The ACLU of Maine and partner organizations urge the court to reject harmful modifications on an earlier settlement aimed at strengthening Maine's children's behavioral health system.
AUGUSTA – Yesterday, Disability Rights Maine, the ACLU of Maine, GLAD Law, and the Center for Public Representation filed an amicus brief opposing proposed modifications to a settlement agreement reached last November by the United States Department of Justice and the State of Maine regarding Maine’s failure to provide adequate behavioral health services to Maine children, resulting in the unnecessary institutionalization of children with disabilities.
The original settlement was reached just two months after the United States filed suit against Maine, and was the result of a 2022 finding of significant violations regarding Maine’s provision of behavioral health services to children, which stemmed from a 2019 complaint filed by Disability Rights Maine. Now, on September 2, 2025, less than a year after the settlement was reached, the United States and Maine jointly moved to modify the agreement, seeking, among other things, to eliminate the independent reviewer, an expert tasked with measuring Maine’s compliance and monitoring progress toward specific benchmarks. The modification also seeks to remove protections for Maine children involved in the juvenile justice system, limit outreach to families, children, and other stakeholders, and to eliminate certain “competency-based curricula” from the training requirements for community providers.
The requested modifications will harm Maine’s children and families. Eliminating the independent reviewer will mean 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 will 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 will mean that fewer children and stakeholders are aware of remedial services and that those services are less likely to be provided in a professionally adequate manner.
“In the ten months since this agreement was reached, children and families continue to struggle due to the lack of adequate services. We are hopeful that the United States and Maine will focus their energy and resources on the successful implementation of the original agreement they negotiated. That is the path forward to address Maine’s longstanding failure to deliver appropriate services to children in their homes and communities,” stated Atlee Reilly, Disability Rights Maine Managing Attorney.
“We urge the court to reject these harmful modifications,” said ACLU of Maine Legal Director Carol Garvan. “For far too long, Maine has failed to provide the services children need to live healthy, safe lives. Since 2016, we have been working to address human rights violations at Long Creek. The settlement reached last year offered a path forward, but the changes proposed by the United States and Maine would take us backward, weakening protections, undermining oversight, and leaving children in the justice system especially vulnerable.”
