ADA Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against the State of Ohio

A proposed class action lawsuit has been filed against the state of Ohio, alleging that the state has failed to provide residents with developmental disabilities appropriate community-based services, thus violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

John Kasich, Governor of Ohio and Republican Presidential Candidate, is named as one of the defendants in the lawsuit, along with the Director of the Ohio Department of Disabilities, the Director of the Ohio Department of Medicaid, and the Director of Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities.

The lawsuit was filed by six individual plaintiffs with intellectual and developmental disabilities who currently are institutionalized or who are at risk of institutionalization in Intermediate Care Facilities for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities (ICF) in large facilities with eight or more beds.

The Ability Center of Greater Toledo is also a named plaintiff in the lawsuit stating that it’s an organization “that has suffered a specific economic injury as they result of the Defendants’ unlawful service system, and on behalf of its constituents who include people with intellectual and developmental disabilities currently institutionalized in large ICFs or at serious risk of institutionalization in these facilities.”

According to the lawsuit, these individuals plaintiffs “would prefer to reside in an integrated, community-based setting and receive integrated, community-based employment or day services.” These individuals are eligible for such services, the lawsuit claims, and could live, work and spend time in the community with proper individualized support, but are not being allowed such an opportunity.

“However, due to the Defendant’s administration, management, and funding of Ohio’s service system for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, they are experiencing pervasive and widespread segregation,” according to the claim.

Once adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities are placed in an institution like the intermediate care facility, it is very difficult for them to leave the facility to return to a home or community setting, the lawsuit claims.

According to the plaintiffs, individuals who reside in ICF have an average wait time of 13 years to receive services that will allow them to transition into a community setting. For those individuals who are “needlessly institutionalized in such ICFs or who are at risk for being institutionalized, they are isolated from the communities in which they live and have been denied the opportunity to interact with their non-disabled peers.”

The six individual plaintiffs are part of a proposed Class that would include about 27,800 adults who are similarly situated throughout the state.

The claims brought forth in the class action lawsuit include a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a violation of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and a violation of the Social Security Act’s “Free Choice” Provision.

The plaintiffs are seeking injunctive relief and to remedy the alleged ADA and Section 504 violations by way of expanding home and community-based services to avoid or prevent unnecessary institutionalization and to provide access to residential, employment and day services that would be integrated in the community.

They seek remedy of the alleged Social Security Act violation by having the defendants provide information to the proposed Class of plaintiffs to allow them to choose between institutional care and community-based services. The plaintiffs are also seeking attorneys’ fees and costs and other relief deemed necessary and proper.

Th plaintiffs are represented by Neil R. Ellis and Kristen E. Rau of Sidley Austin LLP, Cathy E. Costanzo, Kathyryn L. Rucker and Anna Krieger of Center for Public Representation and Samuel R. Bagenstos.

The Ohio ADA Violation Class Action Lawsuit is Phyllis Ball, et al. v. John Kasich, et al., Case No. 2:16-cv-282 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, Eastern Division.