<p>Of the 22 percent of the cases that look questionable, what is a realistic number that can be prevented?</p>
<p>Does anyone know how the ADA factors in here? I thought the whole purpose of the ADA was to keep people working, despite their disabilities. Aren’t employers required by law to provide appropriate accommodations to those who need it in order to do their jobs?</p>
<p>You can not accommodate someone who can not come to work because they are barely hanging on.</p>
<p>Yeah… I don’t get bay’s question.</p>
<p>Millions of people in this country can not work for a business. There really are disabled people out there.</p>
<p>Then there are people like my daughter. I really doubt she is going to make a business more profitable. She works 2 hours a week. She has asked for more hours and I don’t know if it is ever going to happen at this place of business. Because the owner of the business is really doing a community service by hiring her at all. And there are millions of people like my daughter that can work, but the businesses that hire will lose money. Millions of people with disabilites like my daughter exist in the United States.</p>
<p>Employers have to provide “reasonable” accommodations. For example, if an essential part of a trucking job is to lift heavy objects, there is no reasonable accommodation that can be done for someone who can’t life more than 10 pounds. Many employers provide job descriptions today with boiler plate language stating the essential requirements of the job. The job description can be used later as evidence if an employee brings an ADA claim.</p>
<p>i have a friend whose S has Down’s Snydrome. He is a wonderful young man but sometimes challenging to understand. He worked a few hours at Ross for several months to years. Now he is working at the cafe of the U where his mom is a prof. He has good work ethic and is happy to be around young adults. His mom is doing all she can to create a group home where people like him who need some assistance but are also somewhat independent can live together with some house parents. Her goal is to have it in place in the year after she retires. She has purchased the building and networking in the community extensively, as well as studying all the regulations. It is not easy for these families.</p>
<p>I’m sure there are other options than having attorneys represent these people and getting them disability and payments, as well as ways of having the government represented at some of these hearings.</p>
<p>I believe many positions have a 3-6 month “probation” period where you can be let go without any reason. This is when many get let go if they can’t stand for 8 hours/day, lift 10-50 pound loads, converse with customers or a host of other things that make them not a great fit for the job.</p>
<p>Some folks hire a token or more to show “community-spiritedness” and perhaps try to get good press for it, but to run a business as a business, there always has to be a cost-benefit analysis. Perhaps hiring disabled people who COULD work with significant accommodations could be like work-study, where their salary can be partly subsidized by the government for a certain number of months/years?</p>
<p>There are ways of improving the system, but to do so, one must understand it more than just looking at a few counties and detailing stories of some of the abuses.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>dstark, </p>
<p>Here is information about the ADA, for your information.[ADA</a> - Your Employment Rights as an Individual With a Disability](<a href=“http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/ada18.html]ADA”>Your Employment Rights as an Individual with a Disability | U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission)</p>
<p>There are 700000 people a year that go thru the court system and 300 were sampled from 3 counties. </p>
<p>My daughter does not have Down Syndrome. She has a low iq. Stores like Safeway hire people like my daughter. CVS does too. There are others. My daughter is not shy. She asked a manager of a store for a job. He said to get back to her after Easter. He has a few disabled people working at the store but I don’t think he is too excited about adding another.</p>
<p>Bay, thanks. Do you understand? Millions and millions of people are not qualified to hold jobs so your link doesn’t hold.</p>
<p>Entitlement is a state of mind. Where does it originate? How is it perpetuated?</p>
<p>As a public school employee, I am often asked to fill out papers for parents of elementary students to apply for SSI on the students’ behalf. There are questions about special needs and the services the students receive. Many of them have no special services and are succeeding in school. I usually do not know of the outcome of the application. I am sometimes concerned that parents’ perception that their child has a significant disability will become a self-fulfilling prophesy.</p>
<p>Lawyers, please feel free to elaborate or clarify the following:</p>
<p>Recently, Congress has expanded the parameters of section 504 of the Americans with Disabilities Act --ADA. *
Schools are obligated to give 504 status to any child with a diagnosed or perceived/observed health condition. The intent of 504 has been to remove barriers to education. While section 504 has provided necessary accommodations for children with physical disabilities–wheel chair ramps, books on tape, interpreters, adaptive equipment of various kinds–it has more recently been sought by parents who wish to have additional help for children who have anxiety and/or ADHD. Sure kids need support with issues such as organizing materials and being reminded to complete tasks. That is good teaching. But does this always mean they are disabled?</p>
<p>While I believe many of these kids need extra support, it may be misguided to consider them “disabled.” I predict that the recent increase in identification of students with 504 plans will lead to a further sense of entitlement to special accommodations.
