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Mental Disability Law Blog

This blog exists to examine the intersection of mental health and the law in a variety of contexts.

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Last Entry: May 09, 2008 at 10:03:00

Proposed Revisions to Special Ed Law in Virginia

Posted on May 09, 2008
According to the Washington Post, Virginia is holding several public hearings on the proposed state plan to revise special education rules, including one at 6:30 p.m. next Thursday at Freedom High School in Loudoun County, and at 6:30 p.m. June 2 at Oakton High School in Fairfax County...

Samson Berhe Found Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity

Posted on May 08, 2008
According to the Seattle Times, Samson Berhe, “the man who fatally shot Newport High School tennis coach Mike Robb in 2005 was found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity Monday and sent to a mental hospital indefinitely.” Defense and prosecuting attorneys agreed to avoid a trial after three mental-health evaluators determined Berhe was insane [...

Class for Legal Professionals on Mental Illness in Ventura, CA

Posted on May 07, 2008
NAMI is sponsoring a course aimed at educating legal professionals on mental illness from the families’ perspective in Ventura, CA. The class begins this Friday. According to the Ventura County Star: The cost is $50 for private attorneys. Scholarships are available for county employees and those for whom the fee would be a hardship...

Preliminary Injunction Sought Against the Veterans Health Administration

Posted on May 06, 2008
According to Israel News, the Veterans Health Administration recently admitted that that the suicide rate among veterans is 18 per day. Not surprising, given the study released by the RAND Corporation last week stating that about 300,000 U.S. troops sent to combat in Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering from major depression or PTSD, and 320,000 [...

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Call To Action on IDEA Fairness Act (H.R. 4188) on May 6th

Posted on May 04, 2008
Wrightslaw has announced a Call to Action asking you to step up to the plate on Tuesday, May 6 by calling your Congressional Representatives (202-224-3121) and asking that they co-sponsor H.R. 4188, the IDEA Fairness Restoration Act (H.R. 4188). The IDEA Fairness Restoration Act will override the Supreme Court’s decision in Arlington Central School District v...

DoD Changes Security Clearance Question on Mental Health

Posted on May 01, 2008
Via the U.S. Department of Defense The Defense Department will change a question on its long-standing security clearance form referencing an applicant?s mental health history because officials believe it is needlessly preventing some people from seeking counseling...

NY School Districts Can No Longer Provide Special Ed Services To Homeschooled Students

Posted on April 24, 2008
Via Hodgson Russ, The SED recently informed school districts in New York that they are not authorized to provide special education services to homeschooled students. However, school districts still have some obligations to homeschooled students with disabilities: In accordance with its child find obligations, the Committee on Special Education (CSE) still must locate and evaluate?if [...

Involuntary Commitment of Activists in Psych Wards in Russia

Posted on April 13, 2008
The Moscow Times reports that opposition activist Roman Nikolaichik has been confined in a mental ward in Russia: Nikolaichik’s detention echoes similar cases over the past year that human rights organizations have criticized as a step toward Soviet-era repression tactics...

More on Mentally Ill Prisoners? Treatment in NY

Posted on February 06, 2008
New York Legal Update reports that Governor Spitzer has signed Bill No. S06422 (full text available here), explaining in part: Those inmates with serious mental illness who are not removed from segregated confinement will be offered a heightened level of care, including additional out-of-cell treatment and programming...

Lowering Standards for Involuntary Civil Commitment in Virginia

Posted on January 31, 2008
In further response to the Virginia Tech shootings. the state of Virginia is moving towards lowering the standards for involuntary civil commitment. According to the Washington Post: Under state law, people can be committed against their will only if they pose an “imminent danger to self or others...

Neighbors Notified of ?Forensic Patients?

Posted on January 25, 2008
The Oregon World has an article on an Oregon police chief who circulated notices to residents who lived near the Cedar Bay mental health community home in Oregon, informing them that the community home housed “forensic patients,” people found guilty of criminal acts who receive mental health care instead of jail time...

