Litigation
DRNM files group complaint against APS for failure to provide transportation to students with disabilities.
DRNM has filed a group state complaint with the NMPED against Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) on behalf of 3 named clients and approximately 2,000 similarly-situated students who have been unable to access special education transportation services this school year....
Kevin S: A Scathing Report from Independent Monitors
Independent monitors produced a scathing assesment in a Sept. 18 letter to the acting secretaries of the Children, Youth and Families Department and Human Services Department. "CYFD and HSD have been on notice for the past 12 months that they have failed to live up to...
ACLU and Disability Rights New Mexico Bring Lawsuit Against Corrections Department To Provide Life Saving Medication For Individuals Who Are Incarcerated
People with opioid use disorders in New Mexico prisons experience painful and life-threatening consequences when the New Mexico Corrections Department (NMCD) denies them access to medically necessary, physician-prescribed medications while incarcerated. The American...
Kevin S. Settlement and Implementation for Foster Youth
Attorneys and Advocates Issue Statements in Response to Kevin S. Settlement Co-Neutrals’ Report on Status of Implementation Advocates Say “New Mexico’s Children Continue to Suffer From the State’s Delays and Failures” – Call Upon Governor Lujan Grisham to Give Her...
Corrections Department Told TO Provide Special Education and Related Services
On behalf of students with disabilities who are incarcerated in state-run adult prison facilities, DRNM filed an administrative complaint to the New Mexico Public Education Department (PED) regarding the prison system’s failure to provide special education and related...
Historic Jackson lawsuit comes to an end
DRNM filed the Jackson lawsuit in 1987 to help people with intellectual and developmental disabilities who were institutionalized in state facilities in Los Lunas and Fort Stanton. After a long trial we were able to convince the federal court that the residents...
Medically Fragile Children Denied Necessary In-Home Nursing
On April 28, 2022, Disability Rights New Mexico, alongside our litigation partners from New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty and private counsel, filed M.G. v. Scrase on behalf of all medically fragile children under the age of 21 who qualify to receive private duty...
Settlement of Foster Youth Lawsuit – March 23, 2020
Disability Rights New Mexico has been a named plaintiff and part of the litigation team in the Kevin S. lawsuit to secure acxcess to behavioral health treatment for kids in the custody of the state of New Mexico. Collectively we reached an innovative settlement with the Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD) and Human Services Department (HSD). DRNM is pleased to see that the goals in the agreement include increasing collaboration among child-serving agencies led by CYFD and HSD. The commitment to building a coordinated system of care that includes a wide array of services to eligible children in state custody throughout New Mexico is vital to their well-being. We hope that this will result in a statewide system which is necessary to ensure that all children in state custody and their families have prompt access to necessary services regardless of where they live. More information can be found at the link below.
New York Times Article: New Mexico Agrees to Revamp its ‘Broken’ Foster Care System
State of New Mexico Press Release
Jackson Lawsuit Enters New Phase with Settlement Agreement – November 18, 2019
The Jackson class-action lawsuit was filed by Disability Rights New Mexico (DRNM) and others in 1987, to protect the rights of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities who were then institutionalized. Since that time the state institutions closed, and a robust community-based system has grown. Nonetheless, the lawsuit has remained open and active to ensure that the class members have sufficient home- and community-based services to protect their health and safety. In the spring of 2019 the parties were able to negotiate a Settlement Agreement intended to end the lawsuit. The judge approved and entered this Settlement Agreement as an order of the court on June 21, 2019. The State has 18 months to comply with its remaining obligations to end the lawsuit.
Workers with Disabilities Sue For Fair Wages – August 1, 2019
Disability Rights New Mexico, as part of a coalition with other non-profit organizations and law firms working on economic justice and employment rights issues, has filed a lawsuit against Adelante Development Center, Inc. (“Adelante”), over Adelante’s its illegal, abusive, and pervasive payment of subminimum wages to its employees with disabilities. The lawsuit asserts that Adelante has illegally paid its workers less than New Mexico’s and Albuquerque’s minimum wage to hundreds of employees for many years.
DRNM Lawsuit: DoH Must License Boarding Homes – February 23, 2018
In litigation filed in state district court in Santa Fe, Disability Rights New Mexico (DRNM) is seeking a court order requiring the Department of Health (DoH) to license boarding homes, which often serve persons with mental illness or other disabilities but are currently unregulated. For decades, the state of New Mexico had licensing regulations and requirements in place for boarding homes, but several years ago DoH unilaterally scrapped them. DRNM has obtained a temporary order and will seek to make the order permanent, in which case DoH would have to promptly establish and implement licensure requirements. DRNM on-site visits, our death investigation a few years ago, numerous complaints we have received from residents and guardians, and a series of reports published in the Albuquerque Journal have all raised serious concerns about the conditions in many of these homes.