Gov. Rick Perry signed a bill into law Thursday enacting emergency reforms for state-supported living centers, which provide residential facilities for citizens with developmental and cognitive disabilities.
The bill passed through the state Senate with a 30-0 vote at the beginning of March. There are 13 living centers operated by the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services, including one in Austin. The catalyst for the bill came in 2005 when reports of abuse and neglect led to a federal investigation led by the U.S. Department of Justice. The investigation focused on the residents’ safety and access to education and health care, both mental and medical.
In December 2008, the Department of Justice released a report concluding that conditions in the state schools violated the federal and constitutional rights of the residents. There were “serious problems and deficiencies of care” in the centers, and 450 individual reports of abuse were found, according to the report. In 2007, there were 53 preventable deaths attributed to the centers’ substandard living conditions.
Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, filed the bill in early February, and it was designated as emergency legislation by the governor soon after.
“The state agency was no longer functioning as it should,” Perry said, referring to the reason the bill was designated as emergency legislation. “[Passing the bill] was critical to improve care for those [with disabilities] in the system.”
Major abuses surfaced and gave heft to the bill in March 2009, when the Corpus Christi State School was the center of a scandal involving caregivers encouraging the school’s disabled residents to engage in “Fight Club”-style brawls.
The Corpus Christi Police Department first discovered the abuses when it found videos of the fights on a cell phone that was turned over to police. School officials were unavailable to comment on the bill’s effect.
“I am sad and angry to learn of the abuse and neglect that occurred in many of the schools,” Nelson said. “[The bill] is going to improve lives of Texans with disabilities.”
The governor agreed with Nelson and vowed that the offenders involved with the abuse and neglect cases will be prosecuted to the fullest extent.
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