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The U.S. government is suing Maine for allegedly overinstitutionalizing children with behavioral health disabilities, separating them from their families and segregating them from their communities.
In its 24-page complaint, filed Monday in U.S. District Court, the U.S. Department of Justice accused Maine of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act and a 1999 U.S. Supreme Court decision, which require state and local governments to provide services to children with disabilities in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs.
The Justice Department said Monday that community-based services, such as behavioral management and counseling, can prevent children from being institutionalized, avoid contact with law enforcement and remain with their families.
In the complaint, the Justice Department said that Maine “in theory” uses Medicaid and other public funds to support such services, but in reality, the state administers them in a way that offers parents and guardians “no meaningful choice” other than psychiatric hospitals, detention facilities and other residential facilities in and out of state, separating those children from their families and segregating them from their communities.
“When Maine children are placed in institutions, such as psychiatric hospitals, juvenile detention, and other residential facilities, they miss the chance to wake up in their own beds, to develop bonds with family and friends, and to go to school with their siblings and peers,” the Justice Department writes.
The Justice Department identified several barriers parents and guardians face when attempting to access community-based services, including lengthy waitlists, insufficient provider networks, inadequate crisis services and a lack of support for foster parents.
“As a result, hundreds of children are segregated in institutions because they cannot access the community-based services they are entitled to receive. Many more children are at serious risk of segregation because they cannot access Maine’s community-based services in a meaningful or timely manner. Maine’s mental health crisis services for children are often unavailable,” the complaint reads.
The Justice Department raised these issues in a June 2022 letter to the state government informing it of the alleged civil rights violations and laying out steps for how Maine can remedy them.
At the time, a Maine Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson told the Bangor Daily News the problems Maine faces in providing care for children go back decades, and the COVID-19 pandemic set back the state as it made it difficult for providers to hire and maintain staff.
The spokesperson said that the state planned to dedicate $230 million over two years to bolster behavioral health services, as well as $12 million to keep people out of inpatient settings by boosting community treatment and case management services.
“The State of Maine has an obligation to protect its residents, including children with behavioral health disabilities, and such children should not be confined to facilities away from their families and community resources,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, who serves in the Justice Department’s civil rights division, said Monday. “The Civil Rights Division is committed to ensuring that people with disabilities can get the services they need to remain at home with their families and loved ones, in their communities.”
