2024 State Legislative Priorities

Each year, Disability Rights Florida engages in legislative education and advocacy. In the process, we strive to cover a broad range of issues important to people with disabilities in our state. Disability Rights Florida is focusing on the following priorities for the 2024 legislative session: 

Autonomy, Self-Determination, and Rights Protection 

People with disabilities are entitled to the same liberties as their non-disabled counterparts. This includes, but is not limited to, the right to make their own choices about how they live their lives and how they interact with their communities. Therefore, preserving the autonomy and rights of people with disabilities – including through acknowledgement of their voices, chosen or preferred language, and lived experiences – should be a preeminent focus during legislative deliberations. Additionally:  

  • The state should codify Supported Decision-Making (SDM) as a less-restrictive alternative to guardianship. SDM helps people maintain their rights and preserve their autonomy. 
  • Any reforms to Florida’s guardianship systems should aim to protect people from being placed in unnecessary guardianships; preserve as many rights as possible for those placed in guardianship; create and strengthen pathways for those under guardianship to utilize less-restrictive alternatives, as appropriate; and hold people who abuse these systems accountable. 
  • Laws should be crafted to protect the rights of people with disabilities to make their own choices about whether and when to have children, as well as how to parent.  
  • Voting laws should ensure people with disabilities can participate in all facets of civic and voting processes easily, privately, and independently. 

Affordable, Accessible, and High-Quality Health Care

All people deserve access to health care. However, people with disabilities face additional barriers when accessing care. To ensure affordable, accessible, and high-quality healthcare for people with disabilities: 

  • The state should strengthen its Medicaid program through implementation of a Buy-in option to allow people with disabilities to take advantage of employment opportunities without fear of losing necessary medical services not covered by private insurance. In turn, this would reduce reliance on public benefits and allow those with disabilities to contribute to their healthcare and living costs, while also reducing or removing burdensome income limits which at present contribute to the high rates of poverty experienced by the disability community.   
  • Efforts should be made to eliminate discrimination in health care to ensure that people are not denied care based on disability status, or through operation of other implicit biases including perceptions about the quality of life of persons with disabilities. Rather, the provision of equitable, comprehensive, quality care that is responsive to the needs of all Floridians should be prioritized and pursued. 

Community Integration 

People with disabilities have the right to receive the services and support they need in their own community. They should not have to be institutionalized to receive services. To ensure this right is protected, the state should:  

  • Fully fund home and community-based services (HCBS) and reduce reliance on institutional settings for meeting the service needs of Floridians with disabilities. The state’s comprehensive and expedient implementation of CMS’s 2014 HCBS Settings Rule is essential to this goal. 
  • Ensure that Florida’s HCBS waiver programs meet the needs of disabled Floridians through appropriate, timely, quality service provision that maximizes opportunity and self-determination. Any transition of the state’s Medicaid developmental disabilities waiver from a fee-for-service structure to a managed care reimbursement model must be undertaken in conjunction with the collection and meaningful consideration of data and input from persons with disabilities accessing these services and supports across a range of sectors and geographic locales in the state. 
  • Pursue efforts to address the state’s affordable housing crisis that are architecturally accessible and available to people with disabilities, including individuals seeking supportive housing options. 
  • Increase opportunities for competitive, integrated employment and end subminimum wage for people with disabilities. 
  • Improve transportation systems to ensure people with disabilities can take advantage of employment opportunities, have easier access to health care and services, and can be active in their communities. 
  • Reduce the costs and administrative burden of receiving assistive technology, durable medical equipment and other products that allow people with disabilities to become and remain fully integrated into their communities. 
  • Monitor, safeguard, and remain responsive to the health, safety, and well-being of persons with disabilities for whom it is entrusted to protect and care for, including in all residential settings licensed or operated by the state. People with disabilities have a right to dignity, privacy, and humane care, including the right to be free from abuse, neglect, and exploitation. 
  • Ensure disaster and recovery services are accessible and responsive to the needs of all Floridians. 

Education 

Students with disabilities are guaranteed a free and appropriate public education. To ensure the state is providing this to young Floridians: 

  • Education reforms should protect the rights of students to receive appropriate services, including assistive technology and Augmentative Alternative Communication services, in the least restrictive educational environment possible. The administrative burden of accessing necessary services should be reduced or eliminated where possible. 
  • The state should continue to work towards the elimination of abusive practices such as restraint, seclusion, and corporal punishment while strengthening systems and processes to hold schools accountable when the practices are illegally used in schools. 
  • The privacy of student data should be protected, and their disability status should never be used to punish or criminalize students, especially in a preemptive or predictive manner.  
  • Transition services that provide a meaningful pathway to employment – whether that be through higher education, apprenticeship, or other means – and that maintain the rights and autonomy of individuals to the greatest extent possible, should be prioritized.  

Mental Health & Substance Use Disorder

Florida is experiencing a mental health crisis, with around 200,000 Floridians subject to forced hospitalization and involuntary examination each year. Unfortunately, adequate mental health and substance use disorder services remain difficult to obtain for many, particularly those with disabilities. To improve this situation, the state should: 

  • Ensure fully funded, comprehensive, community, evidence-based mental health and substance use disorder services are available for all who wish to utilize them; prior to, at, and after a crisis point, in all areas of the state, urban and rural. Services should be both disability- and trauma-informed.  
  • Reform the system for involuntary examinations and treatment to both reduce the number of Floridians who are unnecessarily subjected to this practice and reduce the trauma to those who do need emergency services. Due to the increased vulnerability of children, the law should provide additional protections for them when they are involved in these systems. Additionally, efforts should be made to ensure the involuntary examination process is disability-informed and responsive, should an individual require stabilization for reasons which are not related to manifestation of disability.  
  • Provide equitable and high-quality services to children in the foster care system, who are involuntarily examined at higher rates than other children. Additionally, provide such services prior to crisis points, to protect them from unnecessary group home placements and residential treatment programs.  
  • Expand community-based services for children with a dual diagnosis of intellectual or developmental disability and mental illness, particularly those with intense behaviors who without appropriate residential options must otherwise unnecessarily reside in institutional settings. 
  • Continue to integrate peer-oriented supports and services into all aspects of the state’s behavioral health care delivery framework. 

Criminal and Juvenile Justice

People with disabilities are disproportionately represented in the criminal and juvenile justice systems. This is not because they are more likely to engage in criminal behavior, but because these systems are not designed to understand and meet their needs. To ensure people with disabilities are not unnecessarily criminalized and incarcerated, the state should: 

  • Ensure children are not diverted to the adult criminal system, which is less prepared to meet their educational and developmental needs.  
  • Provide fully funded, evidence-based mental health diversion courts across Florida. 
  • Eliminate the use of solitary confinement, which is proven to cause increased mental health issues and is correlated with an increased likelihood of re-offending.   
  • Ensure all law enforcement officers, including those placed in school settings, receive comprehensive training about people with disabilities and how to appropriately interact with them.  
  • Ensure all within the justice system, including those with disabilities, have equitable access to the rights which their confinement does not restrict. In the case of children with disabilities, this extends to the right to a free and appropriate public education.  
  • End the death penalty for those who were experiencing serious mental illness at the time their crime was committed.