Lawmakers relaunch developmental disabilities caucus

A bipartisan, bicameral group of legislators is hoping to give the Legislature a renewed focus on the developmental disabilities community.

The Developmental Disabilities Legislative Caucus recently held its first meeting at the Childhood League Center in Columbus featuring a panel discussion with Department of Children & Youth Director Kara Wente and Department of Developmental Disabilities Medical Director Dr. Laura Sorg.

The caucus is led by Co-Chairs Rep. Crystal Lett, D-Columbus; Rep. Mike Odioso, R-Cincinnati; Sen. George Lang, R-West Chester; and Sen. Bill DeMora, D-Columbus.

Lett explained in an interview that the caucus existed in the past but has not met for about five years.

“We know this is a critical time for folks with developmental disabilities of all ages and we have to make sure they have the healthcare they need, the access to services they need and the housing they need — all the things it takes to thrive in society,” she said. “We want to make sure they have access and [we] are supporting these folks in a very intense and serious way.”

Odioso called reconvening the caucus a “foundational step.”

He said the group hopes to meet quarterly and described caucus meetings as a “forum for the entirety of the DD community to interact, ask questions, bring up problems, offer solutions and get real input directly to the legislative branch.”

“The key for me is we’re trying to represent the entirety of the [intellectual and developmental disabilities] community and their parents, and the entire I/DD community that functions on an entire range of least restrictive environments.”

DeMora said he hopes the caucus will bring more public light to challenges within the intellectual and developmental disabilities community.

“Hopefully a bipartisan caucus will bring awareness, so they get the money they need in the next budget, because it’ll be tight,” he said. “I think these are issues that are important to all Ohioans, and having a bipartisan caucus working on these issues is a positive step toward making policies that help the community.”

Both Odioso and Lett have lived experience in the area as parents of children with developmental disabilities.

They previously teamed up on proposals to address eligibility for the Medicaid Buy-In For Workers with Disabilities Program and the Ohio WorkAbility Program (HB 581) and DODD’s authority to adopt rules regarding the use of community capital assistance funds (HB 585).

They’ve also introduced a variety of related proposals separately, including Odioso’s plan to encourage local boards to establish advisory panels composed of self-advocates (HCR 44) and Lett’s plan to offer identifying symbols on ID cards for individuals with certain disabilities (HB 864).

“I’m a disability parent and I’m living these issues,” Lett said.” Everything we discuss for this community lands on my kitchen table, too, so we want to make sure we have a safe space for the DD community, a big tent where all folks can come and say, ‘This is what we need. This is what we’re seeing, and we could use more resources here or there.’

“The job for us as legislators is to support those needs as best we can,” she said.

Lett added that the caucus will be particularly important as the Legislature continues discussing fraud-prevention measures, including an omnibus bill discussed this week in the House Medicaid Committee (HB 795).

“I’m very insistent that we make sure that we aren’t disrupting or denying services for folks with disabilities and the services they rely on,” she said. “Home health services are crucial to the DD population being able to live independently with some supports in their communities, and while we certainly don’t want fraud, we must be so careful to make sure we are appropriately differentiating between fraud, waste and abuse and that we’re not seeing administrative errors being miscategorized as fraud.”