In September 2024, the Department of Justice (DOJ) sued the State of Maine for violating young people's rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Just a couple months after the DOJ sued the state of Maine for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act, Maine reached a settlement with the DOJ in November 2024 that included provisions that would support children with disabilities and comply with federal law. Now, less than a year after this agreement, the United States has "reconsidered their position." Both parties have submitted a joint request to the court asking that they be allowed to modify the settlement. The modifications include, among other things to:
- Eliminate the independent reviewer, an expert tasked with measuring Maine’s compliance and monitoring progress toward specific benchmarks
- Remove protections for Maine children involved in the juvenile justice system
- Limit outreach to families, children, and other stakeholders
- Eliminate certain “competency-based curricula” from the training requirements for community providers
On September 18, 2025, the ACLU of Maine filed an amicus brief urging the court to deny the motion. The proposed modifications would be harmful to Maine's children and families.
Eliminating the independent reviewer would mean that there is no neutral expert charged with ensuring children receive appropriate care and that Maine is accountable for complying with federal law. The changes related to justice-involved children mean that those children are more likely to experience prolonged institutionalization at Long Creek and go without community-based services. Eliminating outreach and training requirements means fewer children and stakeholders are aware of remedial services and that those services are less likely to be provided in a professionally adequate manner.
Case Background
After recieving a complaint filed by Disability Rights Maine (DRM) in 2019, the DOJ launched an investigation that uncovered findings that Maine discriminated against youth with disabilities by failing to maintain an adequate behavioral health system that prevenaed instituatinalization. Following this investigation, the DOJ sued the State of Maine in September 2024 for violating young people's rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
More specificaly, their investigation found that:
- “Maine’s community-based behavioral health system fails to provide sufficient services. As a result, hundreds of children are unnecessarily segregated in institutions each year, while other children are at serious risk of entering institutions.”
- “Children are unable to access behavioral health services in their homes and communities — services that are part of an existing array of programs that the State advertises to families through its Medicaid program (MaineCare), but does not make available in a meaningful or timely manner.”
- “Maine children with behavioral health needs are eligible and appropriate for the range of community-based services the State offers, but either remain in segregated settings or are at serious risk of institutionalization.”
- “Families and children in Maine are overwhelmingly open to receiving services in integrated settings. In fact, parents indicated a strong preference that their children receive services at home due to trauma, neglect, and abuse that their children reportedly endured in residential facilities within and outside of Maine.”
In November 2024, Maine reached a settlement with the DOJ, agreeing to support children with disabilities and comply with federal law. Important provisions of the settlement included:
- Identifying children with behavioral health needs and conducting a holistic assessment that will help determine the full array of community-based services to which they are entitled;
- Providing children with wraparound care coordination services to identify and connect them with community-based services;
- Requiring timely access to services to help children avoid institutionalization and, for children already in out-of-home placements, the development of concrete plans with timelines to provide services to support a return to their communities;
- Improving oversight to ensure quality and timeliness of services and to address workforce shortages;
- Ensuring the availability of mobile crisis intervention services to help children avoid unnecessary emergency departments and law enforcement interaction; and
- Ongoing oversight from an independent reviewer and, if necessary, judicial oversight.
Less than a year after this settlement, in September 2025, the United States has "reconsidered their earlier position."
