In October 2013, Governor Edmund G. Brown signed Senate Bill 468, authored by Senators Bill Emmerson and Jim Beall and co-authored by Assembly Members Holly Mitchell and Wesley Chesbro, into law. This law, championed by remarkable and determined self-advocates, family members and advocacy organizations, established a statewide Self-Determination Program that adheres to the following principles to ensure those who participate have: Freedom – to exercise the same rights as all citizens; to establish, with freely chosen supporters, family and friends,…
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California’s state budget has been a hot topic for the disability community for the past decade. In 2009, disability services were dealt a huge blow when the state cut funding for regional centers to cover social and recreational services and put caps on respite services. In almost a decade of economic recovery, these services have not been restored despite hard lobbying by the disability community. However, this year’s budget has made some progress in allowing respite services to be restored…
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At the end of May 2017, the White House released its proposed budget for the federal government. While this budget is not likely to be implemented because Congress writes the final budget regardless what the White House wants, the White House proposed budget has historically been seen as highlighting what programs and policies President Donald Trump will prioritize while in office. The current proposal has come under fire from many sources from public bureaucracies to advocacy organizations, but FACT would like to share…
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In March 2017, Congress introduced its long-awaited plan to replace the Affordable Care Act with the American Health Care Act. Its introduction went under extensive analysis and was not well received to the point where it was pulled from a vote weeks after its introduction. In spite of its initial defeat, the White House and House Republicans have been working behind the scenes as early as April 3rd to revamp the bill to gain more votes in Congress. It is unclear what…
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In recent months, the 115th United States Congress has made repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) part of its agenda. The current Congress plans to repeal the act in stages through diminishing funding through the federal budget, then instructing various House and Senate committees during the budget resolution process and having them vote on it before the Full House and Senate branches vote. They currently say they will replace the ACA after repealing it but it is not certain what…
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ARCA Statement on AB 1715 – Advocacy Needed! On January 26, 2016, California State Assembly member Chris Holden (Pasadena) introduced AB 1715 to the Assembly. AB 1715 was created, in his words, “to protect autistic children, as well as others who can benefit from behavior analytic services, from those who falsely claim that they are qualified to practice behavior analysis.” This bill would require legal documentation of training and competence in applied behavioral analysis therapy (ABA) for practitioners and allow California…
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Video via NAMI.org One of the biggest concerns for people with disabilities is having and managing money. The costs of managing a disability are staggering and can prevent the disabled from working. While many disabled people rely on Social Security (particularly Supplemental Security Income/SSI or Social Security Disability SSI/SSDI) as a source of income, current policies prevent them from saving more than $2,000 in cash savings and more to qualify for these benefits. In practice, this forces the disabled to live below the poverty line…
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Linda Andron-Ostrow, Executive Director Dateline NBC, which usually only brings a story about murder, this month brought us a very sad story of families with young adults with autism in states with no services. It was a very sad piece to watch (Click here if you’d like to watch). The services that are available in states like New York are isolating and limited. For us in California, this Dateline special should invoked a gratitude practice. We are the only state…
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Ashley Greathead, MA, FACT Communications Consultant The history of cases of individuals with observed expressions analogous to ASD date back as far as 1806. At that time they were considered cases of insanity. The evolution of ASD (aka autism) began in 1943 – 1944 when two different researchers, Leo Kanner in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S. and Hans Asperger in Vienna, Austria separately described cases of children who presented symptoms similar to those of schizophrenia. Both researchers identified the symptoms as “autism”…
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Ashley Greathead, MA, FACT Communications Consultant Political views aside, in the U.S., we are fortunate to have a government that supports and protects the rights of individuals with disabilities. If you can believe it, those rights were only officially granted less than 50 years ago. We may not be entirely satisfied with all the legislations, and many times we have to go above & beyond to have our needs just even heard, let alone acted upon. There are many pieces…
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