2023 Policy Agenda
Funding and policy changes to strengthen the Colorado Medicaid State Plan, state
programs, and HCBS Medicaid waivers for people with disabilities to include:
Enhance Capacity, Sustainability, and Quality for IDD Services
Bring an end to the HCBS Comprehensive Developmental Disability waiver waitlist;
Provide an increase in pay rates for direct care workers;
Preserve and maintain current funding levels for intellectual and developmental
disabilities (IDD) services and supports;
Create changes in Colorado statute, where needed, to comply with the requirements
established in federal law for Home and Community Based Services (HCBS);
Ensure the full implementation of Colorado’s Olmstead Plan including implementation
of strategies for competitive integrated employment;
Advance accelerated Medicaid waiver simplification with the purpose of
creating single, easily accessible HCBS waivers for 1) all eligible children and 2) all
eligible adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Each waiver should
further access to quality services and supports when and where needed.
Increase Supported Living Services and equitable access to services across all Long Term Supports and Services (LTSS);
Increase the accessibility and availability of telehealth services for Medicaid
recipients.
Implement Person Centered Practices
Ensure quality person-centered services are provided consistently at the right time, in
the right place, and in the right way across the state.
Resolve equitable access to personal care services for all people currently receiving
long term services and supports. Access should be at a level that meets individual
needs and not be limited based on specific waiver participation;
Establish consumer and participant directed service delivery options in all HCBS/LTSS
waivers;
Increase accessibility and availability of appropriate, person-centered technology and
create billable services for technology acquisition, utilization, and training to bridge
the digital divide and make Colorado a technology first state.
Mental Health and IDD
Ensure therapeutic, out-of-home placement, and intensive treatment options for
children with IDD and dual diagnosis/secondary diagnosis of serious health, mental
health, and behavioral conditions are readily available and accessed when needed;
Ensure equitable access to behavioral health services for adults and children with cooccurring IDD and mental health diagnoses in the public and private insurance systems.
Advance Competitive Integrated Employment Outcomes
Continue to phase out and end sub-minimum wage employment in Colorado while
providing necessary supports to eliminate the need for sub-minimum wage
employment through the advancement of opportunities for meaningful employment at
or above the Colorado minimum wage.
Continue to monitor the four-year phase out plan to ensure that the Division of
Vocational Rehabilitation, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, and
the Office of Employment First are supporting individuals in competitive and
integrative career goals.
Funding and Policy Measures Prompted by COVID 19
Ensure that the end of the Public Health Emergency does not result in a sudden
disqualification under Medicaid coverage for people with IDD
Retain flexibilities and codify changes in rules and processes that based on community
feedback, have proved essential to maintaining public health as a result of COVID-19;
Maintain funding for respite and other services needed to sustain family stability;
Implement the Cross-System Behavioral Health Crises Pilots to address the increased
behavioral health needs as a result of COVID-19 and any future public health crisis;
Increase bonuses for all direct care staff and other related personnel who work
directly with individuals with IDD, their families, and caregivers in their homes or in
other residential and/or day programs;
Invest in the recruitment of direct care staff;
Implement the American Rescue Plan funds for the above-mentioned services and
supports.
Colorado students with disabilities have a legal right to free, appropriate and
inclusive educational opportunities in all settings within the least restrictive
environment. Colorado must include:
Enhance Capacity, Sustainability, and Quality for IDD Services in Education
Pursue policy development to address the racial, cultural, and linguistic inequities in
education.
Secure funding, professional development, and staffing resources for public schools to
forge inclusive, student-centered programs for all students;
Establish processes that ensure the Colorado Department of Education’s dispute
resolution office remains equitable and accessible to parents;
Guarantee equitable access to technology and technology supports for students with
IDD;
Secure adequate and quality educational supports to ensure appropriate and
accountable progress;
Pursue adequate medical, nursing, and behavioral support services (with appropriate
staffing) for students with complex needs to ensure equitable access to the general
education classroom, non-academic and extra-curricular activities to the maximum
extent appropriate;
Ensure equal access to appropriate supports and services in publicly funded education
services for children age birth through 21;
Ensure Inclusive Higher Education programs across Colorado are accessible to students
with IDD and include the appropriate supports so that students can matriculate
successfully from the program.
