The state is violating the federal Americans with Disabilities Act by parking children with disabilities in nursing homes for years, according to a letter the U.S. Department of Justice sent to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi this week.
DOJ investigated the cases of 200 medically fragile children in facilities in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Tampa and St. Petersburg, concluding that the children are kept in the homes unnecessarily – often far from their loved ones – while the state pays more than $500 a day per child. That’s more than double the rate the state pays for seniors and other adults.
One 10-year¬old “sustained a near-drowning accident at the age of six and was discharged from the hospital to a nursing facility, where she has remained ever since,” wrote Assistant U.S. Attorney General Thomas E. Perez to Bondi.
“Her mother lives hundreds of miles away from the facility, but tries to visit her daughter as often as she can. She told us, ‘if I had the resources to take care of my [child], you can be … sure [my child] would be living with me right now.'”
DOJ says that the state is isolating the children in facilities where the average length of stay is three years and educational opportunities are limited to as little as 45 minutes a day.
Perez wrote that the children have few interactions with their families, friends and peers, and are frequently deprived of activities “critical to child development.” Investigators found that many of the children would benefit from living with their families or in other community settings.
