Eve Hill with US Dept of Justice Civil Rights Division. Photo by Carolyn Cronin
Liz Burke, WPRO News
The Justice Department announced on Thursday morning that it has entered into an interim settlement agreement with the State of Rhode Island and the City of Providence that will resolve violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act for around 200 Rhode Islanders with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
The first-of-its-kind agreement comes after the department’s initial investigation into Training Through Placement. They found that around 90 workers there were not in the most integrated settings and that the students in the sheltered workshop at Birch were at serious risk of unnecessary placement at TTP following their exit from school.
“These people were robbed of years of productivity, learning and contributing to their communities,” said U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Eve Hill.
The TTP workers with disabilities make an average hourly wage of $1.57 per hour, with one individual making as little as 14 cents.
“The circumstances uncovered by the Department of Justice at the Birch Vocational Center are a disturbing case of oversight and system failures on multiple levels,” said Providence School Superintendent Susan Lussi.
The state has now stopped providing services or funding for new participants at TTP’s sheltered workshop and facility-based day program. The city has also stopped providing services or funding to Birch’s in-school sheltered workshop.
Over the next year the state and city will provide services and placement to all adults at TTP and youth in transition from Birch to help them find and get real jobs. Under the agreement, individuals will receive supported employment and integrated day services sufficient to support a 40-hour week, but with the expectation that they will work on average at least 20-hours a week.
