NLA Info:Discrimination against Learning-impaired TANF Recipients

[David J Rosen]

NLA Colleagues,

Earlier this year a Boston Globe article reported that the Massachusetts
Department of Transition Assistance (DTA), the state TANF agency, was
found by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil
Rights to have violated the rights of two of its learning disabled
clients. See January 23, 2001 NLA Message archived at 
http://www.nifl.gov/nifl-nla/2001/0066.html

I have been given a copy of a January 19, 2001 letter to the DTA  which
details the ways in which the DTA discriminated against these and other
"similarly situated persons with learning disabilities by denying these
persons an opportunity to participate in DTA's Employment Services Program
(ESP)."  The Employment Services Program is intended to provide clients
with basic and secondary education, supported work, job search or job
skills training.

I am going to quote extensively from this letter because I believe it
illuminates the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' expectations
of how state transition employment (welfare) agencies are expected to
treat clients who have -- or may have -- learning disabilities.  I believe
this information may be useful to adult literacy advocates in other
states. I would welcome reports to the NLA list from those whose states
are addressing these issues well.

Appended to the letter is a July, 1998 National Governors Association
online report, "Serving Welfare Recipients with learning Disabilities in a
Work First Environment," which lays out how states can "serve their more
challenged recipients in a welfare environment that stresses work
first."  (For more information about this report and how to obtain it,
contact Rebecca Brown 202/624-5367 or Evelyn Ganzglass, 202/624-5394,
Employment and Social Services Policy Studies Division, National Governors
Association. I was not able to find it online on the NGA Web site.)

The two pieces of regulatory language relevant to the investigation cited
in the letter were:

 	"HHS' implementing regulations regarding Section 504 of the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 45 C.F.R. 84.4(a) and (b), state, in relevant
part:

(a) No qualified disabled person shall, on the basis of disability, be
excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or otherwise be
subject to discrimination under any program or activity which receives or
benefits from Federal financial assistance."  The language continues to
detail the kinds of discriminatory actions which are prohibited.

	The Department of Justice's implementing regulations regarding the
application of the ADA to programs of State and local government, 28
C.F.R. 35.130."  This section details the ways in which clients may not be
excluded or discriminated against.

The investigation found three kinds of violations:

1. "Denial of equal opportunity to learning disabled individuals to
participate in or benefit from TAFDC program:" (Transition Aid to Families
with Dependent Children.)  This refers in large part to "inadequacies in
the TAFDC assessment process and from DTA's failure to identify the
obstacles to employment that confront individuals with learning
disabilities and what individuals with learning disabilities need in order
to have an equal opportunity to participate in the TAFDC program."  The
investigation found that "Neither DTA nor its contractors or vendors
conduct any screening or assessment to determine whether TAFDC
beneficiaries have learning disabilities, or to determine whether these
disabilities would hinder their ability to benefit from TAFDC education,
job skills or employment programs.".....

"Moreover, DTA has made no effort to determine the number of individuals
with learning disabilities who receive TAFDC benefits, even though studies
in other states have indicated that approximately 25% to 40% of TANF
beneficiaries have learning disabilities."

2. "Using criteria or methods of administration that have the effect of
subjecting qualified individuals with learning disabilities to
discrimination on the basis of disability"

The letter  states that "The disability-based discrimination... is a
result of the fact that DTA provides little, if any, training or technical
assistance to DTA employees or to DTA contractors or vendors, regarding
learning disabilities among the TAFDC population. DTA does not train its
employees to identify or assess whether TAFDC beneficiaries may have
learning disabilities 23/, to refer TAFDC beneficiaries with learning
disabilities to appropriate services 24/, to make modifications in
programs, policies or practices to provide disabled individuals with
auxiliary aids or to otherwise accommodate these individuals' needs."

3. "Failure to make reasonable modifications necessary to avoid
discrimination on the basis of disability in the TAFDC program"

The letter states that the investigators found that "DTA, its
contractors and vendors take few steps to modify policies, practices or
procedures in order to ensure that TAFDC beneficiaries with learning
disabilities who score below the fourth grade level on the TABE test have
an equal opportunity to participate in or benefit from the TAFDC program."

In the concluding section the letter states "In addition, through this
investigation, and through other civil rights enforcement activities, OCR
has become aware that numerous other States have recognized the need to
provide TANF beneficiaries with learning disabilities with equal access to
TANF programs through reasonable program modifications.  Several states
have incorporated the screening and assessment of and the provision of
appropriate services to individuals with learning disabilities into their
TANF programs.37/"  A footnote to this section cites the National
Governors Association online report mentioned above.

I would be interested to learn about model practices in other states which
assist learning disabled TANF clients and which our DTA in Massachusetts
-- and other states --  might emulate.

David J. Rosen
<DJRosen at world.std.com>



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