Proposed Law Seeks to Monitor Children?s Use of Psychotropic Medication

Posted on January 24, 2008
Sen. Karen Johnson, R-Mesa introduced a bill earlier this month to “require state health officials to report annually on the amount of psychotropic drugs to treat kids in publicly funded health programs,” according to the Arizona Daily Star...

HealthPass and NAMI-NYC Offer Information on Mental Health Resources

Posted on January 23, 2008
Via Marketwire: HealthPass, a New York City-based non-profit group, announced today a strategic relationship with the National Alliance on Mental Illness - NYC Metro (NAMI-NYC) that will give thousands of small businesses access to information on quality mental health resources, programs and benefits for their employees...

Mentally Ill Prisoners Boot the SHU

Posted on January 22, 2008
On January 15, 2008, the New York State Senate and Assembly passed a bill that mandates the removal of imprisoned people with serious psychiatric disabilities from 24-hour solitary confinement. Under the new law, these individuals will be moved into treatment-based secure facilities instead...

Minnesota Upholds Public Special Ed for Private School Students

Posted on January 09, 2008
From the Star Tribune, we learn that “special education students in nonpublic schools are entitled to services and instruction, even extended-year services, from public schools, the state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday in a case involving the Robbinsdale school district...

On Living with Chronic Depression, and Learning to Listen

Posted on January 02, 2008
This is not a legal issue, but I think it’s interesting and important for all of us to read nonetheless. Over at Blurbomat, Jon wrote a post called How I Do, where he talks about what it is like to be married to, live with, raise a child with, and love his wife Heather, who [...

Parents Defend School?s Use of Shock Therapy

Posted on December 28, 2007
From the New York Times, Parents Defend School?s Use of Shock Therapy - Nearly a year ago, New York made plans to ban the use of electric shocks as a punishment for bad behavior, a therapy used at a Massachusetts school where New York State had long sent some of its most challenging special [...

Tom F. - Should a First Bite at Failure be Required in Special Education?

Posted on November 07, 2007
Last month, the United States Supreme Court ruled for the parents of a disabled child in New York City Board of Education v. Tom F. (06-637). You can read the Court’s order, with a 4-4 split (Justice Kennedy recused himself) here (be warned, though, that it is completely without substance)...

Bazelon Action Alert: Comments Needed on Revised Medicaid Rules

Posted on September 20, 2007
The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law just issued an action alert, calling for people to send in comments speaking out against the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid’s new proposed regulations. The action alert includes full contact information, as well as sample letters and comments...

Federal Sex Offender Commitment Law Ruled Unconstitutional

Posted on September 17, 2007
Via Jurist: A federal law allowing prison officials to indefinitely commit sex offenders to a mental hospital following their prison term is unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled Wednesday, effectively freeing five convicted sex offenders pending the government’s filing of a motion to stay the order...

Burden Back on Schools in NY?s Special Education Hearings

Posted on August 18, 2007
The Daily Star reports that New York’s Governor has announced that a law signed this week makes the school district responsible for proving it is satisfying legal obligations to provide an appropriate individualized education program for a student with a disability...

Georgia?s Governor Orders State Mental Health Services Study

Posted on August 11, 2007
From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Perdue orders mental care study: Decision follows start of Justice Department investigation, reporting in part: “It is critical that we take a comprehensive look at Georgia’s delivery of services to citizens who live with mental illnesses and substance abuse,” Perdue said in a news release...

The Bazelon Center Mental Health Policy Reporter Volume VI, No. 4

Posted on August 08, 2007
The Bazelon Center Mental Health Policy Reporter Volume VI, No. 4 just came out, with subsections entitled: * Mental Health Parity Edges Closer * SCHIP Would Expand Children?s Healthcare * Support Needed for TANF Legislation * CLASS Act Would Pay for Long-Term Assistance [...

Court Reverses the Termination of Mentally Retarded Parents? Parental Rights

Posted on July 20, 2007
In a pleasantly surprising decision yesterday, New York’s Appellate Division, Third Department reversed a Family Court decision which terminated the parental rights of both of Natasha RR.’s parents. Matter of Natasha RR, 2007 NY Slip Op 6137 (3d Dept...