Which will lead to an increased sense of entitlement to receive government monies when one’s employment situation is less than ideal.</p>
<p>In the interest of full disclosure: I administer and case manage the 504 plans in two public elementary schools.</p>
<p>I expect some will disagree with my prediction.</p>
<p>*504 is the act which sphysical access to a court house or other public building for a person in a wheelchair.</p>
<p>Merlin, do you work in a poor area? Are the parents poor?</p>
<p>Entitlement is a state of mind. Where does it originate? How is it perpetuated?</p>
<p>As a public school employee, I am often asked to fill out papers for parents of elementary students to apply for SSI on the students’ behalf. There are questions about special needs and the services the students receive. Many of them have no special services and are succeeding in school. I usually do not know of the outcome of the application. I am sometimes concerned that parents’ perception that their child has a significant disability will become a self-fulfilling prophesy.</p>
<p>Lawyers, please feel free to elaborate or clarify the following:</p>
<p>Recently, Congress has expanded the parameters of section 504 of the Americans with Disabilities Act --ADA. *
Schools are obligated to give 504 status to any child with a diagnosed or perceived/observed health condition. The intent of 504 has been to remove barriers to education. While section 504 has provided necessary accommodations for children with physical disabilities–wheel chair ramps, books on tape, interpreters, adaptive equipment of various kinds–it has more recently been sought by parents who wish to have additional help for children who have anxiety and/or ADHD. Sure kids need support with issues such as organizing materials and being reminded to complete tasks. That is good teaching. But does this always mean they are disabled?</p>
<p>While I believe many of these kids need extra support, it may be misguided to consider them “disabled.” I predict that the recent increase in identification of students with 504 plans will lead to a further sense of entitlement to special accommodations.
Which will lead to an increased sense of entitlement to receive government monies when one’s employment situation is less than ideal.</p>
<p>In the interest of full disclosure: I administer and case manage the 504 plans in two public elementary schools.</p>
<p>I expect some will disagree with my prediction.</p>
<p>*504 is the act which was created to ensure physical access to a court house or other public building for a person in a wheelchair.</p>
<p>In interests of full disclosure, I was a part time special Ed hearing officer for 4 years. It was generally very depressing. Kids, families, teachers and schools without enough resources all pointing fingers at one another as to how the special needs kids were in such a bad situation and really limited and not great options. </p>
<p>When kids graduate without rudimentary reading and math skills and the clock is ticking because after age 18 public schools generally don’t have further obligations, the young person is basically left to fend for himself. </p>
<p>I heard of a case where the family sued the school because the teen would fall asleep on the bus and miss his stop. The family said it was the school’s fault for not teaching him this essential transition skill of not falling asleep and missing his stop!</p>
<p>I heard of another case where the mom just wanted some reprieve from her highly dependent bright but severely brain damaged son. She filed and won a case vs the school so our state had to send her S away to an expensive private boarding school for lots of $$$$. One teacher asked her why and asked whether it would really make a difference for the S and his learning. In candor, she said it would be his chance for a free sleep away school and her reprieve. She knew he’ll never be independent or significantly improve. </p>
<p>Just throwing these examples out, to show some of the range of issues out there in special needs kids. One thing I found shocking was that once kids in HI reach the age of 16 (I think), you can’t hold them against their will, even if they are mentally ill, prostituting themselves or are running away from school and the cops won’t hunt them down if they run away, even with pimps and known drug dealers.</p>
<p>One solution sought by some families was sending their kid to a boarding school in Utah with strict attendance, where kids would be hunted down and brought back. Of course they wanted the state to pay for having failed their kids.</p>
<p>The way I understand it, I am disabled but dont have enough recent work history to qualify for SSI.