Improve Disciplinary and Seclusion Practices
Implement education services that are provided in the least restrictive and most
inclusive setting by qualified teachers, staff and therapists for all eligible students,
including an appropriate continuum of services, para-professional support, and related
services such as transportation;
Assure alternatives to harmful disciplinary practices such as suspension and expulsion
for young students along with requirements that schools work to de-escalate minor
school infractions rather than call for police department assistance;
Make certain school discipline policies provide positive behavioral supports for
students with disabilities to avoid trauma, seclusion, restraint, and involvement of law
enforcement;
Strive for the elimination of corporal punishment in public schools that receive federal
funding;
Eliminate the use of restraint and seclusion for non-emergency situations and address
harmful restraint and seclusion practices;
Require adequate training, documentation and reporting for any seclusion and
restraint practices needed for the student’s safety.
Improve Transition Services
Improve meaningful transition services that include a strong pipeline of employers for
students with disabilities that are person-centered;
Enhance transition services that prepare students for continuing education in higher
education and vocational alternatives which will result in competitive
integrated employment and successful community living;
Implement Supported Decision-Making training for the Colorado Department of
Education so that educators will refrain from encouraging guardianship for students
entering adulthood.
Education Policy Measures Prompted by COVID-19
Improve parity and flexibility for students with IDD who, because of possible health
complications, may suffer more adverse health effects from the contraction of COVID19 and therefore, require remote learning options;
Ensure the same hybrid and remote options available to students without disabilities
are also available to student with disabilities;
Guarantee individualized compensatory services to students who, as a result of COVID
remote and hybrid learning, experienced learning loss and lack of progress towards
goals.
Guarantee individualized compensatory services to students who, as a result of
staffing shortages, experienced learning loss and lack of progress towards goals.
Protection of civil rights for people with disabilities. Colorado must include:
The Elimination of Inequities
Promote policies that dismantle systemic racism that negatively impacts persons with
disabilities of color, their caregivers, and family;
Ensure equitable opportunities, rights and protections are afforded to all people with
intellectual and developmental disabilities, their families, and caregivers;
Create appropriate accommodations, modifications, and
preventative measures designed to support individuals with disabilities in the criminal
justice system;
Advance access to medical information and treatment by ensuring that: 1) all
communications are tailored to meet the needs of the individual receiving treatment
and/or the guardian; and 2) the appropriate treatment is determined in the context of
a person’s overall unique medical history and not based on the person’s diagnosis of a
disability;
Enhance access to supports and services in rural communities, equitable to that which
is found in urban communities.
Less Restrictive Alternatives
Promote alternatives (e.g., health-care proxies, advance directives, supported
decision-making, powers of attorney, notarized statements, representation
agreements, releases, etc.) in lieu of permanent, restrictive protective arrangements;
Promote guardianship policies, in concert with Colorado Statute, that respect and
promote the rights of people with disabilities to manage their own affairs with or
without informal assistance and guidance from family, friends, and others. If
guardianship is essential, it should be limited to the fewest restrictions necessary for
the shortest amount of time and tailored to the individual’s specific capacities and
needs, always with a presumption in favor of limited rather than full guardianship;
Pursue legislation efforts towards increasing oversight of guardians;
Advance policies, procedures, and funding to ensure that the preferences, needs, and
complaints expressed by people with IDD are respected, honored, and enforced
effectively to enhance quality of life.
Increase Affordable Housing Options for people with IDD
Increase affordable, safe, accessible, integrated, and community-based housing
options that promote independence, freedom, authority, and support individuals with
IDD to exercise control over their housing. This housing must reflect personal
preferences and styles, and must be free from housing discrimination.
Civil Rights Policy Measures Prompted by COVID-19
Ensure civil rights protections for people with disabilities in situations that include
life-saving treatments, necessary medical care, even in the event of a medical
shortage, and access to assistance for voters with disabilities in elections
Support for patients with IDD who require help with their provision of care in hospital,
clinical, behavioral, and other health settings.