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A federal investigation into whether East Orange, N.J., schools placed students with disabilities in segregated classrooms is now closed with a pledge from the district to change the way it decides where these students attend school. The U.S. Department of Education's office for civil rights said today that it found that during the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years, more than 60 percent of students with disabilities in East Orange were in self-contained classrooms. Many of the students had been diagnosed as having learning disabilities. The agency found that the district didn't always consider whether these students could be successful in an integrated classroom with the right supports. The New Jersey Department of Education's goal is that about 44 percent of students with disabilities spend most of their school days with students who don't have disabilities.

Photojournalist Dan Habib didn't give much thought to disability — until his son Samuel was born with cerebral palsy. In this emotional talk, the disability-rights advocate explains his family's fight to ensure an inclusive education for Samuel, and how inclusion benefits not just Samuel and those who are included, but all of us.

The report from the National Disability Rights Network paints a glum picture of the jobs held by many Americans with disabilities that pay less than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. In it, the authors charge that the segregated environments people with disabilities often work in are akin to institutions by “warehousing” people, limiting their opportunities and putting them in danger of abuse and neglect, all while providing financial gain for employers, some of whom earn six-figure salaries.

More than 30 years after passage of the Individuals With Disabilities

Education Act, schools are still working on including students with disabilities in all facets of public school. And in many places, they remain segregated for at least part of the day, says Wayne Sailor. "This has been a major uphill battle," Mr. Sailor, a professor of special education at the University of Kansas, told a group gathered in Arlington, Va., this week during a conference hosted by the U.S. Department of Education's office of special education programs.

The Obama administration is coming out in support of a group of adults with developmental disabilities who say they’re being relegated to sheltered workshops even though they’re capable of working in the community. Attorneys for the U.S. Department of Justice filed a statement of interest in late April in a class action lawsuit pitting some 2,300 people with developmental disabilities against the state of Oregon. In the suit filed in federal court in January, residents with disabilities alleged that the state is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to provide supported employment services, which allow people with disabilities to work in the community. Now, the Justice Department is weighing in saying that limiting people with disabilities to sheltered workshops is no different than segregating them in institutions.

In 2009, the Civil Rights Division launched an aggressive effort to enforce the Supreme Court's decision in Olmstead v. L.C., a ruling that requires states to eliminate unnecessary segregation of persons with disabilities and to ensure that persons with disabilities receive services in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs. President Obama issued a proclamation launching the "Year of Community Living," and has directed the Administration to redouble enforcement efforts. The Division has responded by working with state and local governments officials, disability rights groups and attorneys around the country, and with representatives of the Department of Health and Human Services, to fashion an effective, nationwide program to enforce the integration mandate of the Department's regulation implementing title II of the ADA.

Our consortium was created to provide information to adults with autism, their families, academics, professionals, legislators, policy makers and others and as a portal to link to our member’s sites and other relevant resources. We want to educate people about the common characteristics and differences in agricultural communities in the United States. Our website also exists to dispel the incorrect notion that agricultural communities are institutional, segregated congregate care models when, in fact, our members, residents, and day program participants are strongly woven into the fabric of their respective communities. We are non-urban, low density community based integrated models.