Education
The Maine Developmental Disabilities Council understands that the best educational system is one that is inclusive and accessible to all. Our projects in this area focus on that understanding and our concerns about how the promise of education for all is undermined by the systems as they work now.
Here are a few of our projects around improving education for people with developmental disabilities:
Education Advocacy
In addition to the advocacy around reducing restraint and seclusion and raising awareness about ideas of Inclusion described in the pages above, MDDC works to advocate for better educational outcomes for students with DD across the board.
In the last legislative session, Nancy Cronin testified against and helped defeat a bill that would have drastically reduced the time period that parents had to file for due process when they have had to move their child from a public school setting to a private setting (LD 464). She also testified against a bill that would have removed a parent’s ability to choose to delay their child’s entrance into kindergarten by one year and maintain their early childhood services – this bill was also defeated in committee (LD 632).
Reducing the Use of Restraint and Seclusion
The Maine Developmental Disabilities Council takes a strong stand against the use of restraint and seclusion in our schools, hospitals and group homes, and works with our ally organizations to raise awareness about the trauma that these interventions impose on our most vulnerable populations.
