INTRODUCED MAY 11, 2006
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman JOSEPH CRYAN
District 20 (Union)
Assemblyman ROBERT M. GORDON
District 38 (Bergen)
Assemblyman LOUIS M. MANZO
District 31 (Hudson)
Assemblywoman JOAN M. VOSS
District 38 (Bergen)
Co-Sponsored by:
Assemblymen Pennacchio, Scalera, Schaer and Conaway
SYNOPSIS
Directs Division of Developmental Disabilities to prepare plan to ensure community-based living for certain individuals with developmental disabilities.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
(Sponsorship Updated As Of: 6/23/2006)

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concerning persons with developmental disabilities living in community-based settings.
B E I T E NACTED by the Senate and General Assembly of the
State of New Jersey:
1. a. The Director of the Division of Developmental Disabilities in the Department of Human Services shall develop a plan with established benchmarks to ensure that within eight years of implementation, each resident in a State developmental center who expresses a desire to live in the community and whose individual habilitation plan so recommends, is able to live in a communitybased setting.
b. In developing the plan, the director shall: (1) review and establish objective criteria to identify those persons with developmental disabilities who are appropriate candidates for living in community-based settings; (2) identify the resources needed to ensure that those persons can reside in the community and receive needed community-based services and supports in a manner that enables them to live as independently as possible; and (3) set forth how the necessary funding, services and housing will be provided.
c. The director shall solicit public input in developing the plan, including the amount and type of supports and housing needed and how they are to be provided. The director shall conduct four public hearings, one each to be held in the northern, upper central, lower central, and southern regions of the State. The hearings shall be held at or in close proximity to the State's developmental centers. d. The director shall provide the plan and a report of his findings and recommendations to the Governor and, pursuant to section 2 of
P.L.1991, c.164 (C.52:14-19.1), to the Senate Health, Human
Services and Senior Citizens and Assembly Human Services committees no later than nine months after the effective date of this act.
2. This act shall take effect immediately and shall expire one year after the effective date.
STATEMENT
This bill requires that the Director of the Division of
Developmental Disabilities in the Department of Human Services develop a plan with established benchmarks to ensure that, within eight years of implementation, each resident in a State developmental center who expresses a desire to live in the community, and whose individual habilitation plan recommends a community-based setting, can do so. It is the sponsors’ intent that the plan assist these individuals to live in community-based settings

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A2947 CRYAN, GORDON
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Zimring (1999) 527 U.S. 581.
The bill specifically provides that the director shall review and establish objective criteria to identify individuals with developmental disabilities who are candidates for living in community-based settings, identify the resources needed to ensure that they can reside in the community and receive needed community-based services and supports in a manner that enables them to live as independently as possible, and set forth how the necessary funding, services and housing will be provided. The director is to solicit public input in developing the plan and conduct four public hearings, one each in the northern, upper central, lower central, and southern regions of the State, at or in close proximity to the State's developmental centers. The director is to provide a plan and report his findings and recommendations to the Governor and the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens and
Assembly Human Services committees no later than nine months after the effective date of this bill.