bexar, Comal, Guadalupe, Kendall, Medina, Wilson, Nueces, Aransas, Bee, Calhoun, Jim Wells, Kleberg, Refugio, San Patricio, and Victoria. There will be no interruption in the STAR+PLUS program currently available in Harris County. All eligible clients, except those who receive community-based alternative waiver (CBA) services, have until Feb. 8 to choose a STAR+PLUS health plan. Clients who do not make such a selection by the due date will be assigned a health plan, effective March 1. Participants in the CBA waiver program had until January 17 to choose a STAR+PLUS health plan. All clients who have selected a plan will be enrolled in that plan when the program becomes operational. Until this time, clients will continue to receive their Medicaid services as they do now.

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