Some Hope From Arizona Center for Disability Law

Here is a recent statement from AZ Center for Disablity law that was posted on their site today:

Yesterday, in Arizona Association of Providers for Persons with Disabilities (AAPPD) v. State of Arizona, the Arizona Court of Appeals overturned a preliminary injunction issued by the Maricopa County Superior Court. This injunction stopped cuts to state-only DDD services and halted a 10% rate reduction for DDD home and community based service providers. These cuts to rates and services were made by the Department of Economic Security in an attempt to close its budget shortfall caused by Arizona’s budget deficit.

The Court of Appeals held that, while Plaintiffs had shown that they may be harmed by the cuts, they failed to raise serious legal questions that would justify the injunction. The Court found that it is unlikely AAPPD will be able to show that the state violated any state or federal law by imposing the service cuts and rate reductions. The Arizona Center for Disability Law filed a declaration and amicus brief in support of this lawsuit.

The Court of Appeals remanded the case to the Maricopa County Superior Court for a ruling on the merits of the lawsuit. AAPPD has indicated that it will appeal the decision to dismiss the injunction to the Arizona Supreme Court.

The action taken by the Arizona Court of Appeals is related only to the lawsuit filed by AAPPD, not class actions filed by the Arizona Center for Disability Law (ACDL), such as Ball v. Rodgers (Medicaid-funded home and community based services) or Zoe M. v. Blessing (violations of federal IDEA Part C).

Jennifer Nye, ACDL staff attorney, commented to the press, “We know that thousands of adults and children with disabilities are going to be harmed by these cuts in services and rates. We feel it is also very short-sighted of the state to balance its budget on the back of its most vulnerable population.”

ACDL will continue to provide support to the lawyers representing AAPPD as they move forward with their lawsuit

Here is a link to their site for more updates:
http://www.acdl.com/legalpolicynews.html#Education

-It is unclear what the state is going to do next, they have not updated their site with any recent info as of yet. It is also unclear if the injunction is going to stay in place while AAPPD appeals the decision, I think it is supposed to, but it's hard because nobody seems to know what the state is going do just yet. It would make sense to keep services in place pending the outcome of the appeal, and the other suit as well. We'll see I will keep posting as soon as I get more info.