A U.S. District Court judge ruled last week that Maine and the U.S. Department of Justice cannot change requirements of a settlement agreement designed to address the state’s violation of the civil rights of children with disabilities.
The Justice Department declared in 2022 that Maine was out of compliance for over-institutionalizing disabled children in psychiatric hospitals, residential treatment facilities and a state-operated juvenile detention facility.
In September 2024, the department sued Maine, alleging that the state was violating the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Supreme Court’s Olmstead decision.
Among other issues, Maine lacked sufficient treatment options for children with behavioral health issues, at times leading to children languishing in hospital emergency rooms while awaiting placement for treatment. In one high-profile case, a 13-year-old girl spent nearly a year in the Redington-Fairview General Hospital emergency department in Skowhegan before she was placed in a group home in Orono in 2024.
The lawsuit was settled in November 2024, with Maine agreeing to improve services for children. As part of the settlement, Maine would hire an “independent reviewer” to evaluate and approve state plans for improving the system.
The state hired a consulting group in April of this year, but the contract was withdrawn after the Department of Justice altered the agreement, eliminating the requirement for the independent reviewer.
In July, Disability Rights Maine, the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine, GLAD Law, and the Center for Public Representation filed a notice in federal court arguing that the changes made to the 2024 settlement removed critical oversight of its implementation. They argued that the changes “will likely cause eligible children to be excluded from the agreement’s benefits, delay access to necessary services, and erode accountability,” according to court filings.
The Justice Department, in an Aug. 18 response, opposed the July court filing, arguing that Disability Rights Maine, the ACLU and the other parties do not have standing because they were not part of the settlement agreement between Maine and the federal government.
On Nov. 24. U.S. District Judge Stacey Neumann denied the attempt to alter the settlement, which would have done away with a number of requirements, including the independent reviewer position meant to track Maine’s progress.
The alterations also would have dropped a requirement that the state conduct “community reintegration planning for children committed to a juvenile correction facility,” Neumann wrote, and that the state conduct community outreach with families and other stakeholders. That includes members of the coalition that filed the notice this summer.
The independent reviewer position was the “seemingly most contested point,” Neumann acknowledged in the decision.
Neumann ruled that the Justice Department and the state did not provide a significant change in circumstances that made the alterations to the settlement agreement necessary.
“Disability Rights Maine is pleased for Maine children and families, and relieved that the court ruled against weakening the settlement agreement,” Atlee Reilly, the organization’s managing attorney, said in a press release Friday. “We are hopeful that Maine and the United States will now turn their focus and resources toward implementing the original settlement they negotiated and addressing the longstanding failure to deliver appropriate services to children in their homes and communities.”
Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey’s office did not respond to a request for comment Friday evening.
