A New York special ed teacher charged with enticing a student into sexual activity, Virginia looks at having caregivers for children with disabilities to be paid by the state, subminimum wage employment numbers continue to drop and more news for the week ending July 22, 2023.

Spotlight

Former Yonkers special ed teacher charged with sexual acts with student, child porn A former high school teacher at Biondi High School, which focuses on special education, was charged with enticing a 16-year-old student to send sexually explicit videos to her and leading the student to believe they were in a relationship, according to indictment paperwork. (lohud.com)

National

Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania illegally denies services to older students with disabilities, lawsuit alleges Pennsylvania is depriving up to 17,000 young people with special needs as much as a year of services they are entitled to under federal law, according to a class-action lawsuit. (chalkbeat.org)

Virginia: New proposal aims to permanently allow caregiver option for Va. disability program The state released revised guidelines for state Medicaid disability waiver programs which would allow certain family members who provide caregiving services for their child or spouse with disabilities to be paid directly by the state. (virginiamercury.com)

Illinois: Problems With Abuse, Neglect and Cover-Ups at Developmental Centers in Illinois People with developmental disabilities living in Illinois’ publicly run institutions have been punched, slapped, hosed down, thrown about and dragged across rooms; in other cases, staff failures contributed to patient harm and death, state police and internal investigative records show. (ProPublica.org)

Employment

Subminimum Wage Employment Continues To Slide New data from the Labor Department represent a continuing drop in employment under the program. (Disabilityscoop.com)