I worked before I was married and when my oldest was young, then I needed to parent full time because of my husbands work schedule.( we did not have money for/or aid with child care & we had high need kids) I volunteered a great deal in the community, occasionally also taking on short term & part time paid work, trying to build up my resume. </p>
<p>A few years ago I entered a program at a local college with hopes to reenter the workforce, unfortunately short of completion, I developed severe osteoarthritis & fibromyalgia that compromised my ability to continue the program or work anything but very part time in the field.
Excruciating and frustrating.:(</p>
<p>In order to recieve benefits, I would have had to have worked for half of the previous ten years. However, I was raising my kids & actively volunteering in the community as well as trying to complete my education during that time. What a leech! ;)</p>
<p>I don’t doubt that there are some collecting SSI who are trainable for some sort of position.
I would prefer to be working, unfortunately I would need something that was very flexible because high energy output for a day or two, wipes me out for a week.
That doesn’t go over very well for the less skilled jobs. The less skill required, the more demands it makes on your body.</p>
<p>By the numbers, my lungs are bad enough that I could qualify medically for disability. Only recently have I worked enough SS quarters where I could qualify because when I worked 17 hrs/wk for the state they didn’t contribute ANYTHING to my SS or pay ANY benefits. </p>
<p>My docs are unanimous that for now, I am defying the odds and not disabled, especially because I have specialized skills that allow me to work from my home and lots of flexibility. I suspect I would be disabled a while ago without that combo.</p>
<p>Emeraldkity4- hugs to you. “The less skill required, the more demands it makes on your body”, exactly. Disabled people that have high demand skills that are allow flexibility such as telecommuting have a better chance than those without, like my 23 yr old disabled DD.
DD would be fortunate to land a job at CVS part time. She receives SSI that supplements her very low income. She has no assets.</p>
<p>E4, are you referring to qualifying for SSDI? I don’t think there is a work requirement for SSI although SSI requires assets less than $2000.
Wishing you better health in the future. Hope that is possible for you.</p>
<p>Emeraldkity4, it is obnoxious for somebody to be told it is easy to get disability payments when it isn’t easy. </p>
<p>Hang in there. </p>
<p>When I watch people that volunteer and help out people with disabilities or special needs
I feel very good. To see these altruistic people spend their time helping, it is awesome to see people like this.</p>
<p>Reading some of the posts over the years from people that judge when they don’t know…is beyond annoying. The lack of intelligence or empathy in their posts…well it is kind of ironic considering the subject manner. :)</p>
<p>the thing that really bugs me about what you are saying EK is that it is the exact same people who want to say that nothing is more important than having and raising kids who want to cut the programs and put up barriers to benefits for mothers who raised their children.</p>
<p>It gets tiresome.</p>
<p>I really don’t see why rational controls and not hostile controls can’t be put in place. Putting the claimant and the administrator in adversarial positions seems counterproductive, to me. Cooperation AND oversight.</p>
<p>Merlin: I always find it hillarious when state paid employees complain about other people’s entitlement “attitudes.” I’d like to see how you would react to them taking away your pension. Sheesh.</p>
<p>I have no dog in this fight, except the question about what matters to us collectively. People matter.</p>
<p>Himom and psych and musicmom, I just want to thank you for your posts.</p>
<p>I’m confused by this assets limit mentioned ($2000). My sister is on SSI for mental illness. She owns her house (mortgage is smaller than any rent she’d find.) Are houses exempt?</p>